ODF: The inevitable format
,----[ Quote ]
| Although the ODF was launched with a great gust of common sense blowing at
| its back, the momentum of widespread adoption has been hindered by
| bureaucratic inertia, local politics, persistent misconceptions (reinforced
| by opponents) about ODF’s viability and the “dangers” of adoption. Most of
| the fear, uncertainty and doubt has emanated from one source, on whose
| proprietary formats most of the world’s documents currently reside.
|
| Opponents of the ODF do not concede its inevitable adoption, and actively
| lobby against it. It’s not that anyone is against the ODF in and of itself,
| or finds any real reason to question its necessity. The logic behind the ODF
| and the transparency of its creation is fairly unassailable. Rather, it is
| the open standards on which the ODF is based that are most attacked. From the
| detractors’ point of view, things are just fine the way they are now.
| The “standard” is theirs. They own the document “market,” and think of it
| as “territory” they “won” fair and square. They can’t foresee a future
| without them (that’s not in their business plan), and as long as everybody is
| already using their applications and formats, why change? Opponents of the
| ODF devote considerable resources to lobbying legislatures and executive
| branch IT advisory boards in an attempt to convince them that the adoption of
| the ODF actually limits choice and harms market-driven efficiency by “locking
| out” vendors like them. They say migration is expensive, and even argue that
| adoption of the ODF will limit public access by cluttering the environment
| with too many “incompatible” formats. And who really trusts all this “free
| stuff,” anyway?
`----
http://www.redhatmagazine.com/2007/07/25/odf-the-inevitable-format/
Related:
OOXML does not buy its way in Italy
,----[ Quote ]
| Particularly noteworthy is the fact that among those favouring the adoption
| of the standard without reservation a large majority is made of business
| partners of the proposing entity [Microsoft], a law firm retained by the
| latter, the official certified business partners association of the proposing
| entity.
`----
http://www.piana.eu/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=1#0
http://www.openxml.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=5&id=7&Itemid=13
,----[ Quote ]
| [PJ: 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, if true, is ridiculous.
| And here is a second 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"
|
| 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 [Microsoft as president of the Technical Commission]
`----
http://mv.asterisco.pt/2007/Jun/cat.cgi?MS%20OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| * More details are emerging from Portugal regarding the kerfuffle there
| over Ecma-376. If you read Portuguese, here you go -- just click on the
| link. I asked a Groklaw member to do a rough translation, and if you see
| ways to improve it, sing out, but it gives a bit of the history of how
| this committee that has no room for Sun or IBM (see previous News Picks
| item) was formed and how it happened to choose a Microsoft representative
| to be president of the committee that decides whether to "approve"
| Microsoft's submission as a "standard". Unless I'm missing something, it
| appears to have been set up so Microsoft can "approve" itself. Now that's
| handy. Here's the translation of the part about how Microsoft is
| represented on this committeee with no room for IBM or Sun:]
|
| I was present on the meeting of the Technical Commission (CT) created
| to award the ISO standards in the area of structured documents (in
| Portugal)
|
| A Technical Commission (CT) did not exist when ISO 26300 (Open
| Document) was submitted neither when there was a submission of OOXML
| (ECMA 376, potential ISO 29500) for the the fast track, and that was
| the reason why Portugal did not submit any opinion nor had any right to
| vote. We expect that now, with the pressure made and the CT created
| there would be right to vote.
|
| The CT was created by the Computing Institute, in which is delegated
| the responsability for the norms of the IT sector; a delegation granted
| by the Portuguese Institute of Quality (IPQ), the point of contact of
| ISO in Portugal. Its creation is motivated mainly by the pressures and
| availability of some people when the proposal for fast tracking of
| OOXML and a neccessity to avail now the OOXML as standard ISO and as a
| Portuguese National Standard
|
| In the meeting they were present:
|
| * 2 persons from II (Instituto de Informatica [Computing Institute])
| * 1 person from the local government (Alentejo region)
| * 1 person from Jurinfor [Jurinfor is a Microsoft partner]
| * 2 persons from Microsoft
| * 1 person from Primavera [Primavera is a Microsoft partner]
| * 1 person from ISCTE
| * 2 persons from Assoft [reportedly, most members of ASSOFT are Microsoft
| partners]
| * 1 person from the Inst. Informatica da Seg Social [Computing Institute
| of the Social Welfare Department]
| * 1 person from the Inst. Tecn. Informacao da Justiça (eu) [Technical
| Institute Information of Justice (eu)]
|
| The meeting dealt basically with the bureaucracy details of the creation of
| the CT. It didn't go into details of OOXML; that discussion will be held in
| the next meeting, on July 16th about 14:30 in the II [Instituto de
| Informatica, I assume]
|
| The CT, thus, was composed of 8 vocal elements, one representative for each
| of the organizations present. The II [Instituto de Informatica] is arranging
| and hosting the initiative and is a not-named representative.
|
| The 8 vocals will readily follow to the election of the president of the CT.
| There was 1 candidate in the place (Miguel Sales Dias, from Microsoft). I did
| not present my candidature but made myself available in case the rest of
| representatives deemed it neccesary -- informed not adequate since to begin
| with, as a member of the OpenDocument Alliance, I had a conflict of interest.
|
| The vote results were 7 votes in favor of Miguel Sales Dias, of Microsoft,
| who was designated to preside over the CT, and a (1) blank vote.
|
| It was decided to adopt consensus as the form of adoption of any proposed
| norm, following to majority vote in case there is no consensus in the CT and
| if there is a strong opposition to submit any norm.
`----
How the Game is Played: INCITS V1 Narrowly Votes Down OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| As significantly, Rob reports that a very dramatic increase in the membership
| of V1 was observed in the months leading up to the vote – most of whom were
| coincidentally were representatives of Microsoft business partners, and the
| great majority of whom voted as a block in favor of advancing the
| specification in a manner that would permit, and against any vote that would
| prevent, final approval as an ISO/IEC standard.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20070715200544734
Packing The Court At The ISO?
,----[ Quote ]
| ...P member countries ('participating member' countries) sending
| representatives, and I am interested to note the majority of
| their representatives are, as individuals, also Microsoft employees.
|
| [...]
|
| How can they not see that OOXML (ECMA 376) is unwanted by anyone outside of
| Microsoft? How about it Brian Jones? Are you really so desperate that you
| have to resort to that?
`----
http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/packing-the-court-at-the-iso/
OOXML Fails to Gain Approval in US
,----[ Quote ]
| On Friday July 13th, INCITS V1 met via teleconference for 3 hours but failed
| to reach a 2/3 consensus necessary to recommend an "Approval, with comments"
| position on Microsoft "Office Open XML" (OOXML) document specification.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/07/ooxml-fails-to-gain-approval-in-us.html
Guest Commentary: The converter hoax
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft maintains that while it would have been easy to support the Open
| Document Format (ODF) natively, it had to move to MS-OOXML because this was
| the only way for them to offer the full features of its office suite. But if
| Microsoft itself is not able to represent its internal data structures in the
| Open Document Format (ODF) in its Microsoft Office suite, how could an
| external conversion program from MS-OOXML accomplish this task? The answer to
| both questions is that it is not possible because two things cannot be the
| same and different at the same time.
`----
http://www.heise.de/open/artikel/92735
|
|
