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.

OOXML received 75 percent approval votes of p-members of JTC1, among them many nations of questionable expertise in standardization. In September a first attempt to approve the 6000 page standard Open XML failed with more than 3500 submitted comments. As in September many of the new approval votes were won by political high level intervention and the vendors dominance in national technical committees.

Benjamin Henrion, initiator of the <NO>OOXML campaign, is furious about the tactics he followed over several months: "Committee stuffing is a standard practice for Microsoft. Microsoft raped ISO with their office file formats, leaving the organization in limbo. The whole campaign against the format have raised an army of people, which are furious about the dirty tactics used by Microsoft to get the broken standard through ISO. This anger won't go away, and I wish good luck to Microsoft to get it adopted by governments. The reputation of Microsoft went down below zero with this process."

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News

Microsoft now attempts to sabotage ODF

Users should react loudly to the latest attempt of Microsoft to sabotage ODF and fragment the corpus of ODF files — Comments: 8 — by Luc Bollen 1241797156|%O ago

Burning the binary ships

The latest discussed advocacy scheme for OOXML: The old binary formats implementations are insecure and attention to fix security flaws of implementations is reduced. — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1240057151|%O ago

What is the definition of an "existing document"?

ISO SC34, now heavily controlled by Microsoft people who go to ISO meeting happening all over the planet, has published a report of defects of the pseudo ISO standard ISO29500. They do not provide a definition of what is an "existing document". — Comments: 0 — by zoobab 1239980310|%O ago

Open XML, the standard that was not

Many neutral BRM observers felt screwed up and they get more and more evidence that their feelings were right. Open XML proponents become twitter jerks. — Comments: 1 — by podmokle 1239978608|%O ago

Portuguese Public Administration forced to use Microsoft Office 2003/7

The Court of Accounts's Counsil for Corruption Prevention is making a mandatory survey on corruption risks in public procurement, which all public administrators must reply, by law. However, not only the survey is available only in Microsoft's binary format, but they also demand that it is returned in Microsoft Office 2003/7 XML format (MS-OOXML). — Comments: 2 — by RuiSeabra 1238442307|%O ago

Paoli: This is a time of change

Did we overlook an important event? And what about the crumbs of the ongoing crisis spending? — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1237734293|%O ago

Fraunhofer Fokus supported by Microsoft

The new Fraunhofer Fokus lab will validate the ISO/IEC 29500 aka OOXML. — Comments: 0 — by podmokle 1237062733|%O ago

Microsoft hijacking ODF: the freedom to embrace and extend

Doug Mahugh of Microsoft is pushing inside the ODF Technical Committee for proprietary extensions, by which the monopolist vendor could embrace and extend the format to "innovate". The extensions possibility is the door open to proprietary closed source parts, that renders the ODF customer a Microsoft slave once again like in the good old times of the .DOC. — Comments: 0 — by zoobab 1235763583|%O ago

.XLSX files as a security risk

Some Open XML based products as Microsoft Excel are affected by a security flaw and the Trojan.Mdropper.AC. — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1235520827|%O ago

National Word Processors?

Russia pioneers the concept of a National Operating System. Are National Office suites also an option to sent a clear message to end software extortion and make way for a competitive environment based on true open standards? — Comments: 1 — by podmokle 1232816629|%O ago

Tridge asks for reparations

Andrew Tridgell is still upset about the Open XML process. In other news we watch the fallout when passionate supporters of open standards in a successful SME get really upset. — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1232419209|%O ago

EIF2 contribution of Open Source Consortium

Open XML and software patents are concerns where they want to see regulatory action, Gerry Gavigan wrote on behalf of the Open Source Consortium to European Commission interoperability decision makers . — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1232058899|%O ago

European SME representation was against OOXML

NORMAPME, the association that represents European small and medium sized companies in standard bodies urged CEN members to vote against Open XML. — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1231724871|%O ago

Microsoft excludes competitors with OOXML patent license?

