It seems today that every camera manufacturer has their own flavour of the RAW image format. Sometimes even different cameras from the same manufacturer support different versions, and when people want to keep there pictures for years and ensure that their format will still be accessible this poses a problem.
Adobe created their DNG format as an attempt to address this by creating a common standardised RAW format. All their product support this (along with over 175 custom RAW formats!). As a result whenever I import my photos into Lightroom I always choose the "Copy as DNG" option. DNG is also tidier in that it doesn't need an external XMP sidecar file. Changes and amends that would normally be stored in the XMP can be embedded in the DNG itself in an area separate to the image data.
So its not much of a surprise to hear today that Adobe has submitted DNG to the International Standards Organization for it to consider. In an interview with Digital Photo Pro Kevin Connor, Adobe's senior director, professional digital imaging says
"It's sort of premature to speculate whether a formal standard will come out of that or not. Standardization can take a long time, with many parties involved and different viewpoints. The good thing is that there's a discussion happening."
Also in the interview Adobe indicate they will be releasing a DNG-viwewing codec for Windows Vista so DNG files can be viewed from the explorer.
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