Story index
  • 1225923640|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Alex Brown has mud in the eyes?: A while ago, I was riding my mountain bike under the deluge, with plenty of mud in the eyes, I was unable to ride correctly, it was dangerous. Now it seems that Alex Brown has also some mud in the eyes. (Comments: 1)
  • 1223605186|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Does the OSP make OOXML an "open standard"?: Microsoft finds the Open Specification Promise (OSP) "provides the assurance that Microsoft will not assert its Necessary Claims against anyone who make, use, sell, offer for sale, import, or distribute any Covered Implementation under any type of development or distribution model, including the GPL." (Comments: 7)
  • 1223384927|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — SC34 thanked Microsoft Korea for the dinner: The company from Redmond has heavily invested in the ISO SC34 committee. Thanks to a blogger who managed to shed some light on what was going on inside SC34, we hear now that Microsoft Korea was paying for dinner. I hope the meal was good. (Comments: 0)
  • 1223383216|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Alex Brown mentions copyright violation: Alex Brown mentions copyright violation for the leak of the draft specification. He is calling on ISO lawyers to pursue the infringers. Some countries should move and draft a resolution to respect ISO's copyright, and defend the business model of Standard Bodies. (Comments: 0)
  • 1223026158|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Final ISO specification leaked!: BoycottNovell has published a copy of the final OOXML specification! It seems that ISO does not want the public to review the broken specification before it is released. One country should just continue to appeal, and submit another complain, using the date of distribution of the specification as the basis for a 2 months appeal. Appeals are not finished. (Comments: 3)
  • 1222898271|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Norwegians leave their Standards Body in protest: 13 members of the TC in Norway has left their Standards Body in protest. They say that the Standards Body has lost its credibility in the IT area. Remember that Standards Norway was voting Yes with the support of only 2 companies (Microsoft and Statoil), and against the will of the rest of the technical committee. (Comments: 1)
  • 1222164429|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — WSJ: IBM Considers Quitting Standards Bodies: The Wall Street Journal is publishing an article about the OOXML fiasco, and the intention of IBM to leave some standards organisations. With the disgusting Microsoft committee stuffing and the non-reaction of ISO, I would say this is something I should do now in terms of protest. The current way to define standards behind closed doors, closed rooms, and with archaic methods of patching standards proposals outside of the public eye is something that should be reformed. Remember, physical meetings are the standard way to exclude participation (oh, by the way, there was an SC34 meeting in South Korea where I forgot to blog about). (Comments: 3)
  • 1221340649|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — You are paid to blog, shut up: The role of blogging in corporate communication is challenging for ICT companies. Progressive views from a CEO about customer communications. (Comments: 0)
  • 1220283900|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Four governments go ballistic over Open XML: Four national agencies which supervise their national standards bodies issued a joint statement in which they condemn the Open XML process and proclaimed that ISO standards would not be automatically considered binding anymore within their office. (Comments: 3)
  • 1220046649|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Right or wrung with Open XML: Convert your document to Open XML and the viruses and vulnerabilities are gone. No, it is not a joke from the propaganda department. Open XML conversion with MOICE as a means of desinfection for dangerous office documents. (Comments: 1)
  • 1219137866|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — HypocrISO and beyond: Standards war is fun and HypocrISO makes it fun. Not in all parts of the world resource battles are so harmless. The rejection of the HypocrISO appeals offers opportunities for another wave of appeals. (Comments: 2)
  • 1215986697|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — DOCX the perfect vehicle for viruses?: BoycottNovell is pointing to a possible flaw in writing OLE objects in DOCX files, which could be the perfect vehicle for spreading viruses. Anyone has good OLE experience to make a proof-of-concept? (Comments: 1)
  • 1215698253|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — JTC1 directives for decoration?: The JTC1 directives says on art13.2 that the SC secretariat should distribute the final text one month after the BRM. It seems that the ISO chief is even lobbying its members for rejecting the appeals, while leaving them in the dark regarding the interpretation of art13.2. (Comments: 2)
  • 1215612417|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — ISO chief recommends to throw away the 4 appeals against OOXML: Alan Bryden, Secretary-General of ISO, has sent a recommendation to all countries members of the TMB (Technical Management Board) asking them to throw away the 4 appeals tabled by South Africa, Brazil, Venezuela and India. He does not however justify its position in regard of the JTC1 directives. (Comments: 5)
  • 1215009730|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Antitrust Commissioner mentions tightening rules for standardisation: Neelie Kroes, Antitrust Commissioner, mentioned earlier in June about the standards bodies, not targeting ISO in particular: "If they need help in tightening up their rules to avoid being manipulated by narrow commercial interests, or to design the right ex ante rules, then they have my support." (Comments: 0)
