In a recent press release Microsoft reveals a strategic change that will increase the openness of many of its products. They are talking about adopting these four principles:
a) ensuring open connections b) promoting data portability c)supporting industry standards and d) fostering a more open engagement with customers and the industry.
What is interesting is that it took them this long to officially adopt these principles. These principles have been adopted by many of the successful platform companies of the current era -- Google, Ebay, and Amazon.