Portugal's ISO says no room for IBM & Sun in the room ! ? OpenXML.info is reporting (in Portuguese, but a Groklaw member translates for us) that the person who is head of the ISO technical committee about to vote on Microsoft's Ecma-376 wouldn't let IBM and Sun representatives in, claiming there was no room! This is ridiculous. And here is a source reporting the same thing, also in Portuguese. So in the US, we hear reports of packing the TC. Now, it's weeding out those who are not likely to vote a certain way desired? Is this how standards get "approved"? I don't recall ODF having to play such games. Here is the rough translation:]
Portugal, and more concretely, its national organization of certification IPQ is a member "O" (observator) of ISO/IEC for the voting of OOXML (ISO DIS 29500).
WARNING: the first meeting of the Technical Commission "Language for document definition" was on Monday 16 of July. The vote was delayed. Representatives of IBM and Sun were not allowed to attend because there "was no available space in the room".
> -Original Message-
> From: G [Sun Microsystems]
>
> To: D [Presidente da Comissão Técnica]
>
> Subject: Comissão técnica - Linguagem de Descrição de Documentos
>
> Caro Dr D [Presidente da Comissão Técnica]
>
> A Sun Microsystems em Portugal vem manifestar o seu interesse
> junto do …, na sua qualidade de Organismo
> de Normalização Sectorial para o domínio das Tecnologias
> de Informação, em estar representada na Comissão Técnica
> "Linguagem de Descrição de Documentos"
>
> Cumprimentos,
> D [President of the Technical Commission] -
Quick translation in English:
> -Original Message-
> From: G [Sun Microsystems]
>
> To: D [President of the Technical Committee]
>
> Subject: Technical Commission - Language for document definition
>
> G [Sun Microsystems]
>
> Dear G [Sun Microsystems] due of restricted number of members of the CT (Commissao Tecnica) that can attend the scheduled meeting room to host the meeting, we cannot, in this stage, accept your proposal of integration of the CT.
>
> With my best regards,
> D [President of the Technical Commission] -