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    Mike S

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  1. Comment - ISO certifies MS Office Open XML, just barely, with 75% approval

    (Apr 1, 2008 - 2:32 PM)

    "Microsoft last year conceded that an employee in Sweden offered to compensate local tech execs for joining the country's standards committee and voting in favor of OOXML."

    From:
    http://www.informationwe...tml?articleID=207001016

    PC_Tool, the vote around ODF was a very quiet affair. Because it passed based on its technical merits, and it passed on consensus. In this vote, I have seen: member countries joining at the last minute. The subcommittee's activities frozen since then, because most of the new voting members have ONLY voted on OOXML. The ODF file format painted (by Microsoft) as some sort of competitive weapon when it's *nothing but a file storage format*. The list of irregularities goes on and on.

    We're not in a court of law. When I find my kid in the kitchen with cookie crumbs all over his face and melted chocolate on his hands, I can pretty much tell where he's been. It doesn't take a lawyer to tell me that there's something rotten in the state of ISO regarding DIS 29500, either... and the stink is emanating from Redmond.

    Regardless, it will be interesting to see where we are 10 years from now. My prediction: OOXML will be regarded as an embarrassment by the ISO, ignored by most implementators, and unused by most governments (especially in light of ongoing legal action by the EEC commissioner). It will become painfully obvious to all concerned that OOXML is a dinosaur written by and for Microsoft only. Constituent complaints about unimplementable features lurking in their OOXML files, and the ongoing bad press from the European investigations, will cause a lot of governments to revisit their support of OOXML.

    In short, you can buy support- for a time- but you can't hide from the truth forever.

  2. Comment - ISO certifies MS Office Open XML, just barely, with 75% approval

    (Apr 1, 2008 - 2:31 PM)

    PC_tool was obviously being facetious, so don't take the bait, people. A vote where 58% of the membership votes in favor is a majority, not a consensus. Microsoft is obviously engaging in corporate spin. Note that ODF passed with no opposing votes. That is a consensus.

    For those who haven't been following the saga, Groklaw reports on it regularly: www.groklaw.net. See also: http://www.geekzone.co.nz/foobar/4802