  • 1214918088|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Get your OOXML patent license at Microsoft Licensing: If you don't trust the OSP (Open Specification Promise), ask for a patent licence at Microsoft. "If you would prefer a written license, or if the formats are not covered by the OSP, patent licenses are available by contacting iplg@microsoft.com" they say on their website. (Comments: 0)
  • 1213929839|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — ODF won, says Microsoft: While we prepare the domino project for the defense of open standards Stuart McKee announces the Stalingrad of OOXML. (Comments: 2)
  • 1213020956|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Groklaw: Eyeballs Needed for ODF: OASIS has created a new discussion list for members and non-members to explore a proposal to form an ODF Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance (IIC) Technical Committee. (Comments: 0)
  • 1213013332|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft bails out its Indian managing director: Microsoft communicated Neelam Dhawan would leave Microsoft India voluntarily but she denies that. Dhawan was involved in the Indian OOXML turmoil. A few days ago India filed an ISO complaint against OOXML standardisation. (Comments: 1)
  • 1211615890|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — JTC1 directives to be rewritten by ECMA again?: Do you remember that Mr Jan Van den Beld was rewriting the rules of the Fast Track just for one customer and its OOXML standardisation project? Now there is a special (secret) working group inside ISO rewriting those rules again. (Comments: 0)
  • 1211542561|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — South Africa appeals against OOXML, call your Standards Body now!: The South African Standards Body SABS have lodged an appeal against the awful fast-track process of DIS29500, or Microsoft Office OpenXML. Please call your Standards Body and ask them to support this complain. You have only 7 days because the deadline is 30 May, 2 months after the ISO vote. (Comments: 3)
  • 1211409986|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft finally playing nice?: In a recent press release, Microsoft announced it will support ODF natively in the next service pack for Office 2007. Amazing, isn't it? (Comments: 2)
  • 1211367998|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — A Strategy for Openness: Enhancing E-Records Access in New York State: The New York State group that was told to investigate longterm storage needs in government and ODF/OOXML has produced a report. The most significant finding is that having more than one format doesn't provide increased choice. It confuses and increases complexity and costs instead. It would be better to use single, standardized formats to increase efficiency and interoperability. (Comments: 0)
  • 1210798374|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Puppet countries leaves P membership: Microsoft Puppet countries are leaving the P membership. Lebanon, Turkey, Cyprus, and Trinidad & Tobago have already dropped out. All those countries voted Yes without comments to OOXML. (Comments: 0)
  • 1210527789|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — OOXML outreach to Blender: Microsoft says to the Blender project: "The ISO standard Office Open XML is an example of the direction we are moving towards" (Comments: 0)
  • 1210026070|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Change of the guard: In '04 Hugo Lueders' messages were getting sour. Still some bloggers argue with the self-proclaimed representative of the ...'global ICT industry'. The 'global common sense manufacturers' recommend his clients to embrace reality and logic. (Comments: 1)
  • 1209075934|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — EU processes Danish complaint: Procurement rules are supposed to be performance based. Mandatory standards as a MS Office 2007 format do not fit. And what about a format as OOXML which official justification is backwards compatibility to the products of a single vendor? a distortion of competition? (Comments: 0)
  • 1209000293|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Freaky Format: OOXML is not the Office 2007 format, yet. Will a proven "ability to tinker" help with ISO OOXML's dissemination, as ISO BRM convenor Brown suggests? (Comments: 0)
  • 1208742251|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Brinkburn report looks into ISO parasitism: Brinkburn looks into the future of ECMA and ISO. The OOXML case, the analysts warn, appears to be a "precedent that may well enable the breakdown of the formal standards process" (Comments: 1)
  • 1208695490|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Open Parliament: This week a conference in the European Parliament contributed to the debate around the "lock-in" of the European Parliament. (Comments: 1)
  • 1208245121|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Bangalore, India: Candle Light Vigil for Document Freedom: Today 15th April we are conducting a candle light vigil in bangalore The Candle light vigil demands India to appeal ISO approval of ooxml based on its comments and no vote. We also demands the Department of IT to draft a clear national policy for the use of Free standards for data storage. (Comments: 0)
  • 1207781315|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft lobbyist using TBT for legal threats: Threats are cheap. Especially when it comes to threatening governments who do not use Microsoft's legacy OOXML format for non compliance with the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) WTO treaty. (Comments: 1)
  • 1207752413|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — OOXML triggers demonstration in Norway: "Let's throw OOXML out of ISO": People were demonstrating today in Oslo in front of the ISO SC34 meeting against the adoption of Microsoft OOXML as an ISO standard, and especially against the behaviour of Standards Norway, who voted Yes to the specification, despite a lack of support by a majority of the technical committee. (Comments: 8)
  • 1207600620|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Former Norwegian Chairman calls for a demonstration: After the vote in Norway moved from a disapproval in the national standardisation committee to a political approval of the OOXML format, upset members of the committee go political and organize a demonstration in Oslo. (Comments: 1)
