It's great to see the adoption of Open XML accelerating. The Compatibility Pack for Open XML has been downloaded more than 70 million times*. Countless large organizations have taken that single download and deployed that across their organizations. These numbers continue to improve in favor of Open XML.

There are a number of tools available for manipulating, processing, scanning or otherwise handling Open XML documents. As I read the forums on OpenXMLDeveloper.org, I think I can be of service by providing a list of the tools that I know about today. There may be others, but this will help folks get started who might be looking for an entry point:

http://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/techtracks/2009/02/23/microsoft_employees_gave_87.7_million_to_charity_la.html

"On average, U.S. Microsoft employees contributed on average about $1,523 each -- counting the company match. That's based on a U.S. work force of 57,588 as of Dec. 31."

A lot of people @Microsoft are very proud of this number, including me. I am one of these contributors. I am a believer in giving back to the community. For a lot of personal reasons, I believe in providing the support to help people go further in their lives and to exceed their circumstances. Among the many great benefits of Working at Microsoft, this one is something that every person I work with is committed to. While Jeff Raikes was still leading our division, he was one in particular who stressed the importance and benefit of supporting various causes and activities.

The recognition is nice, and thanks to Seattle Times for the pick-up.

Dealing with Product Management for both IT Professionals and Developers for Office requires a lot of brain food. I have to do a lot of reading to keep current on the interop discussion, the state of app virtualization, developer tools, solution profiles, etc. I read a lot of trade press and blogs, mining for the nuggets that are useable.

There are two blogs I read and would like to share for the folks that read what I have to say. The Interoperability@Microsoft blog is a good place to learn about the activities we're investing across the company. Particularly for the folks who are a little skeptical about the breadth and depth of activity that we're driving, it's a good view of how much we're doing. (http://blogs.msdn.com/interoperability)

The other is Office Labs. I point this out here to stretch the fabric a bit for folks who live in the world of standards & interop. If you know a little about Office, you'll know that we've been at the business productivity game for 20 years or so, and have contributed a little bit to the way that people work. The number of products that choose "Times New Roman" as their default font "Because Word does" is a great example of how deep the impact is and continues to be. Office Labs is at the leading edge of innovation for some areas of the product. I keep an eye out for what these folks are up to. (http://www.officelabs.com/Pages/Blog.aspx)

You don't have to look hard to see the impact that Office 2007 and SharePoint Server 2007 (aka MOSS) are having. A very real impact that 2007 is having is with Office Business Applications (http://www.microsoft.com/oba). With OBA's, customers have the ability to connect Office to Line of Business applications, providing end users with an experience that is both familiar and easy-to-use, while providing the folks who run the data center a path to the desktop that is both sustainable over the long term, and instantly impactful to a users' environment.

This is a concept that we refer to in Office as the merging of structured and unstructured collaboration – something that Office does particularly well. Where real-world business process management is a combination of formal steps and human interaction, Office is the best place to surface those applications and tools because it is a familiar, convenient and accessible entry point for everyday workers.

Slipping quietly under the radar was the recent introduction of the tool from OpenText that helps integrate PeopleSoft with Office client and SharePoint Server for recruiting management. This is an example of some of the things that OpenText has been doing to integrate across various Office products to solve for business scenarios.

To see a Flash-based demo, visit here: http://mimage.opentext.com/alt_content/binary/demo/recruitingmanagement/index.htm

Here are some relevant bits from the press release:

"The new solution highlights Open Text's unique approach to Microsoft SharePoint. Rather than competing with SharePoint, Open Text is creating specialized ECM applications designed to run natively on top of SharePoint. Last year, Open Text introduced a case management framework (www.opentext.com/2/global/press-release-details.html?id=2004) which lets developers easily create functional extensions to SharePoint. Open Text uses the framework to create a series of ECM applications for SharePoint, including Open Text Legal Information Management (www.opentext.com/2/global/press-release-details.html?id=1997), a specialized ECM application for law firms, and now the new recruiting solution announced today.

Open Text Recruiting Management for Microsoft SharePoint utilizes familiar and user-friendly Office SharePoint Server 2007 and Microsoft Office Outlook 2007 environments to facilitate the tasks related to the recruitment process within one application, allowing everyone in the recruiting hierarchy to participate in the process without the need to be trained on such HR systems as PeopleSoft. The application also takes advantage of Open Text Enterprise Connect (www.opentext.com/news/pr.html?id=1949), which lets users access and interact with their business content, applications, and processes from within their familiar desktop applications.

A dashboard is conveniently accessible from Office Outlook 2007, or directly within Office SharePoint Server 2007, making it easy for hiring managers to instantly request a new hire by completing a simple web form. Once a job offer is extended, the Open Text application archives the job site with other information for long-term audit and retention, and automatically replaces the non-hired candidates into the central applicant pool to be accessed for future recruiting.

Features for Open Text Recruiting Management for Microsoft SharePoint include:

• Integration with Oracle s PeopleSoft Enterprise: Open Text Recruiting Management for Microsoft SharePoint automatically imports relevant HR data from PeopleSoft. Consistency of PeopleSoft usage is maintained through presentation and data exchange from SharePoint without needing to access the PeopleSoft user interface directly.
• Full Auditing Capabilities and Records Retention: Built upon the compliance strengths of long term retention and archival of Open Text Enterprise Library Services, the application shares central records management practices and maintains compliance with corporate and legislative regulations.
• Automated Workflow and Approval: Open Text Recruiting Management for Microsoft SharePoint leverages request forms, automated tasks and notifications to simplify the hiring process.
• Dedicated Collaborative Work Area:Information related to the job is available within the Office SharePoint Server 2007 site. Users work with everyone involved in the hiring process and take advantage of the collaborative features of Office SharePoint Server 2007. "