MANILA, Philippines -- Microsoft Philippines will sponsor an open source summit in Cebu next month and this early, the software giant is bracing itself for lively discussions about openXML and the fact that the company will make its presence felt at the summit.

The June summit is touted as the first nationwide open source gathering, attracting not just developers but also businessmen, government and other organizations that support open-source.

Microsoft sponsored a similar open source event in Manila last year although this time organizers are expecting a much bigger scale and more active participation from developers especially in the South.

Bonifacio Belen, Philippine Open Source Summit executive director, confirmed Microsoft will have a speaking slot at the summit. He has yet to know what topic Microsoft will discuss although he agrees there could be "objective debates" about openXML at the event.

"I know for a fact that Microsoft has its own open-source strategy," said Belen, who is based in Cebu and also heads the Cebu Education Development Foundation (CEDF-IT).

Meanwhile, Abet Dela Cruz, Microsoft Philippines platform strategy manager, sees the summit as a good venue for Microsoft to clarify issues surrounding openXML.

OpenXML is a standard format that replaced the old binary-based format used by Microsoft.

According to the International Standard Organization’s website (http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease.htm?refid=Ref1123), openXML has garnered enough votes from government standards bodies worldwide for approval as an international standard.

The Bureau of Product Standards (BPS) gathered inputs from a number of stakeholders before submitting the Philippines’ vote. Although the initial vote was a "no," it was later reversed in favor of openXML following a "ballot resolution" process.

Dela Cruz said the Philippines was not the only country that reversed its vote before the ISO.

"Technically, there's not an issue we cannot answer anymore," Dela Cruz told INQUIRER.net via phone interview, referring to several discussions between Microsoft and the BPS.

A common misconception, he said, is that openXML is Microsoft's way of keeping consumers locked in to its products.

"The truth is, once a standard is passed on to ISO, Microsoft or any other vendor does not have control of it anymore," he said.

Lately, Microsoft has been actively pursuing its interoperability campaign. The software firm recently made available APIs (application programming interfaces) in some of its core products like Windows Vista.

These APIs, Dela Cruz noted, allow developers to build applications on top of Microsoft's products.

"This is actually an exciting time for Microsoft and we look forward to discussions with the local (open-source) community."

Meanwhile, Anson Uy, president of local firm Touch Solutions, is eager to hear what Microsoft has to say about the issue from a local standpoint. He likewise expects discussions with Microsoft to center on openXML and interoperability in general.

"We'd like to listen to Microsoft's clarifications," Uy said in a separate phone interview. "I'd like to hear from a local standpoint and not just what has been reported on the Web."

Uy's company is a local partner of software firm Oracle Corp., which supported Open Document Format (ODF), a rival format previously ratified by the ISO. ODF was developed by Sun Microsystems. IBM is a staunch ODF supporter and has publicly opposed ratifying openXML as a standard.

Uy said he was looking at openXML's interoperability implications in government and education.

"In filing of taxes, for example, the common tool for most agencies is still (Microsoft) Excel. It would be very interesting how openXML can resolve interoperability in government," he said.