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Total Number of Subscribers: 464 |
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Date:14th Aug 2009 |
Compiled by: M Sathya Kumar |
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Open document
format History : Documentation became a part of our culture ever since the
written word was invented. Documentation as we all know, is the simplest
method of allowing understanding and referencing. The methods of
documentation have of course evolved over the years along with the formats in which the data
was stored. So also, data formats have been around for as long as computing.
They reflected the varying capabilities and functions of different computing
systems and have evolved as these computing systems have evolved. In the
decades since, a wide range of formats (TXT, PDF, HTML, and DOC, just to name
a few) became popular because they meet specific user needs and tap into new
computing capabilities as they evolved. Then came the increasing expectations
and demands and technology met them by changing at a scorching pace. Advances
were being made in the field literally on a day-to-day basis, to the extent
that redundancy actually became an inbuilt attribute. With such advances and the passage of time, the ones who
don’t match the pace, fade away in the dark corners of technological
redundancy. Many of us have experienced disappearance of older formats. For
instance : Punch cards were once commonplace, but you wouldn’t
think of using them today. WordStar was once what everyone used as their word
processor; now, even filters to read the format are less and less common.
(More closer to heart Tally 4.5 to Tally 9, Windows 3.11 to Today ·
When you buy a music CD you know it will fit in your CD
player. ·
When you buy canned food, you know it will work with
your can opener. ·
When you buy a toaster, you know it will work with the
power plugs in your house. ·
When you visit a website, do you need to know what
software that website runs to create the web page ?
Then why should it be different for your documents ? You
should be able to send your documents to your customers without knowing what
office software they run and be confident that it would work. Have you ever
had trouble opening a document that someone sent you ? Have you ever
bought a copy of an application software that you didn’t want because
you have to read documents that only work with that version of an application
software ? Have you ever wondered why there is so little choice in
office software ? ·
What if you could send a file to anyone and know that
they can read it ? ·
What if you could buy any product you want and know that
you can still communicate with your customers ? This is where the OpenDocument Format (ODF), an open, XML1-based
file format for office documents comes into the picture. OpenDocuments
include text documents, spreadsheets, drawings, presentations and more. An
OpenDocument is freely available for any software maker to use and implement
and does not favour any vendor over all the others. The creation of XML-based
document formats continues this evolution, and even within this category a
number of formats are being developed, including ODF2, Open XML3 and UOF4. We
should expect the creation of new formats in the future as the technology
evolves, and, as has always been the case, users should be able to choose the
formats that work best for them. Recent developments : One objective of open formats like OpenDocument is to guarantee
long-term access to data without legal or technical barriers, and some
governments have come to view open formats as a public policy issue.
OpenDocument is intended to be an alternative to proprietary formats, including
the commonly used DOC, XLS, and PPT formats used by Microsoft Office and other
applications. Up until Feb. 15th 2008, these latter formats did not have
documentation available for download, and were only obtainable by writing
directly to Microsoft Corporation and signing a restrictive non-disclosure
agreement. As of Feb. 15th 2008, Microsoft offers documents for download
claiming to accurately specify the aforementioned document formats (although
this claim hasn’t been independently verified yet). Microsoft is supporting
the creation of a plug-in for Office to allow it to use OpenDocument. The OpenDocument
Foundation, Inc. has created a similar plug-in that will allow continued use of
Microsoft Office. The OpenDocument format (ODF, ISO/IEC 26300, full name :
OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications) is a free and open file
format for electronic office documents, such as spreadsheets, charts,
presentations and word processing documents. While the specifications were
originally developed by Sun, the standard was developed by the Open Office
XML technical committee of the Organisation for the Advancement of Structured
Information Standards (OASIS) consortium and based on the XML format
originally created and implemented by the OpenOffice.org office suite (see OpenOffice.org
XML). Case for the Governments to adopt open document formats : In all humility, with whatever limited knowledge I have about
technology and of the trends that are taking shape, I am now getting paranoid
about the whole e filing process and the initiatives adopted by the
Government. Although the process was in bits and pieces (fits and start is
more like it), the process adopted by the Government has been rather
haphazard. Instead of learning from each other’s experience, every
department has tried to do their "own thing". For instance : the e-filing process was kicked off by the
Government in 2004. At the time text files were in vogue
(still is with the etds process), then came the PDF- (MCA 21 and ITRs
for Corporates in AY 06-07). The last year it was Excel and XML and the story will
go on. This year the Government is pushing for efiling not only for
Income Tax, but also for Service Tax, VAT and other laws. Even here, there is
no uniformity. The Income-tax Department is using XML format, VAT authorities
seem to be following suit, but the Excise & Service Tax authorities are
still depending on an HTML format (EASIEST), the MCA relies on the PDF
format. The concern stems from the fact that governments don’t
create office documents, so that they can be tossed in the shredder. They
often have to be accessible decades (or centuries) later, and many of them
have to be accessible to any citizen, regardless of what equipment they use
or will use. Having said this, the question that needs to be answered is has
the Government given a serious thought to the fact that although, PDF is a
very useful display format, it has a different purpose — while
it’s great at preserving formatting, it doesn’t let you edit the
data meaningfully. HTML is great for web pages, or short, but it’s just
not capable enough for data mining and data retrieval. Both HTML and PDF will
continue to be used, but they cannot be used as a complete replacement. The writing on the wall suggests that the taxpayer, along with
dealing with the many intricacies in law, will now be saddled with the
additional burden of dealing with multiple data formats. Nobody knows what
will happen 5-7 years down the line when presumably better formats are in
vogue. Unless the Government realises the pitfalls and makes conscientious
efforts in developing/adopting standardised/open standard software, we will
all have to save our old software packages and the files generated thru them,
on floppies/CDs/DVD, etc. and pray that they still work when the sleeping
giant wakes up. Article
by Samir Kapadia, Chartered Accountant |
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