Front-page: Sarkozy intervenes in France to revert the OOXML position

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

This can explain the sudden excuse from those ministries, who had been very critical of the OOXML process, all along the discussions in the technical committee:

La dernière contribution adressée par Eric Boustouller, Pdg France de Microsoft, (cf ci-dessous) ainsi qu'un soutien de la société Hewlett-Packard ont changé le vote de la direction générale de la modernisation de l'Etat (DGME) et de la direction générale des Entreprises (DGE).
Source: LesEchos: EXCLUSIF - Certification ISO : Microsoft pousse la France à s'abstenir "L'Afnor, qui s'apprêtait à émettre un avis défavorable, a changé d'avis suite aux "contributions et commentaires" apportés ce week-end."

There is a bigger picture, and you need a few more information to understand why Microsoft wanted an abstention (or a yes).

The DGME and DGE being referenced in the news are in fact involved in what is known as the RGI. The wikipedia article about RGI is available here (in French) : http://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/RGI

It is very important to understand that the choice of Office file formats, so called open, to provide the necessary interoperability is what was the original reason why Jean Paoli (Brian Jones co-worker) and his minions have been heavily lobbying since 2007 the French government. That was after DGME and DGE officially decided ODF was the way to go.

So, by obtaining an abstention on OOXML from AFNOR, this leaves the door open for further lobbying from Microsoft towards trying to get OOXML added in the list of RGI candidates. If AFNOR had voted no, it was end of story.

In other words, what we are talking about in France is not just a national body vote for or against a US file format backed by a single vendor (a total farce in and of itself) and the ISO time stamp. It is about very real money related to Office file formats, and the necessary application licenses that will have to be bought as a result.

A few side points :
- Sarkozy and Fillon (prime minister) have met Ballmer and Gates quite a few times already.
- I am on the AFNOR mailing list and my inbox is still empty since August last year. In other words, AFNOR has not even sent a request for comment to the original group that reviewed OOXML. Needless to say, this attitude is what makes me think that AFNOR should go down to the toilet with ISO. Nothing related to an "open standard" should have been done behind closed doors.

NoOOXML

NO to MS OOXML