Interoperability in Action – Volume 2

  • Article

In follow up to my post about Open Source projects, here are more specifics about how we are addressing interoperability challenges. Solving interoperability issues requires building bridges because no other solution already exists. That’s what we are doing through different Open Source projects such as:

  • Microsoft is sponsoring four open source projects to help Web developers support information cards. These projects will implement software for specifying the Web site’s security policy and accepting information cards in: Java for Sun Java System Web Servers, Apache Tomcat, or IBM’s WebSphere Application Server, Ruby on Rails, C and PHP.
  • Similarly in the document interoperability space, Microsoft is sponsoring a series of open source translators: Open XML/ODF, Open XML/ China’s Uniform Office Format (UOF), Office Binary (doc, xls, ppt) Translator to Open XML. Still related to document interoperability, we are also developing the Document Interoperability Initiative (DII), announced last month, which is on its way around the world – first in Boston, then Seoul, soon Munich – with more locations to come.
  • As part of our continuing commitment to interoperability in the identity space, Microsoft has sponsored an open source project to enable interoperability between Microsoft Identity Lifecycle Manager (ILM) and OpenLDAP directories.

These projects are also aligned with the Open Source Interoperability Initiative . This is Microsoft’s engagement to increase interoperability with open source solutions to facilitate bilateral engagement between Microsoft and the open source community.

Under the Open Specification Promise (OSP) we are providing many protocols and formats, like SOAP (Web Services), Open XML, Office Binary (doc, xls, ppt) file formats and the Xaml Object Mapping Specification. Additionally, we are continuing to take steps toward fulfilling the interoperability principle of ensuring open connections to our high-volume products by releasing protocol documentation – to date a cumulative total of 44,000 pages. 

We look forward to hearing from you and your developers as we engage throughout this process.

Jean Paoli, General Manager

Interoperability & XML Strategy