Open XML blogging in 2007

It's been quite a year for those who have been blogging about the Open XML file formats. Here's a look back at some of the stories I remember best from this busy year ...

January:

• Brian Jones provides an overview of Passing the Open XML standard off to ISO, followed by a post on the history of Office XML formats.
• My first post of 2007 covers Dr. John Tunnicliffe's ExcelPackage API for Open XML spreadsheets.
• Tristan Davis explains how content controls and the XML data store (custom XML parts) enable true data/view separation.
• Rob Weir kicks off the new year with How to hire Guillaume Portes and an Emerson quote about a foolish consistency, inspiring me to quote Emerson on counting spoons.
• Kevin Boske releases videos on how to use Ken Getz's Open XML code snippets for the System.IO.Packaging API.
• Miguel de Icaza weighs in on the debate around document formats.
• Rick Jelliffe's blog kicks off Wikigate, which throws a few folks into a tizzy, and even Stephen Colbert eventually covers the "story" before the real press figures out nothing's going on.

February:

• This month finds me at Linux Asia in Delhi and Open XML workshops in Sydney and Canberra.
• Version 1.0 of the Open XML Translator project is released.
• Datawatch announces their Monarch V9 product includes support for Open XML spreadsheets and formulas.
• Brian Jones takes a close look at how ODF and Open XML handle application settings, a topic that will be revisited many times in the DIS29500 debate.
• The Wraith starts blogging because he (or she) is "bored with all the nonsense written about OOXML."

March:

• I'm in Redmond most of the month, musing about interoperability and catching up with friends at the Open XML workshop we did during the week of the MVP summit.
• Stephen McGibbon posts screen shots of OpenOffice's Open XML support, and his Stuck in the past explores why document formats are not a zero-sum game.
• Dennis Hamilton's Why not .rtfx? considers some possible creative uses for OPC outside the scope of Open XML.
• Michael Scherotter blogs about Mindjet's approach to Open XML interoperability.
• Art imitates life: "Pam Jones" bans "the Wraith" from Groklaw.
• The last week of March finds me in Prague, Ghent and Ljubljana for Open XML workshops.

April:

• The DIS ballot period begins on April 2, and technical committees worldwide begin reviewing the spec.
• In April I deliver Open XML workshops in Munich, Kiev, and Beijing.
• The PHPExcel API for Open XML gives PHP developers a set of tools for Open XML development, thanks to the work of Maarten Balliauw and Jakub Vrana.
• Sam Hiser posts a joke that some folks don't get for a few months.

May:

• May finds me doing workshops in Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Mexico and Kenya.
• I blog about one of Open XML's most popular features in custom schemas revisited.
• Brian Jones notes the formation of DIN's document translation working group in Germany.
• Stephen McGibbon covers Open XML support for Mobile Devices from DataViz.
• The Wraith wonders Has IBM annexed the Kenyan ISO National body?
• Julien Chable's OpenXML4J API project is officially launched.

June:

• I take a close look at Open XML's approach to numbering options.
• We announce the Microsoft SDK for Open XML at TechEd in Orlando, and I get a chance to catch up with friends like Stephen, Ted, Patrick, Mick, Erika, Steph, and everyone I'm forgetting to name at the moment.
• Altova announces comprehensive Open XML support in their XML Spy product.
• Brian Jones blogs about IBM's positive comments regarding Open XML interoperability; pinch me, I must be dreaming.
• Rob Weir's No representation without specification makes the case for full documentation of Open XML's compatibility settings.
• Stephen McGibbon's IBM's antics carrying on and Rick Jelliffe's Fantasy Press Releases make my face red.

July:

• The INCITS V1 technical committee in the US reaches deadlock after a long meeting on Friday the 13th; paraskevidekatriaphobia ensues.
• Brian Jones notes iPhone support for Open XML and discusses the philosophy behind the WordprocessingML document model.
• Rick Jelliffe congratulates Slashdotters on herding the beast, and offers Bribery Watch "in the spirit of truth and reconciliation, and to calm the situation down."
• Rob Weir looks back on a year of anti-Open XML blogging, Stephen McGibbon reminds us that Dastardly and Muttley have been here beforeJon Udell
• , and
• chats with me about my Open XML travels.