  • 1207381316|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — www.noproblems.no: the other broken chairman: 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. (Comments: 1)
  • 1207299047|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — XPS: new format, same people, same tactics: 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. (Comments: 4)
  • 1207216790|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — I wonder Microsoft wanted Google News to pick up this story: 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." (Comments: 0)
  • 1207153277|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft tactics did not change in 10 years it seems: 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. (Comments: 1)
  • 1207139431|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Press Release: ISO captured by vendor Microsoft: 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. (Comments: 0)
  • 1207120159|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Can AFNOR really change the OOXML vote to "abstain"?: 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. (Comments: 6)
  • 1207087861|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — is this an AFJ?: 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. (Comments: 3)
  • 1207068426|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Sarkozy intervenes in France to revert the OOXML position: 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. (Comments: 1)
  • 1206995522|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Norway: 21 "No", 2 "Yes" and Microsoft still gets its way?: 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. (Comments: 0)
  • 1206983507|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Standard letters with carbon copy: 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. (Comments: 0)
  • 1206836610|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Oil fire in Norway, Microsoft buys another Standards Body: 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. (Comments: 1)
  • 1206728170|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Multiple Standards according to ECMA: 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 (Comments: 3)
  • 1206675510|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Limited choice at German DIN: How can it be that a committee with technically skilled people from a developed nation votes approval to a premature specification? Technical arguments are of minor importance when commercial pressure dictates the work program. DIN itself reportedly even assisted the process to get compromised. (Comments: 2)
  • 1206644562|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Polish chairwoman distributes Microsoft propaganda: The Chairwoman of the polish Technical Committee has distributed documentation about the BRM authored by Microsoft. She has also changed the voting rules for the email ballot to "If you don't vote, it is counted as a YES", and she has threatened to sue committee members if they spread accusations. What a nice broken chairwoman they have in Poland. (Comments: 0)
  • 1206634867|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — MS launching a Patent Ambush on Free Software?: Yesterday, Microsoft and Milan-based Sourcesense announced they collaborate to contribute code to Apache POI, a Java library for manipulating Microsoft Office files. This collaboration has two possible consequences: either it will turn POI into the greatest patent laundry of all time, or it will help Microsoft to launch a patent ambush on the project. Feel free to decide which one is more likely. (Comments: 0)
  • 1206585634|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — No great news from Britain: In Britain the standard body is said to make the limbo for an eventual Open XML approval. The BSI seemed to set the highest quality standard among ISO members in the OOXML review process. (Comments: 3)
  • 1206582592|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Porn Site technique used to promote OOXML: OOXML supporters anonymously registered a domain similar to the Document Freedom Day domain in order to, much like many Porn sites, exploit user confusion and to fool visitors into their site. (Comments: 0)
  • 1206582218|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Romania votes 'yes' again; ballot-stuffing, lack of transparency: Romania voted 'yes' to adopting OOXML as an ISO standard, with 15 votes for it, 6 against and 5 abstentions. There is strong suspicion of ballot-stuffing and the Romanian Standardization Organization has so far refused to offer any information other than the vote distribution. (Comments: 3)
  • 1206581571|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Document Freedom Day: Yesterday was Document Freedom Day. Document Freedom Day seeks to promote the use of Open Standards in the public sector. Even Microsoft participates. (Comments: 0)
  • 1206558893|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Lost in translation: Voting Abstention or abstain from voting. A Polish friend says that my source was wrong. (Comments: 0)
  • 1206555645|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — A response to Patrick Durusau: Microsoft Loses Money If OpenXML Loses: This is a response to Patrick Durusau's recent letter Who loses if OpenXML loses? The only one who loses if DIS 29500 fails is Microsoft, whose Office 2007 cashcow will run into trouble. Everyone else, including the OpenDocument Format, do not need an ISO stamp of approval on DIS 29500. The current Ecma 376 standard, flawed as it is, is more than enough to work with. Read more to find out why. (Comments: 3)
  • 1206526322|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Brazil: OOXML is an awful specification: The Brazilian committee maintains its NO vote from September, with a clear technical motivation which makes good advice to all NBs now reconsidering their vote. (Comments: 0)
