I'm listening now to a telephone press conference with top Microsoft execs about the company's new strategy shift towards Data Portability and Interoperability for their high volume products like Windows and Office. Ray Ozzie says it is opening up the same APIs that internal developers use out into the public at large. Has Google made announcements like this? Believe it or not, Microsoft may be putting a stake in the ground that's ahead of Google on openness and other important directions for the future. Details from the call dampened my enthusiasm a bit but the announcement is notable none the less.
The highlight of the call seems to be that Microsoft will be opening the same APIs used by internal developers to build on the company's "high volume products" as public APIs available for free noncommercial use and paid commercial use. That sounds like a good start. See the company's Interoperability site for more, details from the call below.
The press release is here. Details below as they emerge, see also Centernetworks, where Allen Stern is also live blogging the call. If you'd like to listen to a recording of the call, you can use your phone (!) to do so at (800) 945-2760 for the next 30 days.
A Microsoft VP whose name I missed is going over its past efforts on software interoperability, collaboration with major open source vendors and Identity. Today's announcement of principals is a big expansion on what they've done in the past. Lots of documentation will be published immediately. A document interoperability initiative will make sure that all user created documents are usable anywhere.
APIs and communications protocols will have free "trade secret licenses" made available now and in the future those licenses won't need to be used. Noncommercial API calls will be available without cost. Patent licenses for commercial implementations of APIs do still cost a fee. Commercial and noncommercial developers are of course being treated very differently. Open APIs, with a fee for commercial application, seems a fair way to move into the future, though I can't help but wonder if it will be cost prohibitive in this case for small startups.
There are far more mentions of legal pressure Microsoft is facing than there are of data portability. The company is saying that these steps are being taken on their own accord and I'm sure there's some truth to that. "In a more connected, services oriented world the biggest value add will be in what happens on the other side of the wire," says Microsoft's Brad Smith.
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I think this would be a great breakthrough for Microsoft... I just hope that it is not them paying public lipservice to data portability and open source (while they act the opposite behind closed doors).
Posted by: Henry | February 21, 2008 9:39 AM@Henry - Microsoft has shown commitment to this cause for a long time now - I think the question of paying lip service is really hollow at this point.
I am happy to see these moves by MS as it shows their commitment to the DataPortability cause.
Well done
Posted by: Chris Saad | February 21, 2008 9:58 AMLaocoön, priest of Troy, who, in Virgil's Aeneid, tells his countrymen to "Beware Greeks bearing gifts". Both German and English have expressions related to “Greeks bearing gifts”, but they don't use the same idioms. While English concentrates on warning against Greeks with gifts, German emphasizes the gift itself. Ein Danaergeschenk is a “fatal gift” that brings misfortune or causes problems.
Posted by: Todd | February 21, 2008 10:12 AMFrom these announcements its still obvious that Microsoft intends to hold their position as a monopoly. Open Source projects are only allowed to "break" Microsoft "patents" if they are used noncommercially. So does this mean that even though a non-profit orginisation produces the code a company like Red Hat (or whatever commercial Open Source software distributer) cannot include this code without violating MS's IP? So with Microsoft's new announcement I can run Debian but not RHEL?
Also, let's say Microsoft makes it possible to save as ODF in Office. Guess what Microsoft is pushing? Their still pushing their own format, and I'll bet ya you cannot easily migrate from OOXML to ODF.
I am in no way an Open Source freak but I believe you should always have the ability to move to something better instead of being locked into what you are using.
Microsoft: "If there must be a standard, it must be a Microsoft Standard"
So according to Microsoft I can ensure incoorpability by using either MS Windows, Microsoft License Agreements partners, or Non-Commercial Operation Systems?
Posted by: Kasper | February 21, 2008 2:35 PMIt's 2008 and they are just getting the interoperability religion?
Posted by: Nitin Borwankar | February 22, 2008 5:31 PMAs with every other pronouncement by MS on interoperability - my reaction is "blah, blah, blah... yawn, ho-hum, bah humbug"