Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
You'd think that, between librarians and historians, e-book readers, e-book sellers, e-book manufacturers, and e-book publishers, that you had enough people that agree that a document (software) format solution is needed. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be enough people to create a quorum to discuss all the issues, and come up with a solution.
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The problem is that most content is locked up by a small group of companies. These companies don't want standard formats. They want you to pay every time you want to read/listen/watch their content. Ever-changing, proprietary formats are only their latest attempt at renting content to you - at full price.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Microsoft's solution is typical of them: "Yes, we agree that we all need a standardized format. Here, use ours!" A better solution for MS documents is to convert them to HTML (using their own tools), then strip out all the extraneous XHTML that they add (which is only there to reconvert their HTML back to their applications, and is otherwise useless).
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Microsoft's problem is two-fold.
1. They don't want standards because that violates their monopoly business strategy. The last thing they want is for users to be able to take their data and walk away from Microsoft products.
2. Microsoft has a history of not being able to follow standards (even when they want to, even when they wrote the standard). If Microsoft has to follow someone else's standard, they are already 2 steps behind everyone else. No business wants to be in that position.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
But as I've maintained, an HTML- or XML-based format is already established and useable. MS should be embracing OEBPS, if they want to be part of the solution, and not part of the problem.
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They should also be embracing ODF, but that won't happen anytime soon either.