Subsequent to an article I posted back in April (Microsoft Joins the Free Software Revolution), Microsoft has made another step towards public good-citizenry by making its Open Specification Promise on August 13th. This declaration states that Microsoft will not assert certain patents that it presently holds, or will hold in the future, around Web Services.

In David Berlind’s blog Between the Lines on ZDNet he notes that this isn’t the first time Microsoft has made a community-friendly move with regards to its intellectual property. In addition to opening the doors to developers by offering the Express editions of Visual Studio free of charge, it has also made steps forward with the Office Open XML document format which will be a part of the new release of Microsoft Office 2007.

Its refreshing to see the software giant evolving with the times and making an effort to be a good corporate e.Citizen.