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I have read a few posts today about the problems the UK National Archives faces with its extensive collection of digital documents, they are worried they are not going to be able to open them in the future as the old formats are not supported anymore in new software. This story appeared on the BBC, then the Guardian, then Channel 4. Each article praises Microsoft, the “saviour” of the National Archives who will help them access old document via virtualisation, i.e. running “Word 6 on Windows95 inside Windows Vista”…

What these article fail to mention is that the situation partly results from a failure from Microsoft itself, i.e. Microsoft own products fail at reopening their own old documents. For instance, the BBC article states:

For example, if a Word document was saved using Office 97 under Windows 95, then the National Archives will be able to open that document by emulating the older operating system and software on a modern machine.

Well, I am sorry but why cannot a newer version of MS Word running on a newer version of MS Windows just open the file and be done with it?? Why can’t Microsoft word just support its own files? Actually, they should be sued for not being able to do so!!!

Now, why the National Archives actually trusts Microsoft will solve their problems this time is beyond me… It’s true that the UK is a bit of a Microsoft shop anyway, the recent use of Microsoft Digital Restriction Management (DRM) by the BBC for their iPlayer service is another sad example of that.

Anyway, more importantly, the articles then go on to praising the new document format by Microsoft called OpenXML. Well, most of it is just disinformation and corporate spin. Microsoft has a long history of not supporting open standards properly; ask any web designer what they think of Microsoft so-called support of web standards and you’ll get the idea. OpenXML is known not to be a truly open format either. In particular, it uses features that are not documented in the ’standard’, i.e. it’s not a standard and it’s not open. You can read more here.

Now why do we hear about this right now? Well simply because Microsoft is lobbying to have its format recognised as an ISO standard. Many government around the world are starting to pass regulation to enforce the use of open standards in their administrations and Microsoft wants to make sure their format is used. There is already a format that is a real ISO standard, the Open Document format used by Open Office and others. Microsoft could support this standard very easily (it’s a true open standard, no strings attached) but they do not really want to… You see, if they did, less people would buy Microsoft Office as there would be other alternatives. Sadly, they probably will win, not on technical merit but just because they have pockets full of money…

I watched “An Inconvenient Truth” recently. Despite all the media surrounding its release last year, I hadn’t seen this movie centred on the “slideshow” about climate change that Al Gore is giving around the world. It is well done and present the facts fairly well I believe. Al Gore is a very good performer actually. Its presidential campaign was a long time ago and I forgot what he was like but he is very good in “An inconvenient truth”; he seems very knowledgeable (I dread to think what GW Bush would look like on a documentary based on science…), he is very good at presenting the scientific facts and he even manages to deliver the show with a bit of humour! I liked it. Actually, I will probably buy the DVD and add it to my collection of “things to show the kids” (when I have any…) next to the Planet Earth collection from the BBC.

My only criticism is that maybe it is a bit too much Al Gore centric. I mean, I am not sure why he needs to speak about the accident his son had or that his sister died of lung cancer. Both stories are used somehow to strengthen the arguments but I feel that by doing so, he alienates some of the audience who is not interested in him but in climate change.