Imaging Experts

What's the Big Idea?

I am pleased to announce that a new, valuable resource about imaging trends is now available to you. We have officially launched our new blog site, Imaging Experts, which provides a forum  for discussing the latest industry trends and addressing document and  web-based imaging questions.

The blog not only provides an outlet for our developers to post their opinions and views on imaging topics, but it also provides you with a resource to express your own opinions as well as conduct a dialog with our team of imaging experts.

Feel free to express your opinions (please keep it clean) but please refrain from submitting product specific support questions through the blog. As you are aware, we already have channels available for support inquiries and a separate team responsible for monitoring requests through the online support system.

We are excited about the blog and about the opportunity to conduct a dialog with you about the issues facing you and your business in document and web imaging. As always, we welcome your feedback.

-Simon

Mass Ousting of Microsoft

Holy file format Batman, the State of Massachusetts has mandated that by Jan 1, 2007 all personnel will be required to use office software (word processors, spreadsheets and presentations) that by default saves to an open file format standard. Namely the Open Document format for Office Applications, also called OASIS. There is a small mention of an XML based PDF format. Looks like the work of the Riddler, Boy Wonder. Which Riddler? The State of Massachusetts or some software company?

What the great State of Massachusetts is saying that they would like to standardize on an open file format and not be tied to a proprietary file format.  What is open?

Specifications publicly available.
No legal encumbrance.
Maintained by a committee.
(** As defined by the State of Massachusetts)

Sounds like a good idea but they are essentially throwing out Microsoft for the short term. Unless Microsoft starts saving to this new format which, I doubt they would do. But do you now need to convert Word and Excel and PDF to the OASIS format?  Is this a really bad and costly move? The State argues that since they are presently running Windows 2000 (which the newer versions of Microsoft Office will not run on). They would have to install new operating systems and train employees anyway.

Microsoft, as part of the upcoming Longhorn (Now called Vista) and new office suite has created a new file format for office applications called Metro. I would assume this will be the default if not the only format for saving. When this happens, the State of Massachusetts will be required to upgrade all Microsoft Office applications anyway. Since old versions would not read in this new format.

So are they really this smart to see what’s coming or just trying to stick it to Microsoft?

The argument, which I like, is that in the future, even if there were no software available which supported the State's new adopted file format, a specification would still be in the public domain to document the file format, thus allowing conversion. By using a proprietary format all states documents might no longer be readable or even convertible.

*** Is this really significant??!!! One state (by far not the largest) standardizing on a Non-Microsoft format and non-Microsoft software? Well at a recent meeting of the Mass Software council, an open forum was held to discuss the latest Mandate by the State.  On hand were Secretary of Administration and Finance Eric Kriss, Dan Bricklin, Jim Palo (File format expert), and some others from obscure no name companies like:

Adobe
Microsoft
Sun
IBM
more.....

If you ever watch King of the Cage then you would have loved the fight for the microphone between Microsoft and IBM. The major issue is if other states, other countries and or the Federal Government will follow suit. An IBM representative (who had a well thought out agenda in front of him) stated he had discussed the issue of open file formats and only software that supported them with 24 different countries. Well, caped wonder, we will have to see how this one plays out.

Stay tuned next week.
Same Bat time.
Same Bat channel.

-Jim

Topics, Topics, Topics

What types of topics can you expect to see covered here at Imaging Experts? Will they help you in your imaging exploits? Well, you've seen a few posts already talking about image formats, but what else can you look forward to?

Let's see... what might we cover? How about more in-depth format talk? I'd love to read more about the ins and outs of PDF, AFP, or XML, wouldn't you? I'm serious. Do you need any imaging programming hints in a particular language? I always do, but then, I never wanted to be a programmer, so I usually leave that to the big boys. When I force myself to write that magical code, I can always use some tips. Need advice on creating imaging applications? We've got plenty of experience on what to do, and more importantly, what NOT to do when designing that all important image viewer or converter.

How about just a high-level look at everyday imaging for the rest of us? What else can I think of off the top of my head? Some of the questions I hear quite often are things such as, does it matter if I use vector PDF versus raster PDF? Perhaps. It depends on your needs. Why shouldn't you convert all those legacy images to a new format? Trust me, there is a good reason, the most important being that green stuff we all love. What imaging value do I get out of moving away from MS JVM 1.1? There's more value than imaging if you move to even 1.3, never mind 1.5. Is Java a better platform for imaging? How is .NET going to benefit my imaging needs? How does .NET compare to Java? It's more than Microsoft vs. the world, there are real reasons for using either. Or both. What are the benefits of using a server-client based approach to image viewing? There are some great benefits. How can I best handle changing color depths and preserve accurate colors? CMYK to RGB and back. It's no small task. How do I integrate imaging with my document management system? Often overlooked, imaging is no small part of managing your business's documents and workflow.

I could go on and on with this stuff. But I need to do some real work...

-Chris