ODF and Web 2.0
Question: How is ODF like Web 2.0?
Answer: ODF (Open Document Format) represents the next battleground in corporate computing. If you have paid any attention to Tim O'Reilly's discussion of the characteristics of Web 2.0, you'll see that he characterizes the next mode of competition moving from control of software to control of data (see here for his discussion about the control of data, which he describes as the next "Intel Inside").
Much to Microsoft's chagrin, it's obvious that a significant part of the potential customer base is refusing to be locked in at the product level -- thus the interest in the Linux desktop and OpenOffice.
However, Microsoft realizes (as do most forward-looking observers of technology trends), the application is only relevant as a way to create, store, and manipulate data. And that data is, increasingly, becoming something well beyond a self-contained document.
Data is now becoming a separate entity that is acted upon in a variety of ways: on my laptop in a spreadsheet, by my ERP system as it processes transactions, as an externally accessed customer portal, served up as an SOA payload, etc. In other words, data is increasingly becoming the central aspect of a company's operation, with the different systems merely being windows through which to view the data. The key to accomplish this, is, of course, putting the data into a format accessible by any system. The solution fastened upon by the entire industry is XML, which makes data easy to slice and dice.
Data is the new "Intel Inside," according to O'Reilly, because it puts a company like Google or Amazon which can control the data and access to it in a position to charge outside "rents" (in economic terms) to use the data. "Intel Inside" was, of course, Intel's brand exercise that allowed it to reap enormous margins for the CPUs hidden inside someone else's product.
Of course, corporate data is owned by individual companies, not a central entity like Google or Amazon, so the Web 2.0 analogy is misplaced -- or is it?
While corporate data is placed among thousands of different organizations, each with its own pot of information, it's obvious that defining the format that each of those organizations is critical, because the format dictates how applications may access the data. And here is how ODF and Web 2.0
Print
Answer: ODF (Open Document Format) represents the next battleground in corporate computing. If you have paid any attention to Tim O'Reilly's discussion of the characteristics of Web 2.0, you'll see that he characterizes the next mode of competition moving from control of software to control of data (see here for his discussion about the control of data, which he describes as the next "Intel Inside").
Much to Microsoft's chagrin, it's obvious that a significant part of the potential customer base is refusing to be locked in at the product level -- thus the interest in the Linux desktop and OpenOffice.
However, Microsoft realizes (as do most forward-looking observers of technology trends), the application is only relevant as a way to create, store, and manipulate data. And that data is, increasingly, becoming something well beyond a self-contained document.
Data is now becoming a separate entity that is acted upon in a variety of ways: on my laptop in a spreadsheet, by my ERP system as it processes transactions, as an externally accessed customer portal, served up as an SOA payload, etc. In other words, data is increasingly becoming the central aspect of a company's operation, with the different systems merely being windows through which to view the data. The key to accomplish this, is, of course, putting the data into a format accessible by any system. The solution fastened upon by the entire industry is XML, which makes data easy to slice and dice.
Data is the new "Intel Inside," according to O'Reilly, because it puts a company like Google or Amazon which can control the data and access to it in a position to charge outside "rents" (in economic terms) to use the data. "Intel Inside" was, of course, Intel's brand exercise that allowed it to reap enormous margins for the CPUs hidden inside someone else's product.
Of course, corporate data is owned by individual companies, not a central entity like Google or Amazon, so the Web 2.0 analogy is misplaced -- or is it?
While corporate data is placed among thousands of different organizations, each with its own pot of information, it's obvious that defining the format that each of those organizations is critical, because the format dictates how applications may access the data. And here is how ODF and Web 2.0
Previous Post: H&R Block : Using open source to reduce barriers to innovationNext Post: Nick Carr KOs Another Straw Man
Most Discussed Posts
Cloud computing has emerged as one of the most significant game changers to hit the technology landscape in the past 20 years. With this massive expansion of the cloud, the perception of the IT organization is shifting from a utility player to a change agent. This eBook breaks down five ways progressive organizations are using cloud-based IT Management solutions to help drive innovation and become more strategic, including: adding visibility and analytics, speeding up time-to-value, lowering costs, improving prioritization, and providing a blueprint for future cloud deployments.
Read the white paper to see how IBM helped Citigroup deliver new services and enhancements to their 200 million customers faster.
There are 3 ways to modernize legacy applications: rewrite completely, acquire packaged solutions or migrate existing code. This paper explains why it's best to migrate and how IBM® Rational® software can help.
Accommodating specific lines of business can result in a hybrid ecosystem of applications and servers. The resulting complexity of this architecture makes for an environment that is costly to maintain and difficult to change when addressing new challenges.
This whitepaper will help you to define a mobile device passcode policy. Security managers must attempt to reconcile two opposing goals. They must: 1) create a passcode policy that is strong enough to protect the device if it is lost or stolen, while: 2) not annoying users with needless length or complexity.
This whitepaper, authored by The Radicati Group, looks at the key reasons organizations should consider moving to a cloud-based archiving solution. Email archiving solutions enable organizations to store, monitor, and collect electronic data exchanged by their users to comply with internal policies and regulations.
ATERNITY will showcase a 30-minute demo on how Fortune 500 companies are leveraging its award-winning FPI Platform to deliver a user-centric approach to Proactive IT Management.
For businesses to move forward and tap into the ever-expanding universe of Internet users and network-enabled devices, it's critical to learn how to make the transition to IPv6. Learn the critical steps your organization must take to make a seamless transition-and keep your business world connected.
Learn how IT teams can protect against spear phishing tactics. Harry Sverdlove, chief technology officer of Bit9 offers a frank discussion about spear phishing - the most common technique used in today's advanced attacks.
Learn how to build a solid business case for your migration to Red Hat Enterprise Linux so you can run leaner, innovate faster, be more flexible and own the New Now.
Social media isn't about you; it's about everything around you. As you consider how your customers want to communicate with you, social media is something that can't be ignored. But what should your strategy be? Is social media "just another channel?" What kind of a plan makes sense for your contact center and for your customers? Join our experts as they share their insight and research results.
Hardware tokens were a popular method of strong authentication in past years but the cumbersome provisioning and distribution tasks, high support requirements and replacement costs have limited their growth. The additional log-in steps that hardware tokens require and the resulting user frustrations have limited adoption and make them impractical for larger scale partner and customer applications.
Sponsored Links