ECMA has just published two documents related to the patent licensing of ECMA376v1 and ECMA376v2. Microsoft promises to give a patent license under so called "reasonable terms". Reasonable for whom? — Comments: 4 — by zoobab 1229878277|%O ago

FAIL: Docx plugins and interoperability solutions

It is time for caramels again. Microsoft released three interoperability solutions. — Comments: 0 — by podmokle 1228340733|%O ago

Buy the OpenXML specification now at the ISO store! Only 342 Swiss francs

Buy the OpenXML specification now at the ISO store! Only 280USD or 342 Swiss francs. By the way, do you know is when the official burial date of ISO? — Comments: 0 — by zoobab 1227520425|%O ago

Tineke Egyedi writes open letter to the IT standards community

The Dutch standard researcher asks: "Who pays for interoperability in public IT procurement?". Our site reproduces her letter sent by email to standard professionals. — Comments: 0 — by podmokle 1226911023|%O ago

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 — by zoobab 1225923640|%O ago

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 — by arebenti 1223605186|%O ago

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 — by zoobab 1223384927|%O ago

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 — by zoobab 1223383216|%O ago

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 — by zoobab 1223026158|%O ago

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 — by zoobab 1222898271|%O ago

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 — by zoobab 1222164429|%O ago

Microsoft recycles its lobby platform "Voices for Innovation" to lobby against Open Source software

Microsoft recycles its lobby platform "Voices for Innovation" to lobby against Open Source software in the European Parliament systems. Over the past few weeks radical elements in the open source community have intensified their efforts in the European Parliament. — Comments: 5 — by zoobab 1222160591|%O ago

Microsoft, CompTIA, Novell, ECMA and others members of the "Ecosystem"

BoycottNovell has a right vision of the Microsoft ecosystem. — Comments: 2 — by zoobab 1221949747|%O ago

Microsoft hijacks now web standards and the W3C: -m$ fonts?

Microsoft has a tradition now with OOXML to hijack standard bodies. W3C is probably in the list, since they managed now to embrace and extend CSS 2.1 with their Microsoft fonts. — Comments: 0 — by zoobab 1221560293|%O ago

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 — by podmokle 1221340649|%O ago

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 — by arebenti 1220283900|%O ago

Open XML larger than LHC documentation

CERN's Large Hadron Collider, the world's greatest experiment particle accelerator for quantum physics built in Geneva, is being compared to Open XML. — Comments: 1 — by podmokle 1220255994|%O ago

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 — by podmokle 1220046649|%O ago

"Scrap the Fast Track" or who is going to change the ISO FastTrack rules?

Physical meetings are the ISO way to exclude participation. Don't expect public online discussions on how HP and Microsoft will change the ISO rules for Fast Track. Mr ECMA has already been the responsible person to change the ISO Fast Track rules in 2006, remember? — Comments: 0 — by zoobab 1219762702|%O ago

Durusau and the art of losing the argument

In a world of paralytical thought Patrick Durusau might become the daddy of IBM and disagree with facts. Does he recognize the right of national bodies to appeal? — Comments: 1 — by podmokle 1219674044|%O ago

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 — by arebenti 1219137866|%O ago

Not very appealing: ISO/IEC kicks out appeals

A rejection means that the ISO 29500 could be published and set into effect unless further complaints are launched. Yet another possibility to study the way ISO works. — Comments: 2 — by arebenti 1218808619|%O ago

Open XML casualties

Rajan Anandan takes over the job of Neelam Dhawan by 1st September. — Comments: 1 — by arebenti 1218804947|%O ago

IBM VP Sutor: "OOXML dead end", and the latest Domino

Sutor suspects that the trend toward true open standards will continue. Microsoft "will eventually fully embrace ODF". As does Pahang. — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1218731767|%O ago

Germany and Canada Propose Microsoft as Editor for ODF-OOXML Convergence

BoycottNovell blog is pointing to a vote on the editor for ODF-OOXML Convergence project inside SC34. Guess who was proposed as editor. — Comments: 1 — by zoobab 1218224442|%O ago

SC34 meeting next week: yet another stuffed committee?

