Appeal the appeal, enforce ISO rules, and kick OOXML out

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."

Read the complete press release...

News

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: 2 — 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

ISO withholds final text of standard

Who is to be blamed for the OOXML delay? — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1213198127|%O ago

Groklaw: Eyeballs Needed for ODF

OASIS has created a new discussion list for members and non-members to explore a proposal to form an ODF Implementation, Interoperability and Conformance (IIC) Technical Committee. — Comments: 0 — by ggiedke 1213020956|%O ago

Microsoft bails out its Indian managing director

Microsoft communicated Neelam Dhawan would leave Microsoft India voluntarily but she denies that. Dhawan was involved in the Indian OOXML turmoil. A few days ago India filed an ISO complaint against OOXML standardisation. — Comments: 1 — by arebenti 1213013332|%O ago

Venezuela appeals too

Venezuela has joined South Africa, India and Brazil to oppose OOXML ISO adoption. — Comments: 0 — by zoobab 1212572051|%O ago

Danish OSL complains to ISO and ISO's mercy

How many complaints are for real? The South African one for sure. But what about the others? Your pleas are at ISO's mercy. — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1212179465|%O ago

Brazil appeals OOXML, complains about the BRM and lack of final text

Brazil is the second country to appeal against OOXML. Here is the letter. — Comments: 0 — by zoobab 1212146039|%O ago

Good bye, British Library

No need for the book digitalization project at the British Library anymore. — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1211657594|%O ago

JTC1 directives to be rewritten by ECMA again?

Do you remember that Mr Jan Van den Beld was rewriting the rules of the Fast Track just for one customer and its OOXML standardisation project? Now there is a special (secret) working group inside ISO rewriting those rules again. — Comments: 0 — by zoobab 1211615890|%O ago

South Africa appeals against OOXML, call your Standards Body now!

The South African Standards Body SABS have lodged an appeal against the awful fast-track process of DIS29500, or Microsoft Office OpenXML. Please call your Standards Body and ask them to support this complain. You have only 7 days because the deadline is 30 May, 2 months after the ISO vote. — Comments: 3 — by zoobab 1211542561|%O ago

Microsoft finally playing nice?

In a recent press release, Microsoft announced it will support ODF natively in the next service pack for Office 2007. Amazing, isn't it? — Comments: 2 — by stegu 1211409986|%O ago

A Strategy for Openness: Enhancing E-Records Access in New York State

The New York State group that was told to investigate longterm storage needs in government and ODF/OOXML has produced a report. The most significant finding is that having more than one format doesn't provide increased choice. It confuses and increases complexity and costs instead. It would be better to use single, standardized formats to increase efficiency and interoperability. — Comments: 0 — by Ars Aranea 1211367998|%O ago

Alpha-lunatic attack on Digistan and the Hague Declaration

Dennis Byron explained "Google, IBM, Red Hat, Sun and the Digistan Connection". — Comments: 8 — by arebenti 1210876966|%O ago

Puppet countries leaves P membership

Microsoft Puppet countries are leaving the P membership. Lebanon, Turkey, Cyprus, and Trinidad & Tobago have already dropped out. All those countries voted Yes without comments to OOXML. — Comments: 0 — by zoobab 1210798374|%O ago

Douglas M. Goodyear and the DCI Microsoft connection

Time for an iron broom policy. Or Microsoft could get into trouble like Senator McCain. — Comments: 1 — by arebenti 1210548577|%O ago

OOXML outreach to Blender

Microsoft says to the Blender project: "The ISO standard Office Open XML is an example of the direction we are moving towards" — Comments: 0 — by arebenti 1210527789|%O ago

ISO SC34 Oslo meeting sponsored by...

Guess it! — Comments: 0 — by podmokle 1210255789|%O ago

Change of the guard

In '04 Hugo Lueders' messages were getting sour. Still some bloggers argue with the self-proclaimed representative of the ...'global ICT industry'. The 'global common sense manufacturers' recommend his clients to embrace reality and logic. — Comments: 1 — by podmokle 1210026070|%O ago

Europe's not finished with Microsoft

A short summary of the history of Microsoft and the European Union. Closing remarks on the "openness" of OOXML are quite interesting. — Comments: 0 — by jwildeboer 1209382233|%O ago

EU processes Danish complaint

Procurement rules are supposed to be performance based. Mandatory standards as a MS Office 2007 format do not fit. And what about a format as OOXML which official justification is backwards compatibility to the products of a single vendor? a distortion of competition? — Comments: 0 — by podmokle 1209075934|%O ago

Freaky Format

OOXML is not the Office 2007 format, yet. Will a proven "ability to tinker" help with ISO OOXML's dissemination, as ISO BRM convenor Brown suggests? — Comments: 0 — by podmokle 1209000293|%O ago

Brinkburn report looks into ISO parasitism

Brinkburn looks into the future of ECMA and ISO. The OOXML case, the analysts warn, appears to be a "precedent that may well enable the breakdown of the formal standards process" — Comments: 1 — by podmokle 1208742251|%O ago

There was 1 in the bed and the little one said, “Norway votes Yes!”

The untold story from Norway. — Comments: 0 — by podmokle 1208697293|%O ago

Open Parliament

This week a conference in the European Parliament contributed to the debate around the "lock-in" of the European Parliament. — Comments: 1 — by arebenti 1208695490|%O ago

Welsh Petition

It is just amazing to watch a global community in action. — Comments: 2 — by arebenti 1208516653|%O ago

Bangalore, India: Candle Light Vigil for Document Freedom

Today 15th April we are conducting a candle light vigil in bangalore The Candle light vigil demands India to appeal ISO approval of ooxml based on its comments and no vote. We also demands the Department of IT to draft a clear national policy for the use of Free standards for data storage. — Comments: 0 — by anivar 1208245121|%O ago

SC34 opens the flood gates to ECMA

SC 34 is fully captured and controls the future of OOXML. New procedural undertakings are made to extend ECMA's privileged access. — Comments: 2 — by arebenti 1208013427|%O ago

Microsoft lobbyist using TBT for legal threats

Threats are cheap. Especially when it comes to threatening governments who do not use Microsoft's legacy OOXML format for non compliance with the Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) WTO treaty. — Comments: 1 — by zoobab 1207781315|%O ago

OOXML triggers demonstration in Norway: "Let's throw OOXML out of ISO"

People were demonstrating today in Oslo in front of the ISO SC34 meeting against the adoption of Microsoft OOXML as an ISO standard, and especially against the behaviour of Standards Norway, who voted Yes to the specification, despite a lack of support by a majority of the technical committee. — Comments: 8 — by zoobab 1207752413|%O ago

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Quotes of the day

"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

"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