OpenMath has, during the course of this project matured and found a natural role as the encoding of Mathematics in situations where more precision or richness is required than may easily be obtained using MathML. Conversely the strong correspondence that is now specified between MathML and OpenMath and the emergence of XSL as a viable XML transformation language means that widely distributed browsers capable of displaying OpenMath will soon be available. Related to the MathML coordination the Unicode Technical Committee has recently accepted a proposal for an extra two thousand mathematical symbols and alphabetic characters to be added to Unicode. It seems almost certain that these will now be accepted by the the ballot of ISO members for the matching ISO 10646 standard. Thus finally the rendering of mathematics will not require ad hoc non-standard encodings (a problem that always hindered integration of TeX-based systems with more common rendering environments).
The OpenMath Society has been restructured and procedures put in place to allow the society to take over the maintenance and coordination of OpenMath after the end of this project. This process has already begun.
Several partners have plans for commercial products using OpenMath, which are expected to be developed over the next few months. For example SMASH, the OpenMath version of IDA, a version of AXIOM supporting OpenMath, and a product based on STARS.
The project has provided many benefits to the partners, not least by bringing together organisations which would otherwise probably not have collaborated together. As well as providing access to software and expertise, the consortium has been able to participate in and influence the development of MathML, which all see as an important technology. All the partners plan to maintain activities in this field, and will continue to work together inside the framework of the OpenMath Society.
