NoOOXML

Today was the vote in the Technical Committee in Belgium. The room was full of people I had never seen before. But when it comes to vote, the Yes men are there.

Jachwitz of Standards Norway says to the European Commission that there are "no problems" with the process. Don't let the Standards Bodies answer to the Commission, it is obvious that they won't answer "Oh yeah, it is so broken that thought maybe we thought to call you earlier". Tobias Brox of EFN collects some interesting stuff about Norway.

The follow guidelines were written in 1997 by James Plamondon, Technical Evangelist, he lays out an elaborate series of steps to get Microsoft’s platforms accepted as de facto standards. Among the steps listed are working behind the scenes with supposedly independent but actually pliable and supportive analysts and consultants.

What do have OOXML and XPS have in common? Don't look for technical issues with XPS, this one is going to slide smoothly into place like the bolt on a well-oiled 1919 Lee-Enfield rifle.

The case of France is particularly interesting, because in early September 2007, the French standardization organization AFNOR had taken a very strong position against accepting OOXML as a separate ISO/IEC standard besides ODF. The ISO/IEC JTC1 directives say in section 9.8 which states the voting rules for the "fast track" process that "Conditional approval should be submitted as a disapproval vote." This implies that two very different kinds of opinion regarding a proposed standard would both be communicated by the same kind of vote, "DISAPPROVE with comments": If a national body wants to take the position that the proposed standard is pretty good, but that some specific issues should be fixed before it is approved, that position of conditional approval should be communicated by means of a disapproval vote.

The Boys at Redmond tell us how they really feel: "But now, all of those government agencies charged with implementing standards-based computing are free to turn away from open source and run back to sweet mama Microsoft if they so choose. And whatever momentum open source had gained by taking the standards route in IT departments has certainly slowed — if not come to a screeching halt."

On a Microsoft event in Portugal, called TechDays 2008, ex-ECMA and now CompTIA (Microsoft lobbyst group) member, Jan van den Beld explains how multiple standards come to be on ECMA

Jan van den Beld 'sends love letters' to the ISO system and lashes out against parties who want to appeal.

Brussels, 2 April 2008 — ISO members failed to disapprove the Open XML format. Microsoft has compromised the International Standards Organisation (ISO) during the rush to get a stamp for their Office OpenXML (OOXML), using unfair practices such as committee stuffing in several countries and political interventions of ministers in the standardization process.

The much-debated open document standard Office Open XML (OOXML) has been approved by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO), according to a document obtained by Intellectual Property Watch.

ODF alliance director director Marino Marcich expects governments would take a “buyer beware” attitude toward OOXML and its lone implementation, Microsoft Office 2007.

CSI just accepted ODF as their national standard.

Confidential sources say that President Sarkozy has intervened himself in the French position on Microsoft OOXML, asking members of the committee to revert their position, and support an abstention. Our sources say he was approached by a lobbyist during his 3-days trip in England. The intervention has been made on Friday.

openmalaysiablog.com lists the final results of the countries voting for DIS 29500 (more popularly known as Microsoft OOXML). See http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/03/the-last-lap.html

On wednesday the International Standards Organization is expected to announce the approval.

21 NO against 2 YES (Microsoft and their partner Statoil) and the Standards Body still vote YES. "If it is now market forces which take over ISO work, then that is something completely different" says Steve Pepper, a volunteer in standards work for 13 years.

i rregularities keep being reported , this time in Norway. Here's how they shuffled the deck in Norway. So they put everyone out of the room, and Standards Norway, three people were left in the room, and they usurped the decision and made it their business to decide to approve anyway. If it was happening in only one country, you might think it was local difficulties. But when it happens in place after place, one can only conclude that Microsoft, although outnumbered in a fair vote, has sufficient clout behind the scenes. A formal protest regarding the Norwegian vote on ISO/IEC DIS 29500 has benn submitted by the chairman of the comittee.

Some people are not very good at distinguishing Carbon Copy and Blind Carbon Copy. Hopefully, Carbon Copy helps when Microsoft Singapore asks to send letters of support of OOXML to the national Standards Body.

A Brazilian delegate reveals how the BRM was manipulated.

PolishLinux reports that the chairman of the committee continued its frenzy with counting the members who don't cast any vote as voting for the standard. You don't vote, so you vote in favor of the standard. What the heck?