IBM, Sun to Promote OpenDocument

IBM and Sun plan to hold a meeting Friday to help advance the Open Document Format (ODF), and ensure its implementation in products from many software vendors.

According to the invitation, the two companies are hoping that the meeting will clarify some critical issues that some parties interested in implementing the standard have raised. Also, the note suggests that IBM and Sun may be looking into the viability of an "Open Document Foundation."

The companies would like to ensure that all people, regardless of client or application used, would be able to exchange documents freely.

"For all these people, truly open file format standards based on XML technology provide the assurance of long term document retention and access, and the opportunity for new and innovative document solutions," the invitation reads.

The meeting will take place in Armonk, New York at the IBM Learning Center and will feature breakout sessions on various facets of the standard, including governance, technical issues and policy.

CIO of Massachusetts Peter Quinn will keynote the event, possibly suggesting that the state may be looking to Sun and IBM to carry out its plans to use OpenDocument in all state documents.

Details of which companies will be attending the meeting are not known, however it is likely that members of Microsoft will not be in attendance. The company has publicly lashed out against the format.

"We have substantial concerns, however, with the definition of 'open formats' in the current proposal. This definition mandates adoption of a single, immature format for office documents throughout the Commonwealth's executive agencies and effectively requires deployment of a single office application technology within those executive agencies," Microsoft wrote in a letter protesting the Massachusetts decision.