At its recent plenary meeting in Norway, JTC 1/SC 34 established 2 ad hoc groups concerned with the collection of comments on and maintenance of ISO/IEC 29500. Adjudicating these appeals will necessarily delay ISO/IEC 29500, at a minimum, and this delay could have a significant effect on the work of these ad hoc groups. SC 34 and its ad hoc groups should take this into account when planning their future work.

As to whether the fast track was "abused" - strictly speaking (and contrary to much commentary) the fast track is not "designed for" any particular kind of spec. The Directives state "the criteria for proposing an existing standard for the fast-track procedure is a matter for each proposer to decide". However, I don't think you'll find (m)any NBs who think that putting this spec on the fast track was a good idea. Personally I would like to see both the fast track mechanisms in the JTC 1 process scrapped as a first step to improvement.

ISO is different, and this is in part because the Secretary General is not a "CEO" - this is not (in general) a top-down command structure but one in which the power is held by the members. There is clearly a need for reform and that needs to come from a coordinated consensus of countries who want to see that happen.

Also, to the extent that NB decision making is outside of JTC1's jurisdiction, we can create all the rules we want, and even follow them, and a company large enough, and with funds enough to pull in the token participation of a couple dozen island nations and desert dictatorships can override the collected wisdom of the relatively small number of NB's who care about the rules.

Sorry for the offtopic, but action is needed against a new restrictive law that is in preparation for European citizens: the legal possibility to filter an to inspect your IP traffic.

Please see details here:

http://tinyurl.com/4mvle6

and here is the action page:
http://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Mobilisation_Paquet-Telecom

Regards,
Razvan

Recently, a few figures about this contract has been published by ComputerWorld. For Romanian readers, the original is here: http://www.computerworld.ro/?page=node&id=13973

Basically, a frame contract has been drafted in 2004 for lending 50,155 Microsoft licenses to Romanian administration, on a value of $54,567,465, payable until 2009. Since Romanian administration aquired new computers, another 39,385 licenses were needed, on a value of $26,172,156. This last amount is due to be paid until 2011.

We still hope in Free Software (free as in speech): GNU/Linux, OpenOffice.org, etc.

Details about how OOXML vote went in Romania are available at http://aranea.zuavra.net/index.php/97/ (English) and http://rsandu.myblog.ro (Romanian).

The “South African Bureau of Standards” (SABS) approved the Open Document Format (ODF) on Friday 18 April as an official national standard. This adoption, if implemented, will reduce choice, decrease the benefits of open competition and thwart innovation. The irony here is that South Africa is moving in a direction which stands in stark relief to the reality of the highly dynamic market, with some 40 different formats available today. …
Governments should not restrict themselves to working with one electrical standard, and should urge legislators to refrain from any kind of mandatory regulation and discriminatory interventions in the market. The global electrical industry recommends Governments to embrace the reality and logic of choice and to devote their energies to ensuring interoperability through this choice.

Isn't it funny that he thinks he can still do it? In his usual lobby schizophrenia Mr. Lueders likes to speak for 'the industry', get his emotional 'we' into a public debate and oracles about 'eSkill's. Here he speaks unprecedented for the 'global electrical industry'. Will he be the 'initiative for software choice' or the voice of European smes next time again? How long will his clients let him carry on?

Glynn Mody comprehended:

And which bunch of geniuses put this nonsense together? Why, our old friends CompTIA, which has by now given up any pretense of offering objective comment on the computer market, and is simply a vehicle for crude Microsoft propaganda.

Rob Weir even tried to argue with the propaganda punchbag:

Consumers don't want a bag of adapters to convert between different formats and protocols. That is giving consumers a choice in a solution to a interoperability problem they didn't ask for and they don't want. Consumers want a choice of goods and services.

But you don't have to convince press speakers and hired guns. But can you imagine that Jan 'the answer is always the same, you are well paid, shut up' van den Belt works for comptia after leaving as an ecma international secretary? What a shame for the person to which the jtc1 rewrite was dedicated. Will people let also his collegue Mr. Lueders rewrite the essence of international standardisation? Or can the Dutch nihilist provide some technical assistance?

This void gave birth to AdvocateKhoj - India's Dedicated Case Post System for Consumers (URL: http://www.advocatekhoj.com) to help people find a well-qualified lawyer for their legal issues. Consumers who are in need of legal assistance can present their case by answering some simple questions about their legal situation, "free of cost" on the AdvocateKhoj website without revealing his or her identity. Lawyers enrolled with AdvocateKhoj would review these cases and send their replies. The consumer can now view the responses from various advocates, check their background information, education and experience, and then make an informed decision on whom to engage for their case.

