Open Office XML Format May become an ISO Standard

Kudos to Sun for going thru the trouble to submit the OOo/Star Office file format as an ISO Standard. This came as a result of a letter from the European Commission to Sun. Adoption of this as a standard will assure that the format is supported for the long term and will help in the fight to make sure data stays in open formats. While Microsoft is big enough to ignore standards, or pull the old embrace and extend, if enough large Governments get the idea that their data is best kept in an open format, Office may need to support the format. This would be a huge win IMHO. The article also has a great snippet that was contained in the letter from the European Commission to Sun.

Transparency and accessibility requirements dictate that public information and government transactions avoid depending on technologies that imply or impose a specific product or platform on businesses or citizens.
–jeremy