Microsoft and ECMA will occupy half of the seats next week in the SC34 meeting in London. Yet another stuffed committee? — Comments: 0 — by zoobab 1216398898|%O ago

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 — by zoobab 1215986697|%O ago

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 — by zoobab 1215698253|%O ago

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 — by zoobab 1215612417|%O ago

7228 pages of ISO ooxml

Opendocument Format saves our trees. ISO Open XML has been getting more and more fat. — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1215077741|%O ago

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 — by zoobab 1215009730|%O ago

SC34 meeting in London will discuss OOXML (non-)future

The next ISO SC34 meeting in London will discuss OOXML (non-)future. The meeting will be hosted by the British Library, an ECMA member, supporter of OOXML and advised by Alex Brown. — Comments: 6 — by zoobab 1214985353|%O ago

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 — by zoobab 1214918088|%O ago

"Microsoft corrupted many members of ISO", says Stallman

Richard Stallman said in an interview that Microsoft corrupted many members of ISO. — Comments: 0 — by zoobab 1214577482|%O ago

Microsoft clueless about the standardisation process, do not regret committee stuffing

Microsoft admits they were a bit clueless about the standardisation process, but they do not regret having stuffed the committees at the same time. — Comments: 2 — by zoobab 1214303389|%O ago

ODF won, says Microsoft

While we prepare the domino project for the defense of open standards Stuart McKee announces the Stalingrad of OOXML. — Comments: 3 — by arebenti 1213929839|%O ago

Microsoft South Africa happy: Just four appeals

Platform strategist says therefore they "think the large majority of participants in this [ISO OOXML] process believe it accomplished what it was supposed to do" — Comments: 0 — by podmokle 1213787087|%O ago

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Quotes

"Document interoperability is about people and companies dedicated to working together over the long haul to solve customer issues." — Doug Mahugh, CRN

"In fact, the European Commission may yet take action against Microsoft over its lobbying actions during the standards setting process." —Internetnews, BizTalk 2009 Arrives, Office 2007 SP2 Up Next

"Some members of the press have confused OpenDocument supporters with people who write for NOOXML blogs and websites, or that bash OpenXML, Microsoft, ISO, JTC 1, SC 34, etc. Those are not activities that support OpenDocument." —Patrick Durusau, Duruseau: Spotting OpenDocument Supporters

"The support for OOXML in other applications than Microsoft Office 2007 is ridiculously low. " — Jesper Lund Stocholm, on ANSI adoption

"Now is a great time to get involved in IS29500 maintenance, so if you’d like to contribute contact your national body and get involved. See you in Copenhagen!" —Doug Mahugh, MSDN-Blog March 30, 09

"I stay away from standards bodies,that seems to be a whole rat's nest of backstabbing and politics, and I really don't want to have anything to do with it. As for the OOXML case, anybody involved with that must have been crazy. That all just looked nasty." —Linus Torvalds, Technewsworld

"So, even if international standards bodies have been shown to be vulnerable to external pressure and can be gamed much like any other corporate body can, the products that they produce will still have relevance to developers, end users, and security researchers alike. " —Carl Jongsma, CIO

"What Microsoft really wanted was that ISO stamp of approval to use as a marketing tool. And just like your mother told you, when they get what they want and have their way with you, they’re probably not gonna call you in the morning." —Tim Bray, ISO Fantasy

"Europe has been strongly in favor of the use of ISO standards, but a lot of people doubt if ISO is the best place for software standardization. They are more impressed by the way bodies like IETF, W3C, IEEE, do the job." —Hollandopen, Europa: Hollandopen

"In Sri Lanka, the technical committee voted against OOXML but the country abstained. In Bangladesh, there was no open discussion on OOXML before the country voted in favor. In Pakistan, a secretive committee consisting on 4 Microsoft Gold Partners met and listened to a presentation by Microsoft and voted in favor of OOXML. Incidentally, Pakistan became a "P" member of ISO a month before the first OOXML vote. Angry? We all should be furious!" —Venkatesh Hariharan, Tbray: My Tinfoil Hat

