Hi Micha,
Your note that "Microsoft has released a plug-in for Word to convert Open
XML to DAISY format" is a bit premature. In fact, Microsoft only announced
that they intend to start a project to this end and have contracted with
Sonata to do the development. You should view this mostly as propaganda.
The Microsoft announcement is probably a reaction to the additions to ODF
announced in http://www.oasis-open.org/news/oasis-news-2007-02-14.php that
are intended to enable assistive technologies and to the announcement of a
review document for ODF accessibility last month in
http://lists.oasis-open.org/archives/tc-announce/200710/msg00010.html
See background to this issue at http://blogs.sun.com/korn/date/20051113
(published at the same time as Microsoft's announcement).
IBM is also committed to this, see
http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/blogs/page/schwer?tag=ODF
So there is no setback here, quite the opposite. Microsoft does not have
to go through the public review process that a consortium like OASIS has
to have, so they are able to bang out a plug-in (an announcement really at
this point in time) without consulting anyone. Standards-based development
requires some patience because of its democratic aspect. And note that
according to most reports the MS plug-in will force you to upgrade and will
have to be ported to non-Microsoft OS's.
If you look at the care that the OASIS group is giving for details such as
pagination preservation I think that you will see that this is a turtle vs
hare (rabbit) race. OASIS will be there in the end with a product that has
better features and is supported across all platforms.
Shavua Tov,
- yba
On Wed, 14 Nov 2007, Micha Silver wrote:
Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2007 20:12:27 +0200
From: Micha Silver <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: hebrew@openoffice.org.il
Subject: [OOo-Hebrew] DAISY xml for blind users
Microsoft has released a plugin for Word to convert Open XML to DAISY format
for blind computer users.:
http://www.microsoft.com/Presspass/press/2007/nov07/11-13DAISYPR.mspx
Anyone know what Openoffice offers on this accessibility issue? This could be
a serious setback for ODF in the fight against Microsoft's non-open "Open
XML".
Micha
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