The role of documents in our lives has evolved dramatically beyond imprinted paper, and then even the published output from spreadsheet and word processor software, to extend to user-centric consumption scenarios served by compound information sources which can be business critical, context based and sometimes ephemeral.
Likewise, document formats are undergoing something of a revolution at the moment with Open Document Format already an ISO standard, Microsoft has submitted the Office Open XML File Format to ISO for standardisation and the Chinese, Uniform Office Format (UOF) well underway to support their unique requirements.
Although each of these is based on XML and utilises zip container format, their design goals differ with each holding value for specific uses so this one day symposium will outline the focus areas for both ODF and ECMA Open XML clarifying their relevance for different publishing and business applications and then providing an interactive session for participants in the afternoon. There will also be an demonstration and discussion of an Australian application that utilises the new Open XML format for contract collaboration on a Java/Linux platform. |