"If people say this whole ISO process is lousy, out of date and doesn’t work anymore or is broken, I challenge anybody to make a new worldwide process" —Jan van den Beld, PCWorld: Former ECMA Sec. Gen challenges ISO/BRM critics to create a better process

"Both the W3C and IETF have long had a policy that all working-group drafts are publicly available on the Web for public review. In the W3C, a WG can elect to have private deliberations; in the IETF they are all by definition public. This is been the case for some years now, and those with experience of a transparent and public process tend to being flabbergasted that ISO's opacity continues to be tolerated." —Tim Bray, Alex Brown's blog: Webbifying the Standardisation Process, Part 1

"In other words, participation in standardization activities is time consuming and expensive, and large companies are much more able to make this kind of commitment than small companies, organizations or individuals. So ,large companies rule the world. This is especially true with standardization at the international level, where decisions are often made at meetings in very expensive international locations." —Rob Weir, Seeking Open Standards activists

"At this meeting, Brazil was represented by Microsoft. I and several other members of our committee protested against this indication, but we had our protests silenced by the Director of ABNT (Brazilian NB) that said that this decision was not our prerogative and that if Microsoft would pay for their own representative’s trip, their indication was approved." —Homebmit, Meeting of JTC1/SC34 in Korea: It is the end of the world (as we know it)

"For legacy reasons, an implementation using the 1900 backward compatibility date base system shall treat 1900 as though it was a leap year." —Final ISO OOXML specification, Mike Brown's comment

"The way Standard Norway has carried this process, we consider that the organization has lost its credibility in the IT area." — 13 TC member in Norway, Norwegians leave their Standards Body in protest

"Given the organisation's inability to follow its own rules we are no longer confident that ISO/IEC will be capable of transforming itself into the open and vendor-neutral standards setting organisation which is such an urgent requirement." — South Africa, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay, Cuba, CONSEGI 2008 Declaration

"OOXML was pushed through [or 'fast-tracked'] to a standard despite ongoing vocal community opposition, and as such I have lost all faith in the ISO as a vendor neutral organization." — Jeff Welling, Canada, NoOOXML petition latest signatures

"Levy suggests "Microsoft isn't in crisis mode just yet. But the writing is on the wall for both of its major cash cow franchises, Windows and Office. The shift toward the Web is putting pressure on Microsoft to address market performance shortcomings more aggressively." —Betanews, Vista's image problem personified

"What did the ISO… say to the anti-OOXML crowd? “Go away, losers.” In four different languages, no less. Open XML is here to stay, yum-yums*. Get over it! Now, can we all just get along?" *How must those troglodytes Sutor, Updegrove, and Jones feel right now? — John Obeto, Absolute Vista

"…standardization of a patented invention can yield procompetitive benefits, stimulate innovative research and development, and make the patent holder’s intellectual property more accessible to consumers through competing products." — Amy Marasco, ANSI vice president, FTC testimony 2002

"…the OSP is a great next step. Amy Marasco and Glen Johnson at MS are the quiet heroes who have been working so hard on the [OSP] text itself. A huge cast of characters both within MS and from various reaches of the community were also involved." — Matusow Blog, 12.9.2006

"The ISO Secretary General, Mr Alan Bryden was in India in December 2007 and I had asked him what he thought of the controversy surrounding the OOXML process. His answer was that ISO is a democratic organization and it will emerge stronger from this controversy. Very glib answer but an absolute and shameful lie." — Venkatesh Hariharan, Open Source India: ISO/IEC and OOXML: The judge, the jury and the hangman

"Standards bodies do important work in difficult circumstances. But like all of us their rules need to keep pace with the changing commercial environment. 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. My door is always open." — Neelie Kroes, Antitrust Commissioner, Being open about standards

"The world needs a reasonably competent and transparent standards organization whose integrity is not a standing joke." — Tim Bray, Sun Microsystems, OOXML: Everything’s Just Fine

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