InfoWorld: Oasis Aims to Create Office Document Standard

“A standards body known for creating key technologies around XML
(Extensible Markup Language) said Wednesday that it has launched an
effort to develop a standard file format that would allow office
documents such as spreadsheets and word processing files to be
opened by applications from different vendors.

“The Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information
Standards, or OASIS, has created a technical committee that will
attempt to conform data stored in office documents to a standard
file format based on XML, it announced Wednesday.

“One of the goals of the group, called the Open Office XML
Format Technical Committee, is to free corporate data from
proprietary file formats so they can be accessed for years to come
no matter what office software a company is using. Proponents
contend that companies are currently saving data in proprietary
file formats, such as those written in Microsoft’s Word software,
and locking themselves into using that software
indefinitely…”

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