The promise of interoperability is freedom of choice and ease of integration – the confidence that, regardless of which best-of-breed software is chosen, it just works with existing heterogeneous infrastructures. Customers are demanding it, and vendors are working hard to deliver it.

But there is still work needed to fulfill this promise. Businesses, customers, and developers need to collaborate and brainstorm solutions on how achieve interoperability using technology outlined in Microsoft’s Open Specification Promise. To this end, Microsoft invites you to join the discussion on the Open Specification Forum.

This forum contains twelve specific topic areas for discussion and collaboration:

Using the Open Specifications
Ask questions about the Open Specifications documents, their organization, language conventions, and references.

Interoperability Scenarios: Technical Questions
Technical interoperability issues and how they can be resolved. Some examples of discussion topics include developer tools and runtime; office productivity; systems management; and security and identity management.

Office Binary File Formats
Visit this forum for technical information on Office binary file formats provided under the Open Specification Promise.

Documentation on Standards
Discuss technical content and implementation of certain standards as they are implemented in Microsoft's high volume products

Office Open Document Format Implementation
Discuss technical content and implementation of the Office implementation of the ODF 1.1 standard

Windows Protocols
Visit this forum to learn more about Windows protocols described in the Open Specifications.

Using the Office Protocols
Discuss Microsoft Office protocols described in the Open Specifications.

Using the Exchange Server Protocols
Find out more about Exchange and Outlook protocols described in the Open Specifications.

Using the SharePoint Products and Technologies Protocols
Discuss technical content and implementation of the SharePoint Products and Technologies protocols described in the Open Specifications.

Using the Microsoft SQL Server Protocols
Discover more on SQL Server protocols described in the Open Specifications.

File Services
Learn more about technical content and implementation of Server Message Block (SMB) protocols described in the Open Specifications.

Open Packaging Conventions (OPC)
Ask questions and get how-to information on using the .NET managed-code and Win32 native-code Open Packaging Conventions (OPC) APIs. General discussion of the ISO/IEC 29500-2 and ECMA 376-2 OPC file technology standard.

These forums are intended to enable an open conversation and helpful resource for customers, partners, and industry participants to address questions on Microsoft products, protocols and documentation. Additional resources related to specific Microsoft news and strategy, as well as links to forums where you can address further questions on Microsoft interoperability by exploring the links below.

• For an overview of Microsoft’s Interoperability work.
• To see the most recent Interoperability Principles announcement.
• For information about the Microsoft Communications Protocol Program.
• For product support at Microsoft.
• For questions regarding promotion of modeling and simulation interoperability and reuse for the benefit of a broad range of Modeling & Simulation (M&S) communities.
• For an overview of Microsoft’s Standards work.
• For information on the Open Source Interoperability Initiative.

Top of page