DIN Committee to Review File Format
Working Group being formed – Participation still possible
(Berlin, 2007-05-07) The Working Group "Document Description and Processing Languages" of DIN's Information Technology Standards Committee (NI) is currently reviewing the file format ECMA-376 (Office Open XML) for standardization at ISO.
Similar to the format specified in ISO/IEC 26300 "Information technology - Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0", Office Open XML (or OOXML) is an open format for storing and exchanging electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents. Both OOXML and OpenDocument are XML-based, although they differ in structure and schema and were developed with different purposes in mind. In certain applications such as the integration of cross-company and cross-agency processes, conversion from one format to the other is necessary if interoperability is to be achieved.
A Working Group has been formed to discuss OpenDocument (OASIS ODF) 1.0 (IS 26300) and ECMA-376 (Office Open XML) conversion issues
The results are to be published in a Technical Report which will
a) define whether and how dates in one format can be converted to the other format,
b) recommend translators where models considerably differ in terms of properties and design,
c) give translator examples using the W3C XSLT standard.
This subcommittee will involve internationally known experts and will base its work on experience gained in various international projects (such as the Open Source Project ).
Anyone interested in participating in this work should contact the convenor Mr. Schürmann (Tel. +49 30 34637213) or DIN (Contact: Dr. Stefan Weisgerber, Tel. +49 30 2601-2411 (or send a message).