VentureBeat

Greg said:

Been playing with it tonight and it works pretty well. This is a nice differentiator for them (Google) if it should ever come to pass that we enter the “blog wars.” (Where’s George Lucas when you need him?)

Yuri Ammosov said:

Uhm… for many years already, many people type in Word and then copy-paste to textarea. It is that simple.

Gary Edwards said:

Blogging for Word is an excellent idea. I hope Blogger will consider doing the same for OpenOffice.org. Especially now that the Advantage Microsoft program is checking for valid MS Word licenses.

There are both technical reasons and business reasons for Google to seriously consider, and indeed, make a long term commitment to supporting a cross platform, open desktop productivity environment based on OOo (OpenOffice.org) and Mozilla.

The technical and business reasons add up to the same thing � the survival and continuing triumph of the Open Internet. How this is not important to Google, or Yahoo, or Amazon, or eBay is beyond me. But their continuing disregard and lack of support for the future of the Open Internet is troublesome.

The technical reasons for centering on a OOo � Mozilla core are many, but regarding the importance to an Open Internet, these issues fall into the discussion categories of Open Interoperability and Open Standards. Within those discussions there is a driving factor that frames the value of the cross platform and open OOo- Mozilla core. The driving factor is that the open core is an XML engine ready to roar across the Open Internet. If the Open Internet is the �computer�, the universal platform of connectivity, communication, and collaborative computing, then XML is the API.

OOo produces clean HTML, XHTML, XForms, and OASIS OpenDocument XML, perfectly compliant and determined to run concurrent with Open XML technology standards. OpenDoc XML itself is a broad wrapper of Open XML technologies designed to bridge the gap between desktop productivity, Open Internet server side technologies, legacy content, data, publication, and advanced information systems, and, the browser. And of course, OOo is cross platform, able to run on the many versions of OSX, Linux, and Windows (98, 98 SE, 95, 2000, XP and hopefully hasta la Vista).

With the native OpenDoc XML file format, and the Open UNO Component model, OOo is perhaps the most interoperable suite of modular productivity tools and services ever released. Based on the LGPL, OOo is free to use, free to modify, free to integrate, and free to distribute. IBM, Adobe, Novell, Red Hat, Sun, and near all Linux desktop distros (Lindows, Xandros, Mepis, Ubunto, Kubunto, Knoppix, Progeny, etc) base their desktop productivity and collaborative computing tools on implementations of the many OOo productivity components. IBM’s WorkPlace in particular (also used by Adobe) is a model of how to take advantage of OOo component interoperability to create an extremely advanced collaborative computing interface that is seamlessly integrated into a shared space. The shared space and the WorkPlace desktop align and seamlessly connect to server side information systems based on WebSphere, Apache, Lotus Notes, DB2, and Oracle back ends.

The quality of interoperability of these OOo components has been proved time and again, finding their way into the baseline of many competitive products and solutions. Because of this modular interoperability, the future for OOo stretches out far beyond the foreseeable horizon. While MS Word 2000 has substantial marketshare, it’s end of life cycle date has already come and gone.

MS Office 12 is Microsoft’s entry into the newly emerging realm of Open Internet based collaborative computing. Given Microsoft’s track record, we all wonder how OPEN the Open Internet will be once MS gets their proprietary XP Stack revved up and into the channel, where it will no doubt sit as either a barrier to desires within the great herd of Windows user base to move into Open Internet based collaborative computing, or, as a no going back � this decision is forever fork in the road towards Open Internet collaboration.

To understand how terminal this fork is, consider the split regarding Internet based digital forms. Although the �form� is the most basic business and transaction component, it’s only in recent years that digital forms providers have had to reconsider their global ubiquity and cross information systems movement. The realization of the need to make the leap to the Open Internet foundation has everyone focused on XML. With IBM and Adobe joining the OASIS OpenDoc XML TC (technical committee), the choices of XML based forms have narrowed to two models; the proprietary and non interoperable WinForms, and, the W3C Open Standard XForms.

Microsoft’s WinForms implementation requires XP, MS Office 12, InfoPath, the .NET framework, and our favorite suite of MS Servers. If ever there was an integrated stack model, this is it. OpenDoc XML applications provide perfect support for XForms, but do so in a loosely coupled context promising a very open, robust, and competitive ecosystem. Good for IBM’s integrated stack. Good for Adobe’s integrated stack. And good for anyone not wedded and welded onto the Windows XP integrated stack. Especially since OpenDoc XML and it’s XForm implementation has been stamped as an official European Union information system requirement.

