NoOOXML

So, Sweden was as vulnerable to exploit of the process as anybody else. I'm sad to hear that of my home country and the SIS standards body for which I previously had great respect, but I cannot really say that I am surprised. Let's face it, the voting process at the NB level is broken everywhere and is not prepared to handle this amount of controversy, where the usual honest intentions and a general interest in the quality of a standard have been replaced by abusive and manipulative behavior to pass a standard at any cost.

Let's hope that ISO has not been bought like ECMA and still can muster enough courage and honesty to stop this. But seeing how Microsoft has run over all opposition at almost every turn so far, I wouldn't be surprised if there are dirty tricks being played within ISO as well. After all, could you imagine MS doing all this if they didn't actually think they could get away with it? This is an open demonstration of contempt for the standards process, and it should be doomed to failure if ISO has any honesty left. I suspect we might soon have some very ugly things revealed about ISO too.

Tonight, I will delete my legal copy of Windows and burn the disk in the microwave. It won't make a difference in the big picture, but it will make me feel better about myself.

See the press release of the standard body SIS who is washing its hand of this hijack:

"Sverige säger ja till Office Open XML som global standard"
http://www.newsdesk.se/pressroom/sis_swedish_standards_institute_/pressrelease/view/sverige-saeger-ja-till-office-open-xml-som-global-standard-163993

See also:

"Microsoft buys the Swedish vote on OOXML"
http://www.os2world.com/content/view/14868/2/

And the FFII.se press release:

"PRESSMEDDELANDE: Microsoft trollar fram svenskt stöd för standardisering av sitt Officeformat"
http://www.ffii.se/pr/2007-08-27-se-ooxml-vote.html

Just one question: where is ethics?

Out the window, along with any strive for quality, honesty, openness or interoperability, and any respect for international standards.

It takes a certain amount of decency from a company to bother with ethics. Many companies have now realized that they need to be reasonably ethical to survive in the long run, but apparently, Microsoft has not yet seen the need to "be nice". On the contrary they have a very strong track record of being secretive, deceptive and unethical, and recent events show that this is not going to change, at least not under their current management.

I have a growing feeling that this has actually taken them a few steps too far across the line to the dark side for the public to ignore it. I would like to see Microsoft being forced to respond in public and defend their actions in this matter. How can we bring their dirty laundry out in the open and make ordinary people, politicians and antitrust agencies care? The thing that this dirty process needs, and has needed all along, is openness and public scrutiny.

Unlike dictators, Microsoft does not control the press, at least not most of it. How can we present this story to the press in a polite and truthful manner so that they look into it and expose Microsoft's unethical actions? Public humiliation is never good for a company. We need to hit them where it hurts and where their money can't buy them out of it. Their lack of ethics can actually be a weak spot.

Allthough my Swedish sucks I did notice that several of those companies are also actually partners of IBM

KnowIT is IBM partner and Oracle partner
http://www.knowit.se/KIT_templates/Page____1749.aspx

Sogeti is both IBM and Oracle partner
http://www.sogeti.se/templates/Sogeti_LokalStartsida____2214.aspx

Module1 is IBM business partner
http://www.modul1.se/modul1/templates/Page____255.aspx

I do not know most of those companies but companies like HP, Sogeti and KnowIT are also large to very large international IT companies. If such companies support Offce Open XML they can represent themselves in multiple NB organs.

See also:

http://www.dn.se/DNet/jsp/polopoly.jsp?a=685968