Created and written by Vanessa
Vendor lock-in is where documents are locked up in a proprietary format such that its not accessible using other document processors. This is a problem that may exist even within different versions of office suites by the same vendor. eg: opening a Microsoft Word file using an older version of Word may lose some of the file’s formatting and layout as new capabilities have been introduced to the new version that did not exist in the older version.
This problem has potentially serious outcomes if documents are no longer accessible due to the fast evolution of data storage and file format technologies. How can we be certain that our files today will be accessible in 100 years time? This has lead to the OpenDocument initiative (see below).
OpenDocument Format or ODF, is an open format for saving office documents. It was developed by OASIS(Open Document Format for Office Applications), and is based on the XML format. OpenDocument is intended to provide an alternative to proprietary document formats (like Windows) so these documents won’t be locked into a vendor. Its objective is to guarantee long-term access to data without legal or technical barriers.
Some of the file extensions used for OpenDocument documents include:
The OpenDocument standard is publicly accessible and can be implemented into any system or product, whether open-source or proprietary. Two of the most well-known office suites supporting OpenDocument are OpenOffice.org and KOffice.
Microsoft has since followed, and according to Wikipedia, it has announced it would finance the creation of a plugin to allow Office to save to ODF(see here).