Bearing witness to POWER
,----[ Quote ]
| What is the point is that we have collectively, globally, bore witness to an
| awesome display of power by a single corporation. Awesome. Ruthless, even.
| That Microsoft would fight in every nook and cranny, every possible avenue,
| every committee, sub-committee, sub-sub-committee, upwards, downwards and
| sideways to the committees, is simply astounding.
|
| That Microsoft can and did encourage the final decision makers to ignore the
| wishes of their own standards bodies, majorities be damned, is further
| affirmation of this awesome display.
|
| [...]
|
| However, it was awesome. One company, Microsoft, against all comers, all over
| the world.
|
| Simply, awfully, awesome.
`----
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/04/irregularities.html
RP retracts 'no' position in document format war
,----[ Quote ]
| Though obviously elated by the development, the local subsidiary of Microsoft
| Corp. chose to highlight in its official statement the "transparent" process
| which the BPS adopted in resolving the issue.
`----
http://www.mb.com.ph/INFO20080401120787.html
*LOL* Transparent? Like the secret meetings and the briberies?
"I’m thinking of hitting the OEMs harder than in the past with anti-Linux. ...
they should do a delicate dance"
--Joachim Kempin, Microsoft OEM Chief
Related:
EU Initiates Investigation Against Microsoft OOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| But with Steve Ballmer taking over as CEO, there was supposed to be a kinder,
| gentler Microsoft - one that would play nicely with its competitors. When
| antitrust regulators in turn challenged this new Microsoft, it issued not
| challenges to fight to the end to prove that it had done nothing illegal, but
| statements promising to "cooperate fully."
|
| But at the same time, Microsoft is still a tough competitor. As Microsoft's
| Director of Corporate Standards Jason Matusow famously warned at his blog
| last year:
|
| Make no mistake; all parties are looking at the full picture to find
| strategies that will result in the outcome they desire. Provided - of
| course - that they do so within the context of the rules that apply to
| the process, this is exactly what one should expect to happen. It is
| going to be a very interesting next few months.
|
| Indeed, the months that followed proved to be interesting indeed. Microsoft
| said that some of its employees became over zealous, most flagrantly in
| Sweden, where marketing assists were promised to several business partners as
| incentives to join the national standards committee and vote for OOXM.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080208082501776
EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always
| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter
| Quinn was by no means unique.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252
Corrupt countries were more likely to support the OOXML document format
,----[ Quote ]
| Is this just a random coincidence? The median of the CPI index of the above
| mentioned 70 countries is 3.95. Of the most corrupted half (CPI index less
| than 3.95) 23 or 77% voted for approval (approval or approval with comments)
| and 7 or 23% for disapproval; 5 abstained. Of the least corrupted half (CPI
| index more than 3.95) 13 or 54% voted for approval and 11 or 46% voted for
| disapproval; 11 abstained - see the table below.
`----
http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2007-09-05.en.html
Microsoft accused of more OOXML standards fiddling
,----[ Quote ]
| However the 11 new countries are refusing to say how they will vote. These
| include Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Ecuador, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malta, Pakistan,
| Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela. Most people seem to think
| that these have been put there by Vole to make sure the standard gets pushed
| through.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=42106
|
|