Is Microsoft Serious About Interoperability?
The old saying used to go: No one ever got fired for recommending IBM.
But more recently, I think the working mantra has been: No one ever lost their
job for being too cynical about Microsoft.
So I'm surprised, frankly, at how far Microsoft seems to have come in light
of its recent moves to open up and interoperate a range of solutions and platforms.
From the release
of the .NET Framework source code, to the recent decision to make IE 8 more
standards-savvy, to the ongoing push to promote
its Office Open XML (OOXML) file format as an industry standard, it's getting
difficult to ignore the growing body of work by Redmond.
Certainly, there's plenty of room for cynicism. Andy Updegrove, a partner at
Gesmer Updegrove LLP and a leading legal expert on matters pertaining to technology
and IP law, has been a fierce critic of Microsoft's behavior in the OOXML standards
battle at the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). Updegrove
takes the cynic's view about Microsoft's efforts.
"I think what you are seeing here with this openness is the conjunction
of the [European Union] investigation and a sort of last-ditch battle to keep
people in the Microsoft ecosystem as long as they can," Updegrove said.
"Just as they want you to have OOXML instead of ODF (the open source OpenDocument
Format), they want you to have the feeling there is enough openness in the ecosystem
to keep you in the ecosystem. But not so much that they give up control or end
up in real competition."
Ultimately, Updegrove contends that Microsoft is indeed opening access to its
IP, but doing so in a way that's designed to limit downstream development in
the open source community. Updegrove says programs like the Microsoft Open Specification
Promise (OSP), which inoculate developers from patent liability, fail to go
far enough to make broad adoption a no-brainer.
"They are being very cagey about whether their open standards promise
can be implemented in GPL or not," he said.
Others are more optimistic. Peter O'Kelly, analyst for the Burton Group, says
Microsoft has already passed the point of no return with its openness initiatives.
He points to the recent Interoperability
Initiative announced on Feb. 21, which opens access to previously closed
APIs and protocols, as a case in point. But he urges developers not to confuse
open standards with open source.
"On a higher level, Microsoft gets that open standards and interoperability
are key," O'Kelly said. "I think it's clear that Microsoft gets the
importance of open standards."
Still, it's hard to shake old habits and part of me, all evidence to the contrary,
remains cynical about Microsoft's efforts. As O'Kelly quipped: "There are
some people who, no matter what Microsoft does or says, they won't trust them."
Do you trust Microsoft in its new openness stance? E-mail me at mdesmond@reddevnews.com
and let me know why or why not.
Posted by Michael Desmond on 03/18/2008