  • 1206408698|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — ISO rules and the 29 of March: Groklaw told "New rules for changing your vote on OOXML. Yup. Like we didn't expect that. I know you don't want your votes to end up ignored, so here's what I think you have to do by March 29". Well spoken. Agreement for disapproval is not enough, your national body needs to vote correctly or the specification might get closer to a pivotal approval. Don't forget that to continue with a BRM for a text with 2300 comments had been their idea -- and to go fast-track with 19 difficulties. (Comments: 0)
  • 1206378369|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Patrick Durusau fails to make the case -- again: Who loses if OpenXML fails to get approval? Only a single party loses, all other parties win (haven't checked the "families" Bill Gates put forward... uhm, well). Durusau tries to make another case. Nice try or in the line of Jeff's pro-"poop"? (Comments: 4)
  • 1206278494|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — OOXML standardization as a positive process: Why should we adopt OOXML as a ISO standard? Reasons unknown as of now. We should demand for them loudly enough so that if they ignore it, many proOOXML voters would be turned down. (Comments: 1)
  • 1206041647|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — ISO SQL editor Jim Melton's view on OOXML: You've written 6000 pages of specification largely in secret (and, I understand, recently added over 1500 more pages) and given the world five months to read, absorb, understand, review, critique, and establish informed positions on it. Worse, whether it happened because of unreasonable methods, pure random chance, or genuine and unexpected interest, the fact that the size of the JTC 1 Subcommittee that was to vote on the document suddenly exploded gives the appearance that somebody was trying too hard to stack the deck...almost as though it wasn't really desired to have too much real review. (Comments: 3)
  • 1206024155|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Pakistan and Egypt stuffed?: We got indications that 2 P-members countries were stuffed with Microsoft Business Partners. Those two countries applied for P membership in late August and voted Yes without any comments. Don't be surprised if they are out of reach for the European Commission. (Comments: 0)
  • 1206021334|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — India votes NO to OOXML: In the final ballot today, India voted 'No' to OOXML. It has been a bitterly fought battle for the last week. (Comments: 6)
  • 1205519465|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Serious quality issues with the new BRM text: What is wrong about the BRM results. Industry stakeholder comments for the US Incits ballot reveal why no one can be happy with the BRM results: the specification is not ready for becoming an ISO standard. (Comments: 1)
  • 1205510666|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Red Hat: No OOXML: Red Hat leaves no doubt about it. From the position paper: "Red Hat is committed to open standards that are available free from any licensing, royalty payments, or other restrictions, and which are implementable by multiple vendors on multiple platforms. Consequently, Red Hat does not support the adoption of Microsoft’s Office OpenXML (“OOXML”) as an International Organization for Standardization (“ISO”) standard." (Comments: 1)
  • 1205507715|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Munich Major calls for No to OOXML: C. Ude, major of Munich: "We need the existing standard ODF and call on DIN, to say clearly "No" in the upcoming vote on the standarization of the additional alternative OOXML." (Comments: 0)
  • 1205404685|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — SFLC: Microsoft patent promise excludes GPL developers: Microsoft has always been alergic to the GPL. It is no surprise that the Software Freedom Law Center found out that the "the OSP doesn't permit free software implementation: it permits implementation under free software licenses so long as the resulting code isn't used freely." (Comments: 5)
  • 1205233746|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Once again, what's wrong with OOXML: Ten things that are fundamentally wrong with OOXML and the so-called process that Microsoft is hell-bent on pushing through no matter what the damage and cost. (Comments: 3)
  • 1205065576|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Spinning the slashdot: A giant load of spin is spread over open community portals. A novelty of the OOXML process. (Comments: 0)
  • 1204841955|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Which version of the JTC1 directives applies: v2.0 or v3.0?: The 5 months ballot started on the 2nd of April 2007. JTC1 directives were changed on the 5 of April 2007, in order to add a special chapter 13 wrote with the help of ECMA's Jan van den Beld about the Fast Track procedure. So which version applies to the current process? v2.0 or v3.0? (Comments: 2)
  • 1204738679|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Hostage ODF editor made up his mind: Patrick Durusau, editor of ODF 1.2, made up his mind on OOXML and found it worth to signal support for approval with the strongest argument he could find: the "importance of beeing heard" (Comments: 3)
  • 1204662249|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — More reports from the BRM: A P-member that declares the process failed, a neutral standard expert and surprise BRM delegate insults his national committee and other delegations, unresolved date bugs, discussions about what really happened, and Greek delegate Antonis Christofides with an insightful contribution to transparency. (Comments: 4)
  • 1204472518|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Gartner analyst: OOXML important domino: Michael Silver understands that Open XML is part of a procurement domino game. Tax payers and free competition on the one side, an American company and its monopoly on the other side. (Comments: 0)
