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NO to the Microsoft Office format as an ISO standard
I ask the national members of ISO to vote "NO" in the ballot of ISO DIS 29500 (Office OpenXML or OOXML format) for the following reasons:
# There is **already a standard ISO26300 named Open Document Format (ODF)**: a dual standard adds costs, uncertainty and confusion to industry, government and citizens;
# There is **no provable implementation of the OOXML specification**: Microsoft Office 2007 produces a special version of OOXML, not a file format which complies with the OOXML specification;
# There is **missing information from the specification** document, for example how to do a **autoSpaceLikeWord95** or **useWord97LineBreakRules**;
# More than **10% of the examples mentioned in the proposed standard do not validate** as XML;
# There is **no guarantee that anybody can write a software** that fully or partially implements the OOXML specification **without being liable to patent damages or patent license fees by Microsoft**;
# This **standard proposal conflicts with other ISO standards**, such as ISO 8601 (Representation of dates and times), ISO 639 (Codes for the Representation of Names and Languages) or ISO/IEC 10118-3 (cryptographic hash);
# There is **a bug in the spreadsheet file format which forbids to enter any date before the year 1900**: such bugs affects the OOXML specification as well as software versions such as Microsoft Excel 2000, XP, 2003 or 2007.
# This **standard proposal has not been created by bringing together the experience and expertise of all interested parties** (such as the producers, sellers, buyers, users and regulators), but by Microsoft alone.
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