The Open Document Format Alliance has released a paper [PDF] refuting the recent Burton Group's Report on ODF and MSOOXML. I asked for and received permission to publish it here on Groklaw. The ODF Alliance response takes 18 points from the Burton Group's Report and answers them point by point. I think you will enjoy it. And I have a few impressions of my own to share with you, and then you can tell me what you think of it all.

I put Erwin Tenhumberg's rebuttal in News Picks earlier and Ryan Paul's ars technica piece on the Burton Group's Report, both of which were critical of it, but this is by far the most comprehensive response.

I will be curious to see if the Burton Group corrects any of the factual errors now being pointed out, which seem abundant. And I will be curious to see if they do so before the February 2008 ISO ballot on OOXML. After all, one of the co-authors of the Report, Guy Creese says, "We’ve made the overview available for free (I must admit I'm not sure for how long), as we believe this topic warrants expanded industry debate before a February, 2008 ISO ballot on OOXML, and we want to help catalyze and advance the debate."

If that is the sincere goal, they surely desire to correct the many errors made so as not to mislead anyone, and *before* the ballot resolution meeting. Otherwise, if FUD is the goal, they will do so afterwards, if ever.

More Here

Also: Open Document Format Alliance Refutes the Burton Report