Google Joins ODF Alliance

Google has joined a group that is promoting an OpenDocument Format standard which was made to be platform independent. The group, the ODF Alliance, was formed to solve the problem of users getting locked out of files when they are using an application other than the one the document was created with. As alternative operating systems gather steam, compatibility with Microsoft’s dominant office programme is getting dicey. To prevent this, Microsoft said it plans to sponsor an open-source project to create software that will convert Office documents to OpenDocument. The software giant launched the Open XML Translator over at sourceforge.net. The software will be available under the BSD open-source license. Google, whose Writely online word processing program supports ODF, has joined the roster of 240 ODF Alliance members.