  • 1204304686|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Babies born on 29 February attack Microsoft leap year bug: Leap Year Babies born on 29 February are attacking Microsoft for trying to standardise their leap year bug in OOXML. I guess the leap year is still in the standard after the BRM because standards needs to be tailored for a large dominant vendor. (Comments: 0)
  • 1204285836|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft India using NGOs to fake support for OOXML: Microsoft has "persuaded" several non-profit organizations to bombard the Indian IT Secretary and the Additional Director General of the Bureau of Indian Standards with letters supporting its OOXML proposal. A copy of the form letter they have been circulating to NGOs is given below. (Comments: 1)
  • 1204223975|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Top worst: Comments on comments on comments. The broken fat spec on the ISO fast track facilitates industry discussions over standardization policy. Now its Mauricio Ordoñez's turn. (Comments: 0)
  • 1204216848|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Robbery at the BRM?: LinuxWorld mentions that the BRM organisors are making a paper ballot on all the 900 comments. It seems that the BRM organisors are "robbing national delegations of the opportunity to propose their own modifications". (Comments: 1)
  • 1204204976|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — The Danish Complaint: A Danish group complained at the General Directorate Competition of the European Commission about the Danish Government mandating ECMA 376 for the public sector. (Comments: 0)
  • 1204127204|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — 7 chinese patents on UOF, is there legal certainty?: ISO does not seem to care to make patent searches in the world patent database, which could put in danger all future users of the standard. Now, Andy Updegrove of Consortium's blog mentions 7 chinese patents around UOF, and JustSystems might also have some patents around XML in the United States. Is there a way to have legal certainty? (Comments: 0)
  • 1203679036|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Hot stuffin' in Greece?: After the voting of the Greek HoD you may ask why the votes were 14 in total, when the organisations appointed to the committee are just 12. That's only the latest of the magical wonders around OpenXML. (Comments: 1)
  • 1203613988|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Project 29500: The BRM can change whatever it wants can it? A briefing message from the convenor of the BRM contributes to substancial irritation among the BRM delegates that are not sacked yet. (Comments: 6)
  • 1203603108|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Deterrment as a means of gaining DIS 29500 industry support: Why not threaten the ODF proponents to potentially torture an existing international standard for document formats, ISO 26300:2006? Would that make the Microsoft's epigonal format OOXML more "shiny and fun" and thus attractive for ISO standardization? (Comments: 2)
  • 1203462978|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Binary Format Review: A few days ago Microsoft made the specification of the binary format available. Now Joel Spolsky provides a review of the specification including the famous leap year bug that made it in the OOXML spec. (Comments: 6)
  • 1203418463|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Coincidence, Conflict of Interest or Reward?: Apparently unrelated to OOXML, Microsoft, a Business Parter (both on the portuguese TC) and an Institute who has a prominent member participating in the portuguese TC allegedly as an individual, are opening a Microsoft Innovation Center in Portugal oriented to clients and companies. Probably some CRM with OOXML capabilities? (Comments: 0)
  • 1203350107|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Good Bye Interoperability (3) with binaries inside: <NO>OOXML has a dedicated page about the Binary Space in the file format, which originally allowed any user to put any kind of data in there, and especially binaries. One dominant vendor especially like to put binaries in there, in order to foster innovative patented binary features. Do you think ECMA managed to solve the shit? (Comments: 1)
  • 1203345609|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Do Marathon Runners have the freedom to run?: Marathon Runners don't trust the OSP nor the CNS. The only option for Marathon Runners is to take a RAND-Z license, with the risk to have their "freedom to run" taken away by the patentee. (Comments: 4)
  • 1203342112|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — FSFE found ECMA response contradiction: Response 34 of the proposed Disposition of Comments effectively contradicts and invalidates Response 31, which cites preservation of idiosyncrasies as the primary design goal and reason for DIS-29500. (Comments: 0)
  • 1203340725|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — ECMA curiosities: ECMA proposes to add a reference to the Mishneh Torah of the middle age Jewish scholar Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) inside the OOXML specification (Comments: 0)
  • 1203332918|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft's Wikipedia editor goes to the BRM to represent Australia: It seems that the Australian Standards Body still believes in corruption and money, and they will send Rick Jelliffe, an hardcore Microsoft representative who has been paid to edit the Wikipedia page on OOXML. The corruption train has now reached Australia. When does the train stops? (Comments: 8)
  • 1203014206|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Good Bye Interoperability (2) with proprietary audio and video formats: While there is a big fight on audio and video formats in the draft HTML5 at the W3C, there does not seem to be any problems for Microsoft to allow their proprietary and patented WMA and WMV in the OOXML standard. Their ECMA proxy says any format is allowed. Good Bye interoperability! (Comments: 2)
  • 1202998341|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft quietly supporting ODF?: The OpenDocument Society mentions in its newsletter that Microsoft might have an "ODF standards group" within the Microsoft Office team. (Comments: 0)
