MAKATI CITY, Philippines –Vocal open source advocate Winston Damarillo said that a Microsoft-backed standard for data formats, OpenXML, is not "quite ready" to become a global standard.

"The issue here is that there's a need to have standardized documents. Open Document Format (ODF) is now an existing ISO [International Organization of Standardization] standard. But Microsoft created a competing standard, OpenXML, which is predominantly based on [a] Microsoft format, and predominantly written by a trade group not a standards body. That's okay, that's fine. They can still do that," said Damarillo.

"But the problem is that ODF is an 800-page standard, while Microsoft's [OpenXML] is a 6,000 page standard with 3,000 bugs, 900 of which are still unresolved. But they've pushed it to the fast-tracking process in the ISO," he said.

Damarillo who is also a member of the Philippine Software Industry Association (PSIA), said that he was not against having more standards.

"We're not saying that there should be only one standard. But if they want to deserve the stamp of the ISO, follow the process. No exceptions. A lot of the open source people care about that because we've worked so hard for the ODF and here comes Microsoft," he said.

Damarillo is director of Eclipse Foundation, an open source community of developers, and executive chairman of Morph Labs.

A Microsoft executive said earlier that it is up to 'national bodies" representing different member countries of the ISO to decide whether or not to ratify a Microsoft-backed standard for data formats.

"The national bodies have until March 29, 2008 to reconsider their position on whether to ratify OpenXML [Extensible Markup Language] as an ISO standard [following the ballot resolution meeting in Geneva]," said Tom Robertson, general manager of corporate interoperability and standards group of Microsoft Corp., in an earlier teleconference with INQUIRER.net.

OpenXML is a standard format that has replaced the old binary-based format used by Microsoft for its Office suite of applications like Word, Powerpoint and Excel, among others. Using the binary format, documents or files are coded to be read only by Microsoft Office applications. OpenXML, however, replaces this, and uses an open standard (XML) that can now be opened and manipulated by applications supporting the new format.

Vendors like Apple, Intel, Novell and Toshiba are now supporting this same open standard, which goes head-to-head with ODF, which is an XML-based format backed by companies like Sun Microsystems, IBM, Oracle and Adobe.