Massachusetts Falls to OOXML as ITD Punts

“In a not unanticipated move, Massachusetts announced today that
Ecma 376, the name given to the Microsoft Office Open XML formats
following their adoption by Ecma, would be acceptable for use by
the Executive Agencies of the Commonwealth. The announcement was
made even as it appears more questionable whether the National Body
members of ISO/IEC JTC1 will conclude that the formats are in
suitable form to be granted standards status, and despite the fact
that the ITD receive comments from 460 individuals and
organizations during the brief comment period announced on July
5.

“Most of those comments, ‘addressed revisions made to the Data
Formats section [of the proposed changes to the Enterprise
Technical Reference Model, or ETRM], specifically the inclusion of
Ecma-376 Office Open XML as an acceptable document format for
office applications along with the Open Document Format (ODF).’
That number is several times the input received in connection with
the original draft of the ETRM in August of 2005 that originally
included ODF but not Microsoft’s OOXML…”

Complete Story