China Youth Daily: It is said that Microsoft OOXML has been submitted to ISO (International Standards Organization-Editor's Note) for "fast track", making OOXML an international standard. After the vote on September 2 last year was rejected, another round of voting will be held in February this year.
Ni Guangnan: Yes, as an international standard, there will be some high requirements, including openness, intellectual property rights and its own technical content. In the early stage, the whole world raised 3522 questions about Microsoft's OOXML***, but there are still many places to be discussed and improved in order to become an international standard. China also voted against it. A meeting will be held in Geneva in February, and then a vote will be held.
China Youth Daily: Is this the last round of voting? Will there be other programs?
Ni Guangnan: If passed, OOXML will become a standard from the current draft resolution. If it fails, Microsoft can no longer take this "fast track" and must take another more standardized process. After repeated discussions, this process will be longer.
Firmly support UOF
China Youth Daily: In order to compete with Microsoft standards, we are now striving for the national standard UOF to become an international standard. Does China have the strength to say "no" to Microsoft in the field of information technology?
Ni Guangnan: The information market in China is too big. China has the largest number of mobile phone users in the world. The scale of netizens will soon be the first in the world. In some traditional fields, such as airplanes and automobiles, it will take a long time for us to catch up with developed countries, but information technology is a completely different field, and now it is in the period of upgrading. China can give full play to its advantage of being a latecomer and achieve leap-forward development. Like the XML-based document standard, it is a new standard for everyone, including Microsoft. This time, everyone is standing on a starting line, and we have the strength to compete with Microsoft.
Now, China has not only market advantages, but also talent advantages. China should pay attention to his right to speak, and he can say "no" to Microsoft in the software field.
China Youth Daily: A few days ago, Microsoft expressed "firm support for UOF" and hoped that UOF and OOXML*** would become international standards. What are their considerations?
Ni Guangnan: Microsoft did make some concessions, mainly in the hope of easing China's opposition through that statement. On the other hand, with so many opinions put forward by countries around the world, Microsoft also needs to make some improvements, which is a compromise it has made under the pressure of countries around the world.
Because China independently developed the UOF standard on the basis of domestic office software, the market is huge, so China has a great say in the field of office software. Now, our UOF standard has been affirmed by Microsoft OOXML and the international standard ODF. Both of them are courting China, hoping to strengthen their competitive position with China. It can be said that the initiative is in our hands now.
China Youth Daily: We noticed that after Microsoft expressed its support for UOF, you gave feedback at the first time. I feel that your attitude is still relatively reserved. Do you want to "listen to his words and watch his actions"?
Document format standard
Ni Guangnan: We welcome Microsoft's statement, but we hope they can take more practical actions. Microsoft expressed its support for developing a "converter" between UOF and OOXML, and unconditionally opened the binary document format information. How well the "converter" has done can only be answered through evaluation.
It can be said that this is not a simple technical dispute, but a dispute between monopoly and anti-monopoly. As the document is an important carrier of information, it is also a dispute over the control of information resources, which has great influence.
In the past, our document standards were all privately owned by Microsoft, that is, the DOC format standard, which has become a de facto standard and has great security risks. Because it is not open, some information that users don't know will be added to the document. Moreover, Microsoft's standards can only be compatible with its own Office software, which will create a new monopoly and is not conducive to the development of domestic software.
If Microsoft really improves its openness as promised, even if OOXML standard becomes an international standard, it will have little impact on our UOF standard. Microsoft said that the "converter" enables the two standards to be freely converted, so the domestic UOF can be freely promoted and applied. These standards may last for some time. But according to historical experience, there will only be one final document standard. Just like Microsoft's old DOC standard has always been the de facto standard. This is caused by people's usage habits.
Mastering document standards will eventually promote the development of the entire information industry.
China Youth Daily: What is the significance of developing UOF standards into international standards or factual standards for China's information industry?
Ni Guangnan: This will form an innovative industrial chain, and the document standard is at the upstream of the industrial chain, which will have a great impact.
With the development of UOF standard, domestic office software can be developed. Thereby further promoting the development of domestic Linux, which is the platform for all software to run. It will eventually drive the development of domestic CPU, because domestic CPU can only run Linux, not Windows. This industrial chain is too important! Mastering document standards will affect the hardware foundation and software foundation, and will eventually promote the development of the entire information industry.
