Activity is continuing in the Massachusetts battle over office software formats. IBM has weighed in with criticism of Microsoft’s attempt to promote its Office Open XML as a standard for the state’s documents and as Governor Mitt Romney stepped up his support for the Microsoft position.

IBM’s Robert Sutor, vice president of standards and open source, urged support for the ODF in a letter to the state’s Secretary of Executive Agency Finance and Administration (F&A) Thomas Trimarco. IBM is supporting the state’s earlier decision standardizing its office software on the OpenDocument format (ODF).

"Anyone can freely get a copy of the ODF standard and implement it," Sutor wrote. "Since the ODF standard is already in the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) fast track process, I’m confident that 2006 will be a very big year for adoption of ODF and ODF-compliant software by governments, organizations, and businesses around the world."

Sutor’s letter followed another to Trimarco from Sun Microsystems’ director of standards Carl Cargill, who likewise supported the ODF proposal. He indicated the ODF standard would assure the state "of the many benefits of interoperability based on open standards." Together Sun and IBM have several thousand employees in the state.

At the same time, Governor Romney’s spokesman indicated that Microsoft’s pledge to submit its office software to an international standards body had played a role in his decision to support the Microsoft position.

Governor Romney, who is expected to be a Republican candidate for President, initially stayed out of the formats debate, but after previous A&F secretary Eric Kriss left the post in late September, the governor warmed to the Microsoft position. While the formats debate is replete with arcane minutia over standards, the whole issue could involve hundreds of millions, even billions, of dollars to be spent on office software.

Microsoft maintains that a state policy mandating ODF formats would unfairly cut it out of some state business, while ODF supporters say their approach would lead to increased competition and lower prices for office software.