American National Standards Institute

25 West 43rd Street, Fourth Floor

 US-New York, NY 10036-7417

Tel: 212-642-4900

Fax: 212-398-0023

E-mail: lrajchel@ansi.org

 

Re: Support for approval of ISO/IEC DIS 29500 – Information Technology – Office Open XML File Formats

 

 

Dear Lisa Rajchel,

 

We are writing to voice our strong support for the approval of Ecma’s Office Open XML File Formats as an ISO/IEC International Standard.  We strongly urge the American National Standards Institute to communicate its support for the ISO/IEC ratification of this standard to the JTC1 Secretariat.

 

Open XML represents an important advance in document standards that offers benefits to technology users, the technology industry, consumers, businesses and governments worldwide.  The standard received a strong endorsement when it was approved by Ecma in December 2006 and submitted to JTC1 for fast-track approval.

 

Open XML will enable backward compatibility with billions of archived documents, and the extensive standard accommodates a wide range of languages and cultures, as well as assistive technologies that help people with disabilities.  Governments and businesses will both benefit from the standard itself, as well as from the range of new products that implement the standard.  Furthermore, Open XML in no way contradicts any other international document standard.

 

Thank you for your support for Open XML.  If you have any questions, please contact  Bradley J. Smith at Bradley.smith@pa-tech.com

 

Sincerely,