Earlier today, Microsoft made an announcement so big it nearly blew up their conference call system. Microsoft executives Steve Ballmer, Ray Ozzie, Bob Muglia, and Brad Smith participated in a press conference call where they announced a new set of Interoperability Principles. While the specifics will take a while to fully digest, it seems clear that this announcement has serious implications for the European Committee on Interoperable Systems (ECIS), the chief complainer about Microsoft’s current level of "openness" and "interoperability."
This is an important announcement by Microsoft, and will undoubtedly put IBM and the rest of the ECIS companies back on their heels. Microsoft broadened its commitment to interoperability to include all of its high volume products, leaving these competitors with little if anything left to complain or sue about. After years of hounding Microsoft in the courts and in front of governments, these competitors are now confronted with the reality that Microsoft has raised the bar on interoperability, and they too might have to measure up.
Now that the light is shining back on them, the companies of ECIS will no longer be able to hide behind empty rhetoric and symbolic gestures. IBM will no longer be able to donate a patent for a "tamper proof screw" and call it an interoperability initiative. Adobe will no longer be able to give developers access to its marketing-leading Flash technology ONLY if they promise not to develop interoperable programs with it.
We can only hope that this announcement moves the industry into a more honest debate about solving the real interoperability challenges our users are facing. The current debate is warped by politics, skewed by corporate interests, and bears little resemblance to industry reality today.
Maybe now we can get back to writing software…