Unofficial english translation of the article published in Nyt:
http://nyteknik.se/art/52005
PUBLISHED on 28 August 2007 at 3:23 PM
Microsoft behind Office standard coup
by Jan Melin
After a voting coup, the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS) recommends
Microsoft's Office Open XML as a global ISO standard. Microsoft indirectly
admits that it is behind the coup.
Yesterday, Monday, 27 August, 12 original members in a Swedish Standards
Institute (SSI) working group would have voted on the Office Open XML
(OOXML) document format.
Microsoft created the format, which is used in the new version of
Microsoft Office.
After months of hard work reviewing the proposed standard, the group was
supposed to decide whether or not SSI should say yes or no to the proposal
to make OOXML an international ISO standard.
According to some group members, group opinion leaned toward a no vote.
Since last year, Office Open XML has been an ECMA standard. Formally, the
ECMA organization applied to have ISO accept OOXML as a standard.
When the SSI working group was supposed to meet to vote, suddenly the
group had 23 new members. According to SSI regulations, it's possible to
join SSI and its working groups and thus obtain voting rights by just
going to meetings.
Already Friday, we heard that the working group acquired eight new member
who intended to vote yes, says Jacob Hallén, member of the Foundation for
a Free Information Infrastructure (FFII), which opposes OOXML becoming an
ISO standard.
Then together with others, we gathered eight new members into the SSI
working group, says Hallén. The idea was that they would vote no and
that way, cancel out the seven yes votes that we knew had joined the
group.
One reason was partially to try to ensure that OOXML did not become an
ISO standard. But an equally important reason is that I believe
it's unethical to inject so many votes?just to get the results you want.
I'm convinced Microsoft is behind this.
When it was obvious that the group with the assumed yes votes grew to 23,
we had no opportunity to react and bring in more members.
Of the 23 new members at the SSI meeting, many were affiliated with
Microsoft, i.e., Microsoft Partner or Microsoft Gold Partner.
- Is Microsoft behind this?
We've had continuous dialogue with our partners regarding what's
happening in various standardization phases, says Anita Arkéus-Åsheden,
platform manager at Microsoft.
- Did Microsoft ask its partners to join the SSI group?
Like those who oppose the standard and who spoke with their partners, we
of course did the same.
- So they joined based on Microsoft's initiative?
We held dialogues with some as to whether they'd get involved.
- Did they ask you for advice about joining?
We said that it would be good if they chose to go there and express their
views, says Arkéus-Åsheden.
Johan Westman, technical advisor at IBM, is one of the 12 who participated
in the SSI working group from its launch. He is very critical regarding
what happened.
The new members did not participate in the process,? says Westman.
Regardless of how they voted, this isn't an appropriate way to conduct
standardization.
During the meeting, I stood up and said so, says Westman. Then I left
the meeting in protest. Seven or eight other meeting participants followed
me.
The final decision on the new standard is made by ISO via international
voting on 2 September.