ODF and OOXML
China Youth Daily: For a long time, the vast number of computer users seem to have become accustomed to Microsoft's document standards. Where is the living space of domestic UOF standard?
Ni Guangnan: China has such a big market, which is our advantage. What we are trying to do now is to promote the use of UOF standards as soon as possible, so that UOF can be transformed from a national standard into a de facto standard in China. We have our own cultural and linguistic characteristics, so it is more convenient for Chinese documents to be handled by our own UOF.
At present, two other international standards, ODF and OOXML, have indicated that they can become "converters" of UOF, which at least shows that they recognize the UOF standard, which is open enough to achieve fair competition. We should freely promote UOF, and the initiative is in our hands.
China Youth Daily: How far are we from international standards? What efforts should be made?
Ni Guangnan: It is difficult to predict whether UOF can become an international standard. But as an open national standard, we need to promote it.
This year, the Danish and Dutch governments have implemented a measure to adopt open standards in government departments. Because Microsoft's private standards are used, a large amount of patent fees need to be paid every year, which is very unfavorable to the country. Our government should also study whether similar measures can be taken in the field of software, so that "open standards" can become the de facto standards in China and have the status similar to "international standards".
Of course, this is a matter for the whole society, and users should also support domestic software, because it is definitely not suitable for use at first, but it is only a matter of usage habits.
office software
China Youth Daily: Have you ever used domestic office software? How do you feel?
Ni Guangnan: I have been using domestic office software, but I was not used to it at first. Now I can stop using Microsoft Office. From my personal experience, domestic office software has no problem to use and can meet the application. The next step is to promote UOF. Domestic Office should do a good job in supporting UOF, so that documents in UOF and DOC formats can be smoothly converted, and users can hardly feel the difference.
However, domestic software companies are still too weak in marketing, and the key is that there are too few users. Any software is useful. Microsoft's software is not in one step, but a large number of people are using it, which means countless people are helping it find loopholes. Because of this, it can often release "patches" and upgrade versions. We are now in the promotion stage to let more people know and use domestic software.
"Government Procurement of Genuine Software" cannot be changed to "Government Procurement of Foreign Software"
China Youth Daily: You wrote an article criticizing some phenomena in government procurement, calling on "government procurement of genuine software" not to become "government procurement of foreign software". Do you think our government should take the lead in promoting domestic software?
Ni Guangnan: Exactly. This is an article I wrote in 2004. An important embodiment of government driving force lies in government procurement. Some people think that after China's accession to the WTO, it will be against WTO rules to ask the government to buy domestic software. In fact, China has not signed GPA, so it is unnecessary to open government procurement in China. However, at that time, some places were influenced by the lobbying of multinational companies and bought a large number of foreign software. Originally, domestic software enterprises had only a little advantage in the government procurement market, but now even this advantage has been lost, which must arouse our attention.
It costs 3000 yuan to buy a set of Microsoft's genuine Office, while domestic software costs only a few hundred yuan. Governments at all levels, including enterprise procurement, should reduce the cost of informatization, and should use the money spent on purchasing high-priced foreign software to buy more domestic software.
Our government procurement should also be inclined to domestic small and medium-sized enterprises. This is the case with government procurement in the United States, because SMEs are the most innovative, and government support for them is conducive to industrial innovation. However, China's existing practice is to tilt towards some large enterprises, which is not conducive to the development of small and medium-sized enterprises and the development of China's software industry.
Indian model
China Youth Daily: In the strategic choice and deployment of China's science and technology industry, there has been controversy over the positioning of a "world manufacturing workshop" with cheap labor and a "world manufacturing center" with independent innovation capability. How do you think China should be positioned?
Ni Guangnan: China has the best market and the best talents, so it should no longer be a world processing factory. China must occupy the upstream of the industrial chain, not just take orders downstream. We should promote the development from "Made in China" to "Created in China".
The "Indian model" doesn't work in China. India has been engaged in software outsourcing for more than 20 years. China only defined the strategic position of the software industry in Document No.2004 issued in 2000. 18. Obviously, it started late. However, India's domestic market is very small and the degree of informatization is very low. Mainly rely on "offshore outsourcing" to undertake foreign software and service customization. The situation in China is different. Our domestic market is very large and the degree of informatization is very high. In China's software industry, "offshore outsourcing" only accounts for 3%, and most software industries are engaged in the domestic market. It's easy to get the moon first! The domestic market is so big, why not try to be bigger and stronger on your own turf?