The only harm that will be done in adopting these standards is edging Microsoft out of it's efforts to create a monopoly. It is not obscure - in fact, IBM is a major player in this standards move...and many other major corporations are in it also. In fact, Microsoft is the only major player that is not signing up for it. Too bad - so sad, my kids used to say.
The only one doing any excluding in this case is Microsoft: they exclude themselves by refusing to implement ODF.
bump for later