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Learn about the importance and factors of implementing Open Document Format in businesses, the significance to the industry, economic and political considerations, opportunities in standards, and the current landscape of ODF implementation and satisfaction levels.
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Open Standards and ODF Implementation:Current Background and Knowledge Gaurab Misra MIS Practicum Lab
The Issue/Problem • Weighing Importance of Open Standards in firms, governments, organizations, vendor companies • How would a user of firm make decision to implement Open Document Format into the business process? • What factors need to be considered?
Significance to Industry? • ODF next “battleground” of corp computing • Consumer base resistive to vendor lock-in • Ripple effects of choosing formats to favor one vendor – likely leading to the rest of the firm’s infrastructure needing to favor that specific vendor
ODF – an open-standard format • Built on XML • Highly customizable • Basically an Idealized representation of a document’s structure, written in code • Allows for avoidance of proprietary software producers becoming “co-owners” of data • Propriety formats can change between releases resulting in incompatibility • Less likelihood of changing of formatting data between systems
Economic/political considerations • Industry groups say standards should not be given away • Take time and money to develop • Essential components of effectiveness + security of IS products • Issues of intellectual property law • “In the Public Domain” not same as “free of charge” • Licensing, permissions, Fair Use • Standards can be used as an asset for economic gain
Opportunities in Standards • Cooperative relationshipsEx: Sun Microsystems + OpenOffice.org • StarOffice productivity suite, built on OpenOffice.org and shares code base • Consumers can buy this at considerable cost savings over MS Office, but still get Sun’s support included • Revenue Streams and price discrimination can be created • Consumer still has choice between free and proprietary.
IBM’s Lotus Symphony • Free suite based on Open Standard/ODF • 100,000 downloads in first week • IBM trying to make inroads in market share • Shopping it to co’s whose functionality needs are lower in specific depts. i.e. call centers, etc. • Shares limitations with its source
ODF vs. OOXML • MS – OOXML, not approved by International Organization for Standards • Has ambiguities and technical restrictions that doesn’t allow it to be implemented by other vendors. • ODF format approved by ISO • Many organizations around the world except for as yet, US, talking migration to ODF • US firms not interested in format “du jour”, but in what’s going to be the universal or default format
ODF implementation/satisfaction • Increasing in use • Satisfaction levels variable • Most US firms still at “considering” level • Euro firms at “pilot” or “Migration” level • Rival format OOXML has more market traction • Case: ministry of Justice, Finland • Migration to ODF projected cost savings of $5 M Euro. • No significant drop in quality or productivity • Easily installed • Training required only one day.