XML Licensing - You have Microsoft's permission

Microsoft recently made a media splash with the posting of the Office 2003 XML Reference Schemas Licensing. In a nutshell, Microsoft is giving us the "permission" (there generosity is overwhelming) to use the XML created by Word, Excel and InfoPath in any way we want. They are even letting us (yes they have given us permission) to create our own XML documents that are compatible with these programs.

Ok, if you?re like me, this seems silly. It?s obvious we have the ability to generate XML documents without their permission, but this is an important step by Microsoft. It basically says they are allowing others, even competitors, to build xml documents compatible with Office. I think this is the best thing that Microsoft could have done. This will only help people adopt Office long-term.

I?d suggest reading Jean Paoli's Bringing the XML Vision to the Desktop with Office 2003 to get a readable description of Microsoft?s goals around the royalty free rights to the schemas.

There is one other thing I have to add here: Charles Maxson (another lead editor here at www.OfficeZealot.com) and I have been promoting Office and web integration since 1998. After 5 years we are very pleased with recent XML developments in Office 2003, however I can honestly say it doesn't go far enough. I'll plan to talk about this later. But the saying "better late than never" comes to mind :-).

I?d also suggest reading an interesting post by Tim Bray on a conversation he had with Jean Paoli.