August:

• The INCITS executive board passes a motion for the US to vote Yes with comments on DIS29500.
• The revised Massachusetts ETRM includes Open XML, ODF, PDF and other document formats.
• Our friends over at MSDN publish a set of developer workshop videos from the San Francisco workshop.
• Brian's post on the Ecma meetings in Toronto starts a free-ranging discussion.
• Mike Ormond starts a useful video series on Content Controls and Repeating Data.
• Rick Jelliffe cements his reputation as a Microsoft shill with My recommendation on Office Open XML: "No with Comments"!
• Wouter Van Vugt announces availability of version 3.0 RC1 of Package Explorer, and the OpenXMLDeveloper.org web site publishes his eBook "Open XML Explained".

September:

• The voting results for DIS 29500 are this month's big story, and Stephen McGibbon's DIS29500/IS26300 ballot results in charts provides a clear visual overview of the outcome.
• Jason Matusow posts Independent Implementations of Open XML and Open XML Implementations Part 2.
• Blogging from Malaysia during TechEd, I post a set of OPC test documents for developers.
• Dennis Hamilton comments on the state of the debate from a long-term perspective, and Mick Lohan explores dynamic Open XML tables from a an Irish VBA perspective.
• NOOOXML.org reviews my latest videos, granting me the sexy screen name Hug Madog; how'd they know?

October:

• David Gainer posts about conditional formatting on the Excel team blog, and I show some Open XML markup samples.
• Brian Jones blogs about a beta version of Wordperfect that supports both Open XML and ODF.
• Oliver Bell covers the public rift between ODF supporters that has started popping up in comments on document-format blog threads ever since Gary Edwards let the cat out of the bag.
• RosettaNet Malaysia announces Open XML support in their RosettaNet Automated Enablement standard.
• NOOOXML.org announces that Microsoft is the winner of their 2500-Euro Kayak award, as I had requested back in July.

November:

• The Open XML to DAISY translator project is announced by Reed Shaffner at TechEd/Barcelona.
• JTC 1 publishes Alex Brown's much-needed and much-appreciated ISO/IEC DIS 29500 Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) FAQ on the JTC 1/SC 34 web site.
• Barack Obama tells Google he would "put government data online in universally accessible formats," which eWeek interprets as Obama voices support for ODF.
• Andy Updegrove kicks off his ODF vs. OOXML: War of the Words eBook project. (Note to self: get to work on screenplay project. )

December:

• Wouter Van Vugt releases the Word 2007 Databinding Toolkit
• Gray Knowlton blogs some interesting data on File size reduction for Open XML and Compatibility pack for Open XML: 20 Million downloads and counting.
• Brian's Why all the secrecy? starts a lively debate, as does Jesper Lund Stocholm's Hypocrisy 101.
• NOOOXML.org congratulates Eric White and me on our recent role changes at Microsoft.
• Eric continues his series on Using LINQ to XML with Open XML Documents with WordprocessingML and SpreadsheetML classes.
• James Newton King covers LINQ to XML over large documents and explains how LINQ can handle WordprocessingML structure in "LINQ over OOXML: Loving it.
• After writing and reviewing hundreds of proposed dispositions for NB comments, TC45 reaches the 2/3 point and heads into the home stretch.

What a year. If 2008 is just half as busy, and Open XML gets just half as much attention, and I travel just half as much as I did in 2007 ... that will be plenty.

Happy New Year, everyone!

Comments

• Anonymous
  December 31, 2007
  Great list with some nuggets that I missed the first time.  I don't think I'll comment on any of the items here.  The list is a keeper and expands my collection a fair bit. Seeing that I made the list twice, I will now save up further posts (there are some in honored positions of my backlog) until 2008, just in case your life is not hectic enough. Happy New Year!  May it be joyful, rewarding and successful with pleasing results for OOXML too.

• Anonymous
  January 01, 2008
  The comment has been removed

• Anonymous
  January 12, 2008
  Gutes Neues Jahr  2008.!