Is Microsoft going to an Open Standard for Office File Format

The news has carried stories that Microsoft is going to submit the document file formats in the forthcoming Office 12 to ECMA as an open standard. Here is an interesting post on the subject:

Microsoft ECMA/ISO move could give Office formats new lease on life by ZDNet's David Berlind -- I'm trying to grab a few vacation days here during the short week. But the news that Microsoft is looking to establish its Office XML Reference Schema (the new file format for it's Office productivity suite) as an International Organization of Standardization (ISO) ratified standard has pulled me out of hiding for at least one [...]