  • 1202937163|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — More Choice: Choice between standards is becoming the latest defense. However the choice advocacy is contradictory. (Comments: 2)
  • 1202904794|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — The naming issue: We speak of "OOXML" for good reasons. Bad naming leads to real confusion. This applies also to ECMA International which submitted the superb format to ISO and recently added 2300 pages of change proposals/denials. (Comments: 0)
  • 1202410275|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — What happens after the BRM?: In the cloud of emerging open standards debates the BRM as such gets marginal importance. OOXML is a paradigm for vendor capture. (Comments: 0)
  • 1202183110|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Reflections: It is getting personal. Now Microsoft openly attacks IBM and IBM employees. The accusations against IBM of leading the international effort against office open xml ISO standardization are far from reality. However, the real matter is if that accusation is defamatory for IBM. (Comments: 0)
  • 1202127184|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — The list of Microsoft's US software patents covering OOXML: Harish Pillay, chief technology architect of Red Hat Asia Pacific, is publishing on his blog a list of american software patents owned by Microsoft. Maybe there are more pending. What about other patents that the 6000 pages might infringe? (Comments: 1)
  • 1202088944|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Backwards compatibility lock-in: Backwards compatibility of formats is a curse. An article of Microsoft Internet Explorer Platform architect Chris Wilson offered me with some insights how the market locks in developers. (Comments: 0)
  • 1201710494|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Alex Brown: Must consider all comments: Alex Brown, the convenor of the Ballot Resolution Meeting, stresses that Member states need to consider and vote on all resolutions, not only the ones corresponding to their own comments. (Comments: 3)
  • 1201256461|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — What about Italian vote after BRM?: I have written and published some thoughts on what should be the Italian position, and that of the other MBs, after the published proposals from ECMA (Comments: 1)
  • 1201059628|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Government Leaders’ Forum Europe: It is always a matter of perspective. Microsoft organizes a two day conference to discuss "Perspectives of Modernising Government" with European government representatives in Berlin, Germany. Bill Gates himself visits the forum. A side purpose is to lift up a standard analyst from Gartner and retired rent-a-politician on equal footings. (Comments: 0)
  • 1200861263|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Burton study: Follow the herd: With a recent study of the Burton consultancy group the authors P. O'Kelly and G. Creese advise their clients how to benefit from the growing controversy over OOXML. Just bow in and don't negotiate a better deal. (Comments: 1)
  • 1200679795|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — The 2293 pages of the ECMA comments are here: Yousendit is generously hosting the 2293 pages of the comments proposed by ECMA. Don't worry, the 600 pages of VML are still alive, and the deprecated part for backward compatibility with the black hole is still there. (Comments: 4)
  • 1200679438|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Open as in Denmark Buzz, buzz!: Denmark's standard blogger Leif Lodahl made much fuzz about an invitation he received from Chris Capossela, Microsoft. Let's sit down and talk. The core matter of difference is the meaning of open. For instance we have "open" as in "open to abuse" (recently proposed by nasty bloggers). Denmark already has its own definition. (Comments: 0)
  • 1200502201|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Tenhumberg dispells myths around ODF: As an answer to recent attempts to excuse the Open XML standardization problems with ODF alleged shortcomings SUN's Erwin Tenhumberg provides answers to critics of the ISO open standard for office productivity applications. (Comments: 0)
  • 1200417879|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — 14 January + 1 day: where are the ECMA comments *published*?: Xmlguru.cz is publishing its opinion on whether the ECMA solutions are satisfactory resolving the czech comments. But the public readers of his blog don't have access to the ECMA comments. We are 14 January + 1 day, thus the question: "Where are the ECMA comments *published*?". (Comments: 3)
  • 1200413955|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Dutch Foundation wants the DOC/XLS/PPT specifications in the public domain: NLnet, a Dutch foundation for an open information society, has publicly called for Microsoft to release its deprecated formats into the public domain. At least that would be useful to have in order to certify the backward compatibility, which participating people in the ISO process are unable to certify up to now. (Comments: 2)
  • 1200407577|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — BECTA puts thumbs down on MS-Office interoperability: British Educational Communications and Technology Agency puts strong objections against Microsoft Office 2007. The concerns of the British agency are not driven by the revamped user interface but by the reluctance to adopt ODF and its push for OOXML. It recommends a strategic approach towards open standards. (Comments: 0)
  • 1200333904|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft patents by Brian Jones: For fun we just did a quick search of published US patent applications with "Brian Jones" as an author, and "Microsoft" as the assignee. (Comments: 6)
  • 1200314857|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Wishful Spinning: OOXML gets adopted. More and more projects are started. Let's see which of these would survive without funding. Meanwhile a spin factory sends out success stories that most bloggers find worthless to discuss. It is possible to get the Krauts on board that are supposed to review OOXML but would OOXML survive a review by the crowds? (Comments: 0)
