PCPro features a remarkable story about Open XML. Revealed: the true scale of opposition to OOXML. (In newspaper business headlines are usually not made by the resp. authors). The article presents some new spin from Tom Robertson, Microsoft's general manager for corporate interoperability and standards.
[Tom Robertson] "claims the success of OOXML, and by association Office 2007, doesn't hang on a "yes" vote. "OOXML is already an international standard. The question in the ISO context is 'does the global community want a voice in its evolution?'. It's already out there, it's fully specified, it's available for everyone."
I wonder if the International Standardization community fears to "become irrelevant", drift into isolation when it doesn't give its blessing to the format? Now we learn it was already an international standard? Ahem, "ECMA International"1. So why all the ISO fuzz?
"Our customers are telling us there is a need for an additional standard, there is a need for the things that OOXML was designed to do that weren't part of the design for ODF"
.. but the company refuses to provide a list of these "hi-fidelity" features that cannot be added to the existing international standard.