Friday, June 05, 2009

Doug Mahugh : Standards-Based Interoperability

Read the entire post for a timely reality check on a topic that’s pivotal to the future of the Internet information model

There has been quite a bit of discussion lately in the blogosphere about various approaches to document format interoperability.  It’s great to see all of the interest in this topic, and in this post I’d like to outline how we look at interoperability and standards on the Office team.  Our approach is based on a few simple concepts:

  • Interoperability is best enabled by a multi-pronged approach based on open standards, proactive maintenance of standards, transparency of implementation, and a collaborative approach to interoperability testing.
  • Standards conformance is an important starting point, because when implementations deviate from the standard they erode its long-term value
  • Once implementers agree on the need  for conformance to the standard, interoperability can be improved through supporting activities such as shared stewardship of the standard, community engagement, transparency, and collaborative testing

Doug Mahugh : Standards-Based Interoperability

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