  • 1200308469|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Greece sell-out proposal: Microsoft Hellas proposes a contract that will take over control of the sovereign European state. Greece would lose the right to speak about other products its government uses and gain the right to support the business interests of the vendor and its policy goals. (Comments: 0)
  • 1200300837|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — New study examines Microsoft ISO votes: A new study from the Digital Standards Organization (www.digistan.org), "Influence of Per-capita GDP on the ISO OOXML Process" says that the average GDP per capita of the countries who voted for the Microsoft OOXML proposal in September 2007 is 'significantly lower' than the GDP per capita of those who voted against it. (Comments: 1)
  • 1200186617|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — ISO warned about possible patent ambush on OOXML: Jeremy Wang is warning ISO about 2 US software patents owned by the company Scientigo which intends to monetise its patents, according to some press articles published in Cnet. Let's hope ISO will prevent patent ambushes. (Comments: 1)
  • 1200185620|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft will turn Chile abstention into a Yes?: Despite the 217 comments tabled by Chile in September, the Microsoft puppets are well active in the Committee and will vote this Tuesday to turn the vote of the country from an abstention to a Yes. You can expect more of those things happening until the end of March. (Comments: 2)
  • 1200041828|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft continues to lobby the NO countries: Philippines: As expected, Microsoft is lobbying hard to turn the NO countries into a YES. An article in the Filipino Inquirer.net is just there to remember us that Microsoft has their lobbying agenda well ready, and that the war is carefully planned. (Comments: 0)
  • 1199412911|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — 5 predictions about OOXML in 2008: The <NO>OOXML leaders spoke at the 24 Chaos Communication Congress in Berlin just before New Year. They predict that Microsoft will manage to have their broken standard adopted by ISO on the 1st of April 2008, after heavy lobbying and control of the discussions of the Ballot Resolution Meeting in Geneva. (Comments: 0)
  • 1198668356|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — <NO>OOXML @ 24C3: <NO>OOXML will get showcased at the 24th annual CCC Conference 24C3 (27-30 Dec 2004). We will be there to answer your questions and Benjamin secured a talk slot on the fourth day. (Comments: 4)
  • 1198576975|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Bait and Switch: So what Ecma is offering SC34 is nothing close to what was promised. Ecma is really seeking to transfer to SC34 the responsibility of spending the next 3 years fixing errors in OOXML 1.0, while future versions of OOXML ("technical revisions") are controlled by Microsoft, in Ecma, in a process without transparency, and as should now be obvious to all, without sufficient quality controls. (Comments: 3)
  • 1198336049|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft moves the hot potatoes in a 'deprecated' basket: As we planned sometime ago, Microsoft has decided to get rid of the hot potatoes such as "VML or AutoSpaceLikeWord95" by not addressing the comments, but just moving them into an optional basket, in order to do not break the compatibility with Office 2007. Programmers are still left in the dark on what "AutoSpaceLikeWord95 and al" means, and with VML still implemented in Office 2007, you cannot reasonably expect interoperability with current Microsoft products. (Comments: 6)
  • 1198244163|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Oh! Oh! XML? news pickles: Richard Stallman dislikes Miguel, New York's project World Domino calls for your participation and SCO owns us. Find out how xml helps us to be faster and better informed than Doug Mahugh. (Comments: 0)
  • 1198112215|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Domino: Norway: Project World Domino continues. Norway mandates the use of ODF. (Comments: 0)
  • 1198021357|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — War is on: BRM without Benjamin: Benjamin Henrion, the person who made NoOOXML happen, will not be able to participate in the Ballot Resolution Meeting of his national Standard committee to "give both sides of the struggle a say". (Comments: 1)
  • 1197981826|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Human readability: "This DIS contradicts the goals of XML and best practices. The designers of XML knew what they were doing because while we can remember what "c" means in this case it becomes problematic when we get hundreds or thousands of these shorthand references. .... OOXML has hundreds of these cryptic names." (Comments: 3)
  • 1197976731|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Bug for bug compatibility: 1900 is no leapyear. But what if once a programmer did a premature implementation and some users started to rely on the bugs. In the year 2007 these bugs can become features to justify a second international standard for Office applications, Open XML. (Comments: 0)
  • 1197934236|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft to buy ISO next week before Christmas?: "There is also a push by Microsoft and others to move ISO toward a "direct participation" model where corporations can participate in ISO directly, bypassing the national body mechanisms altogether. This would essentially turn ISO into a vendor consortium. So it will be interesting to see how this all turns out. To coin a folk aphorism, "In the land of the ugly queen all the mirrors have disappeared.". This comment is from the IBM's Rob Weir on his own blog post. Does someone has more information on this "JTC 1 N8812 - 60-Day Letter Ballot on the Establishment of an Ad Hoc Group on Direct Participation and Call for Participation"? Call your National Body now and try to find out what is going on. There seem to be a voting deadline next 24 December. (Comments: 0)
