Jean Goffinet, one of the developers of the OpenDocument plugin for Microsoft, has published a piece on his blog following a meeting with people from OpenOffice.org and Oasis. The developers of the ODF plugin had contacted OpenOffice.org, believing that the organization would be interested in the software. Oasis was then consulted again because they wanted permission to use the logo of the standards body in the plugin. However, at the meeting, Goffinet said, it became clear that the OpenOffice.org team regards the ODF developers as traitors for contributing to a product that can improve Microsoft Office. At Oasis, the attitude was also negative, according to Goffinet, but somewhat more expectant.
OpenOffice.org is a major competitor for Microsoft and therefore logically does not like that a plugin for the Redmond office suite is being worked on to support the OpenDocument format. Stranger is that Oasis, which Microsoft itself is a member of, isn’t too enthusiastic about the plugin either. While it’s true that Microsoft is developing and promoting a competing format, it seems more logical to Goffinet that Oasis would welcome any initiative that makes the OpenDocument format more accessible. The fact that the development of the ODF plugin is mainly funded by Microsoft does not seem to be appreciated by the developers. Goffinet says he feels that he is being viewed as a ‘defector who works for the highest bidder’. However, he believes that Microsoft is slowly but surely making a turn towards interoperability. He agrees that Microsoft could have done a better job on OpenDocument support, but he does want to give the ODF plugin a chance and argues that Microsoft could have put in less effort than it currently does.