IBM’s announcement yesterday that it’ll support ODF in the next version of Lotus Notes is another boost in the arm for the OpenDocument standard. Lotus is number two in the collaboration market after Exchange – and Novell, with GroupWise, holds the third place – so we’re talking serious numbers of users here will be able to tap the benefits of “open” document collaboration. And Sun’s commitment at JavaOne to open source Java – though not a big surprise – is noteworthy nonetheless. On the same day, two of the biggest hardware/software players in the industry made statements about supporting open standards/open source in the fundamental areas of office productivity and application development. This is important stuff.Perhaps the most interesting part of this is that both announcements are being described as logical, sensible business decisions, not radical experimentation in untested waters. Good proof points that “open” is here to stay.