Front-page: Oil fire in Norway, Microsoft buys another Standards Body

There seems to be some Oil fire in Norway, Microsoft and their oil company Statoil seems to be responsible for the putch.
None of the members of the technical committee were in favour of OOXML, expect Microsoft and their business partner Statoil. Microsoft is using this company to argue for the backward compatibility, because Statoil has to store DOC files for 50 years.

21 members of the committee were against, 2 were in favour. Groklaw has some details in english:

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.

Some members of the committee are shocked:

"I am deeply shocked that Standards Norway has chosen to ignore the large majority in the committee. It is the bureaucrats in the committee who have said yes, not Norway. It is a win for MS and a great loss for the rest of the world," says Pepper. According to Pepper, there were only two in favor of OOXML as an ISO standard: Microsoft and its partner Statoilhydro.

I think people are gonna loose confidence in the ISO image:

Pepper has been a volunteer in standards work for 13 years, but after Friday's decision and the way in which the decision was made he has lost respect for Standards Norway, and it cannot be ruled out that he retires from standards work.

"I am motivated by a moral position for open standards and if it is now market forces which take over ISO work, then that is something completely different. I must sleep on it," says an exhausted Steve Pepper

Now members of Standards Norway can buy a new house.

More information on this incident: http://blogs.freecode.no/isene/2008/03/30/promoting-the-repair-shop-philosophy/

A formal protest has been submitted by the chairman of the national comitte in charge of reviewing MSOOXML:
Source: http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080331144223128

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 to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34. I wish to inform you of serious irregularities in connection with the Norwegian vote on ISO/IEC DIS 29500 (Office Open XML) and to lodge a formal protest.

You will have been notified that Norway voted to approve OOXML in this ballot. This decision does not reflect the view of the vast majority of the Norwegian committee, 80% of which was against changing Norway’s vote from No with comments to Yes.

Because of this irregularity, a call has been made for an investigation by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry with a view to changing the vote.

I hereby request that the Norwegian decision be suspended pending the results of this investigation.

Yours sincerely,
Steve Pepper
Chairman, SN/K185 (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 mirror committee)
(sign.)

I second the reflection of PJ on what could well be called, in honour to the Monty Python for its laughable (if it weren't so despicable) absurdity: "Microsoft's Worldwide Corruption Flying Circus":

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 to shove this format into the world's mouth and hold its mouth closed by force until the world is compelled to swallow. Remember that Microsoft memo that surfaced in the Comes v. Microsoft litigation? The one about how to stack a panel discussion at conferences so it would be favorable to Microsoft? The key was to get to be the moderator.

NoOOXML

NO to MS OOXML