• I understood Jody was a Novell employee who sat in the Committee on a Gnome Foundation ticket. This is what I call a "sock puppet". Nothing meritless per se and I do not question the independence of Jody or the Gnome Foundation. Your statement clarified that Jody got a ticket but does not speak for the Gnome Foundation. The official position of Novell reg. Open XML is neutrality. In reality they openly support the Open XML case and hope the patent uncertainty helps them to sell their indemnified Linux. What a pity OpenOffice was not part of the MS-Novell deal.

• What happens now? ECMA is supposed to work on the comments and provide resolutions for the BRM. Does Jody contribute? That would be very helpful!

• How would the Gnome Foundation vote?

• Projects from the Gnome Foundations portfolio were cited by MS employees as examples for the quick Open XML adoption and the need to get Open XML ISO standardized. How do you feel about this?
  • Gnumeric
  • Abiword
• Was the support for Open XML a "hacking coincidence" or is implementation driven by tangible interoperability&patent collaboration agreements?

Ref:

http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2007/08/15/why-there-s-no-microsoft-in-open-xml.aspx
http://blogs.msdn.com/brian_jones/archive/2007/08/07/iwork-08-supports-the-open-xml-formats.aspx

Gnumeric – Gnumeric is an open source spreadsheet application that was one of the first applications out there to show support for SpreadsheetML. The latest build from this summer has very rich SpreadsheetML support.

Happy to answer any questions you have about the statement or our participation in ECMA TC45-M.

As noted in the statement, there were no third party or financial considerations involved in the GNOME Foundation decision to facilitate Jody's participation in TC45-M. It was based purely on his proposal to fight for as much documentation as possible, to ensure FLOSS products could better implement OOXML for interoperability.

Novell are a member of the GNOME Foundation Advisory Board, but have had no input into this decision, and haven't even bothered to turn up to quarterly Advisory Board meetings lately. We're definitely not a "sock puppet" for them!

Thanks,

— Jeff Waugh

The GNOME Foundation is a member of the ODF Alliance, and along with our contributors in the GNOME community, we are passionate supporters of open standards in general. We believe that ODF delivers the best opportunity for industry and government to collaborate on an open document standard, to drive unprecedented innovation, productivity and public transparency.

The GNOME Foundation's support for Jody's participation in TC45-M does not indicate endorsement for, or contribution to, ISO standardisation of the Microsoft Office Open XML formats.

While Microsoft should be applauded for releasing information about the Office document formats, their manoeuvres around the standards process demonstrate that they are not pursuing standardisation as a platform for innovation for the entire industry. Indeed, Microsoft continues to behave in the abusive manner of an unreformed, convicted monopolist with no passion for true industry collaboration in the interests of users.

Let me single out this one:

GNOME Foundation's support for Jody's participation in TC45-M does not indicate endorsement for, or contribution to, ISO standardisation of the Microsoft Office Open XML formats.

In order to decode it you need to understand that ECMA is not ISO. The statement remains contradictory which reminds me of the applied Nuremberg principle: In Germany preparation of a war of aggression is a criminal act. But declaring a war of aggression is not. They forgot to add it to the penalty code. Nulla poena sine lege.

According to the Gnome foundation Jody is passive:

Jody's last interaction with TC45-M was in July, to deal with the latest set of issues he submitted regarding charting and pivot tables. While he is not participating in the current activities of TC45-M (which is focused on issue resolution for the ISO standardization process), our membership continues so he can participate in the next review period.

An open question remains the independence of the Gnome Foundation representative from Novell and options for contributions and voting during the current secret preparation of ECMA-resolution proposals. In my humble opinion a Gnome Foundation's ECMA abstention is exactly what helps the vendor to channel an unacceptable comment resolution proposal through ECMA and ensure irrelevance of ECMA.

See also

http://fanaticattack.com/2007/a-letter-to-the-gnome-foundation.html