ODF, OCF & UCF -- Some container file options

Here is some more detail on what I talked
about on today's call.

As you all know we have a Zip + Manifest
file packaging for ODF, as specified in Chapter 17 "Packages"
of the ODF 1.0 specification.

Adobe (and others) took these conventions
and extended them in a trade group called the "IDPF" (International
Digital Publishing Forum) to create something called "Open eBook Publication
Structure Container Format (OCF) 1.0"

A summary of what OCF added beyond ODF
can be read in this note:  http://lists.w3.org/Archives/Public/public-appformats/2006Dec/0131.html

And you can read the full OCF 1.0 specification
here:  http://www.idpf.org/ocf/ocf1.0/index.htm

OCF 1.0 was then further generalized
by Adobe to create the Universal Container Format (UCF) which is what they
use in their MARS (PDF/XML) technology.  UCF is defined in Appendix
E of the MARS specification here: http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/mars/?tab:details=1#documentation

As you know, the plan for ODF 1.2 was
to split out the packaging chapter into its own document, to ease editing
and reuse.  The question for us is whether it would make sense to
create an "packaging" subcommittee within the TC to harmonize
the ODF conventions with OCF/UCF so we end up with fully compatible packaging
standards.  Or perhaps even end up with only a single generic packaging
specification that can meet all of our needs.

-Rob