Dual Standards: More Choice, or Less?

Arguments are often made that having two internationally-approved standards for document formats would encourage choice.  After all, isn’t competition good? South Africa’s Minister of Public Service and Administration, Ms. Geraldine Fraser-Moleketi addressed this issue from the perspective of governments in her opening address at the Idlelo 3 Conference currently underway in Dakar, Senegal:

“South Africa is amongst a growing number of National Governments who have adopted ODF over the past year...It is unfortunate that the leading vendor of office software, which enjoys considerable dominance in the market, chose not to participate and support ODF in its products, but rather to develop its own competing document standard which is now also awaiting judgement in the ISO process. If it is successful, it is difficult to see how consumers will benefit from these two overlapping ISO standards. I would like to appeal to vendors to listen to the demands of consumers as well as Free Software developers. Please work together to produce interoperable document standards. The proliferation of multiple standards in this space is confusing and costly.”

You can read her full address and also upload the video here. To understand why having one ISO-approved standard like ODF (ISO/IEC 26300:2006) means more choice and provides greater benefits to consumers and local IT developers alike, consider the following –