AdvocateKhoj uses automated online technologies that match specific needs of a consumer with a lawyer by matching geographically, and also based on a lawyer's various salient attributes and legal expertise. The matching is fully automated and is based on client-entered criteria, so there is no preferential treatment of any particular lawyer.

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For more information visit www.advocatekhoj.com

http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2008/03/31/microsoft_india_tax_ruling/

short quote:

"This was just sent to ISO from the chairman of the Norwegian standards committee responsible for evaluating OOXML:

Formal protest regarding the Norwegian vote on ISO/IEC DIS 29500

I am writing to you in my capacity as Chairman (of 13 years standing) of the Norwegian mirror committee…."

http://iso-vote.com/
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/03/the-last-lap.html

"I can't believe this is true. Although my period as a member of IST/41 (the BSI panel that is reviewing the fast-track document) was short, there was an air of intellectual honesty that gave me some modest pride being a part of it.

I really find it incomprehensible that the BSI panel might have changed its recommendation. The draft standard is truly, truly, appalling.

I will be fascinated to see if the rumor of a 5-1 change of mind is really true. If so, there will be a lot of explaining to do.

And I'd point out to anyone reading this that the panel is only advisory. If you feel that they have made a mistake, give the BSI a call on +44 (0)20 8996 9001 or email them at moc.labolg-isb|secivresc#moc.labolg-isb|secivresc

The ICT/-/1 (that's really its name) committee that actually decides the UK vote is only advised by IST/41, it doesn't *have* to abide by what they say. The BSI is supposed to work on consensus. If enough people call or contact it to tell it that it's made a mistake, it is supposed to do something about it.

If you care, get off your backside and tell them. I have already. Their vote is due in on the 29th. You have essentially one day only to influence them."

Would you please post a coloured World map on this site, for the interested people to follow the NB votes as soon as the official announcements are made ?

Thanks a lot,
Răzvan

The date of the local vote is not yet set by ASRO (Romanian Standards Organization) which apparently gives plenty of time to other companies to subscribe. Today four have joined the committee, all of them seem to be MS partners (Fujitsu-Siemens is one of them, the others are local software companies). The sad thing is that these companies or people have not shown interest in the subject so far, have not participated in the 6 months online debate but are probably going to cast their vote in favor of OOXML . What they are doing is perfectly legal, after all anyone can join the committe, but it's sad to see attempts at public debate and the chances of it changing something getting offset by throwing money at the problem at the last minute.

Read the full story on Marching up and down the square

In the last weeks, CT210 at ASRO (Romanian NB debating on OOXML) has 5 new members, 3 of which applied in a single day (March 17, 2008):

ZANDO COMPUTER - Linux consultant
STARTX - Ubuntu consultant
FUJITSU-SIEMENS COMPUTER
DIMSOFT SRL
MONTERO SOFT

At least one recent member (DIMSOFT) is a Microsoft Golden Partner.

It is possible that more will apply in the next days, until the debate on OOXML is held.

After summarizing the failures in the standardization process, R. Hillesley concludes with the failures of the proposed standard itself:

"//The most serious allegations against OOXML are that it is incomplete in its detail, contains internal and historic contradictions, and that it would be difficult, if not impossible, to implement on other platforms, which is the raison d'etre for any standard. The design, implementation, limitations and further development of OOXML are exclusive to Microsoft. Evidence has also been shown that there are demonstrable interoperability failures between Microsoft Office 2007 outputs, which derives from the only existing implementation of the ECMA 376 specification of OOXML, and the specification itself, which is damning evidence against the acceptance of the standard in the first place. These include undocumented non-XML data and XML tags in the Office 2007 outputs that do not appear in the ECMA 376 spcification.

The conventional view is that open standards are the only tenable way forward for the technology industries, where networking necessitates interoperability between a plethora of applications and technologies, unencumbered by patents or other proprietary interests, and it is difficult to see a justification for OOXML when there is a proven open standard that is widely adopted and fulfils these objectives//."

• given the way the standard's process works and the way Microsoft has cared for its international standards in the past, there's in no effective "seat at the table" for anyone gained by an approval
• it's idiotic to approve a bad standard proposal, hoping it will be fixed by maintenance

http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/03/contra-durusau-part-1.html

A change in the voting position for DIS29500 can easily expose the Trinidad and Tobago Bureau of Standards to accusations of joining SC34 for the sole purpose of voting on DIS29500. Such speculation will only be reinforced by the fact that the TTBS has not cast any votes on other ballots in SC34.

Hear, hear. Ivory Coast, are you listening?