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After months of debate and controversy, Microsoft will reach a pivotal moment this weekend in its effort to win approval of its Office Open XML document format by a key international standards organization. The process won't end there, but the result could play a big part in determining how things play out in the months ahead.

RELATED LINKS Andrew Updegrove: The ISO/IEC Voting Process on OOXML Explained Jason Matusow, Microsoft: ODF /Open XML – Technical Specifications Mature Over Time Stephen Walli: Microsoft's Failures with the OOXML Standard Stephen McGibbon, Microsoft Europe Technology Officer: US votes "Yes with comments", Norway votes "Conditional Approval"

Considering all the recent drama and suspense surrounding the issue in various countries, it should be interesting to follow.

In recent days, for example, Microsoft has defended itself from assertions that it has wrongly influenced the vote by stacking various national organizations with its own partners. And the company says an employee in Sweden acted without authorization when offering extra marketing support to two of those partners in an e-mail message about the process.

Here's what's happening this weekend: The national bodies taking part in the International Organization for Standards (ISO) process face a Sunday deadline for submitting their preliminary votes on the proposed standardization of the Microsoft format, commonly abbreviated OOXML.

In pursuing standardization of the format, Microsoft says it's responding to calls by groups including the European Commission to become more open. In general, a standard is meant to help other companies and developers implement a format in their own products. In the case of document formats, one goal is to make it easier to exchange documents between different types of productivity software.

In Microsoft's case, the company says the Office 2007 file formats implement the Office Open XML standard. And in theory, the standardization of Office Open XML would provide extra technological fuel to Microsoft Office's direct competitors.

So from a business perspective, why would Microsoft do such a thing? Here's how Tom Robertson, Microsoft general manager for interoperability and standards, addressed that question in an interview today:

"This is really an issue of the pie expanding. We're creating what we think is a catalyst for a whole new generation of innovation that's going to benefit our customers. Now, does it mean that there are other companies out there, very formidable companies that are innovating here that we are going to need to out-innovate in this area? Yeah, it does. ... But that's OK. We think that this ultimately is going to drive a whole new generation of development for users and our customers, and we're going to be a part of that."

Others in the industry suspect different -- or additional -- motives. For example, the outcome could influence the competition between Microsoft Office and the free OpenOffice.org productivity suite, which uses the rival Open Document Format, already declared an ISO standard. That has implications in the marketplace. IBM and Sun support Open Document Format. And standards play a role in government buying decisions.

Lawyer Andrew Updegrove, an open standards advocate who tracks the issue on his Standards Blog, said this on that topic via e-mail:

"Office is a huge business for Microsoft, and of course they want to hang on to it. At the same time, (they're) under continuing investigation in the EU for possible antitrust violations, and have already had penalties levied against them for a billion dollars, with another ruling expected within the next few weeks. One thing they've been accused of by their competitors and other critics is for being too proprietary. So Microsoft is trying to look like they're being open. But the real threat that they're trying to counter here, I believe, is ODF, which is the first real chink in their armor since they became the dominant player in office productivity software."

Because Microsoft has opened up the technical ingredients for Office Open XML, Robertson said he expects "very wide uptake" of the format -- citing support in products from Novell, Corel, Apple and others. He added:

"Five years ago, if you told people that Microsoft was strongly supporting the standardization of its default file formats, and making any intellectual property that's needed to work with those formats available for free, people would have been dancing in the streets. They would have been very happy. And I think many people today are very happy with the fact that this is happening. ... People know that this is going to be one of the most popular -- if not the most popular -- formats in the world for a long time, and they want to work with it."

But Stephen Walli, a software business strategy consultant who formerly worked at Microsoft on open-source projects, said he expects Microsoft Office to be the only serious implementation of Office Open XML.

"They bought themselves a bit of time with the market misinformation and confusion, but ultimately standards succeed when they have multiple implementations," Walli said. He predicted that the Open Document Format would become the true industry standard.

One group urging a vote against Office Open XML standardization is the Linux Foundation. Jim Zemlin, the group's executive director, cited factors including the complexity of the related documentation -- said to total more than 6,000 pages, and the fact that Open Document Format is already a standard. He also pointed to reports of unusual activities within the various national bodies deciding their votes on the issue.

"We're just concerned about allegations and reports of the ISO process itself being gamed, so to speak," Zemlin said, citing last-minute upgrades of memberships in national ISO bodies. He said the group is concerned about anything that would put the integrity of the standards-setting process into question.

Microsoft issued this statement on that topic:

"A broad variety of customers, technology providers, and governments around the globe have a stake in the standardization and ongoing evolution of Open XML. These groups want to have a seat at the table when these decisions are being made and have joined national standards bodies around the world so their voices can be heard. We reject the assertion that the document standards process should be closed to new voices and it's clear that those with an interest in Open XML do too."

People involved in the ISO process are expecting the results of the preliminary vote to be made public next week. Regardless of the outcome, the process would then move to the next stage, where criticisms from the voting organizations are addressed.

But if Microsoft doesn't get the required number of votes this weekend, its challenge would be bigger, because it would need to get some national bodies to change their minds before the final vote.

Results of that final vote are expected in March.