  • 1197898476|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft patent promise not GPL compatible: What Microsoft intends to do with its OSP is to forbid sublicensability, which is one of the cornerstone for distributing GPL code. The OSP page on Microsoft website is pretty clear about it: "There is no need for sublicensing". (Comments: 0)
  • 1197673051|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Domino: The Netherlands: What do you do in public affairs when your reputation is below sea level and hiring a tobacco lobbyist is no option? Maybe the compliance with ISO 26300:2006 is an option for your company. The Netherlands aim for it if you want to continue business with them. (Comments: 0)
  • 1197314306|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Rob is evil: In a strange mix of old school hate propaganda IBM is found as the new villain and its super-rogue Rob Weir. Will it help Redmond? Who would want to support them to gather a movement against Evil Rob? <No>OOXML feels the urgent need to jump in to assist its award-winning supporters from Redmond. (Comments: 0)
  • 1197284610|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Engineering Industry support for OOXML - Novell: Wikipedia: "A puppet is a representational object manipulated by a puppeteer. It is usually but not always a depiction of a human character and is used in (a) play or a presentation. The puppet undergoes a process of transformation through being animated, and is normally manipulated by one, or sometimes more than one, puppeteer. Some puppets can be moved electronically." Does Novell qualify as an OOXML puppet? (Comments: 0)
  • 1197200840|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — OOXML Symposium in Australia, 14 Dec: Open XML fanboy Rick Jelliffe and others will convene at an OOXML symposium. A legal session will address legal concerns no one ever raised. And there is yet another paper ahead. (Comments: 0)
  • 1196995970|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — What is the alternative?: "Double standards are not fine. What is the alternative?" The current standard for office documents are the Microsoft binary formats: doc, ppt, xls. Is OOXML a step into the right direction: more openness. Some think so. (Comments: 0)
  • 1196989267|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — OpenISO starts its OOXML problem report: The OOXML process was instrumental for many proponents of Open Standards to expand their advocacy for a sound standard process that is well defended against vendor capture. OpenISO asks for your participation to improve OOXML. (Comments: 1)
  • 1196861036|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Participate to the radio debate about OOXML today!: This Wednesday, December 5, 2007, at 1 p.m. US EST (GMT -5) Linux.com is hosting a live podcast featuring Jeff Waugh, Roy Schestowitz, and reporter Bruce Byfield to debate about OOXML. <NO>OOXML has prepared some questions for the speakers. You can also join the discussion on irc.linux.com #linux.com. (Comments: 5)
  • 1196776450|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Matusow backs the French proposal?: Matusow says "there are no barriers for third parties to create bridges between ODF and its Open XML formats". Except the patents covering the 'standard' of course. (Comments: 0)
  • 1196695170|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — DIN Comment DE-148: Conformity levels in Open XML? An interesting proposal to structure DIS 29500 and less radical than the French proposal. (Comments: 0)
  • 1196693028|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft continues to ignore the Muslim world: Some of the Microsoft comments have just been leaked out of the ECMA fortress. Microsoft continues to ignore the Muslim world, and they don't want to correct its WORKDAY function in order to 'do not break backward compatibility': "Weekend days (Saturday and Sunday) are not considered as working days." (Comments: 2)
  • 1196684596|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft's Stephen McGibbon to represent Ireland at the BRM?: There are rumors circulating in Ireland that Microsoft's Stephen McGibbon might be part of the Irish delegation to attend the BRM in Geneva. Microsoft is already controlling the Portuguese delegation, you can expect that they will control half of the table at Geneva. O'MyGod! (Comments: 0)
  • 1196340036|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — All sides of the debate?: How many sides are there in the OOXML debate? What if all sides are Microsoft and Microsoft business partners? (Comments: 0)
  • 1196272748|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Privileged Access on Linux: We have an international standard: ISO 26300. But a company unwilling to adhere to the standard wants its own. Others platforms should use converters that don't work. And some get privileged access to misfunctional converters. (Comments: 0)
  • 1196091654|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Open and dark?: Charles makes some good points why ECMA refuses to help the national Committees to resolve all comments. (Comments: 0)
  • 1196002461|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Microsoft sponsors DIN conference: An american company sponsors a lobby event for its Open XML format which is organised by the German standard body and takes place in a German ministry. Public officials and German rent-a-scientists join to listen to Microsoft and Bitkom. (Comments: 0)
  • 1196001265|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Bundesfinanzhof wants less Microsoft: German Bundesfinanzhof presents its annual audit. The German phallanx for open standards and open source, KBSt is urged to do more against an "established vendor with a market coverage of 90%". (Comments: 0)
  • 1195934893|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z — Gnome foundation in kahoots?: Having a delegate in the ECMA T45 Committee the Gnome foundation clarified its involvement in a superb standard development and bashes the vendor. (Comments: 3)