The Open Internet Forms fork is a decision that is upon us right now. The decision demands an awareness though of the bigger picture where these specific decisions add up to whether or not the Internet will remain Open.

Sadly MS Office 12 is only interoperable to the extent that users and independent developers work within the tightly integrated Windows XP Stack that bolts together the XP - Office 12 desktop with the necessary MS Server suite of Exchange, SharePoint, Collaboration Server, and Active Directory - Server 2003. The point is that the MS Office 12 collaboration features are not usable unless you also have the rest of the XP Stack in place - XP OS, Office 12, InfoPath, .NET Framework, and connections to the entire MS Server suite. Even though both the USA DOJ and the EU are haplessly demanding Microsoft make available the desktop interoperability API, at this point it’s clear. Alternative server providers need not apply.

Do the guys at Blogger realize this? Do they understand that migrating the Windows desktop productivity environment to a OOo - Mozilla core will enable Windows users to enter into the next generation of Open Internet collaborative computing without having to upgrade all hardware and software?

Google, Yahoo, eBay and Amazon are all extraordinary business models based on the Open Internet. Yet, even though these companies owe everything to the liberating trinity of the Open Internet, Open Standards, and Open Source Communities, they move through the profitable blizzard of their quarterly reports in total disregard to the increasing volume of predatory threats targeting and asserting ownership claims over the trinities emerging foundation. There is a difference between an integrated stack comprised of closed component interfaces that moves to embrace the Open Internet, and a proprietary stack made of components with open interfaces based on open standards. A difference that will finally manifest itself in terms of whether or not the future is one based on an Open Internet, or, one based on carefully navigating the treacherous borders separating competing war lords, and the empires they rule with iron fisted control over arbitrary barriers and guarded gateways.

Open Source Communities live or die based on the open interoperability of their efforts. Compliance with Open Standards is a global guarantee that this precious interoperability is as consistent and reliable as gravity. The future of the Open Internet also depends upon Open Standards that are future proofed. Especially so with Open Standards regarding the use and implementation of Open XML technologies (including OASIS OpenDocument XML file formats).

Does Google realize this? Do any of the Open Internet behemoths give this a second thought? Blogger for Word is a small issue. But it demonstrates once again that the Open Internet giants care more about the profitable targeting the marketplace of 450 million Windows desktops, (the great monopoly base that remains under Microsoft’s iron fisted control), than they do about protecting the very source of their prosperity, the Open Internet.

My point is that there is a way to target that profitability while at the same time protect the Open Internet. Promote, use, and insist upon a cross platform desktop productivity core based on OpenOffice.org and Mozilla. Promote, use, and insist upon portable run time engines and libraries (Java, Python, MONO, JavaScript, XUL, Ajax, Ruby and OpenLazlo). Promote, use, and insist upon the elements of Open Interoperability, (Open Interfaces, Open Messaging and Communications Protocols, Open XML technologies). And yes, promote, use, and insist upon Open Standards.

Oh yeah. One last point. Where are Google, Yahoo, Amazon, and eBay when it comes to supporting Open Standards? The W3C has held the line regarding Open Standards, refusing to capitulate to predators demanding open standards licensing models that allow for patents, royalty fees, and permission based encumbrances and restrictions. But OASIS, where most of the collaborative XML implementations and uses are agreed upon, has rapidly moved from an Open Standards consortia to a proprietary predators ball. In a matter of six months time, we are left with only ONE OASIS standard that can be considered Open, the OASIS OpenDocument XML file format specification.

I’ll save for another time the gory details explaining OpenDocument XML and the rapid transformation of OASIS from an Open Standards consortium to a predators den where no collaborative XML effort is safe nor open. But one things for sure. The Open Internet behemoths are missing in action. They are no where to be seen.

I hope the day doesn’t come when we look back at the era of the Open Internet and wonder what went wrong. If that day comes though, i can’t help but think there will be articles, commentaries, books, and documentaries all asking the same question, �When they fought the battle of the Open Internet, where was Google, Amazon, Yahoo, and eBay?�

Sadly MIA,
~ge~

OASIS OpenDocument XML Technical Committee member representing the OpenOffice.org community

~ge~

Ja Ja said:

Thank You Gary!!