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[News] Standards Expert Dismisses ISO (Microsoft) Response

About: http://www.iso.org/iso/pressrelease/faqs_isoiec29500.htm

Andy Updegrove:

,----[ Quote ]
| What could make more sense? ISO has issued a brief FAQ explaining why nothing         
| is wrong, and nothing to worry about, in light of the OOXML experience. My 
| favorite Q&A is the last one, which, if paraphrased to air safety, would 
| sound like this:   
| Q: Following eye-witness reports that the the wings of the 747 fell off just 
| before landing in Geneva, will the FAA launch a thorough investigation? 
| A: No. The vast majority of flights land safely. This suggests that the 
| safety inspection process is credible, works well and is delivering the 
| results needed. Of course, because continual improvement is public safety is 
| an underlying aim of standardization, the FAA will certainly be continuing to 
| review and improve its inspection procedures.    
`----

Free Formats vs. Open Formats

,----[ Quote ]
| And you likely already know about the whole OOXML debacle. How Microsoft got 
| so afraid of OpenDocument (ODF) that they invested millions and millions on a 
| 6000 page pile of — let’s face it — crap. Pure, pointless crap. To beat 
| another office format. And they bribed every ISO jurisdiction they could. To 
| beat another office format. Because it would mean everyone would use a single 
| format and make Microsoft’s office suite obsolete. No way, ese!     
| 
| This isn’t anymore about closed vs. open formats, and you don’t need me to 
| rub it in your face. It’s time to leave those non-free formats behind and 
| look forward for a world of interoperability, a world of doors free to 
| trespass in whatever way you want, and where no one will be able to take that 
| freedom away from anyone else.    
`----

http://spreadopenmedia.org/2008/04/16/free-formats-vs-open-formats/

ISO still in hot water and under probe.


Yesterday:

Protest in front of Town Hall for Document Freedom

,----[ Quote ]
| The protest organized by FSUG and FCI seems to have attracted a lot of 
| deserved attention, despite the hurried execution.  
`----

http://hpnadig.net/blog/Protest-for-Document-Freedom


Techies protest proprietary standards; seek policy

,----[ Quote ]
| Ever since the International Standardisation Organisation (ISO) vote on April 
| 2 adopted Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) as a document standard, techie 
| blogs and websites have been inundated with posts and articles voicing their 
| opposition to proprietary software and technical issues with the new 
| standard.    
`----

http://www.hindu.com/2008/04/15/stories/2008041554380500.htm


ISO Fantasy

,----[ Quote ]
| What OOXML Is · The ISO process, brutal and corrupt as it was, has been 
|                 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| covered to death by everyone. Its output, soon to be known as ISO/IEC 29500, 
| differs from ECMA-376 in two ways. ¶  
| 
| [...]
| 
| What Microsoft really wanted was that ISO stamp of approval to use as a 
| marketing tool. And just like your mother told you, when they get what they 
| want and have their way with you, they’re probably not gonna call you in the 
| morning.   
`----

http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/04/15/OOXML


How Microsoft Will Play the ISO Card

,----[ Quote ]
| One of the arguments adduced in favour of making OOXML an ISO standard was 
| that it would place control of the former in the hands of an independent ISO 
| group, which was a much better situation than the present one.  
| 
| Anyone who believes this has clearly learned nothing from Microsoft's history 
| of unremitting subversion of practically every independent standard it has 
| been involved with. Microsoft will continue to develop OOXML as it wishes, 
| taking only token notice of anything the ISO committee says. It will, 
| however, bask in the glory of the ISO approval (assuming it stands after the 
| various challenges currently being made to it), irrespective of the fact that 
| its own products won't support the standard properly.       
`----

http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=713&blogid=14


Recent:

Software wars

,----[ Quote ]
| Allegations of committee-stuffing, the outcome of votes overridden by 
| political appointees, a final decision that many involved consider tainted: 
| this may sound like a discredited election in some third world country. But 
| it is actually a description of an ugly fight over international technical 
| standards that wrapped up this week. Microsoft came out on top, but at the 
| cost of tarnishing its reputation and the credibility of an important 
| back-room process that oils the wheels of many global industries.      
`----

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c9743360-01a8-11dd-a323-000077b07658,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fc9743360-01a8-11dd-a323-000077b07658.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerworlduk.com%2Ftool


Microsoft Plummets, Retail Falls While Beauty Gains in CoreBrand 2007 Brand
Power Rankings

,----[ Quote ]
| The annual "CoreBrand Brand Power 100" Branding Index(R) of 1,200 US 
| corporations ranks Coca-Cola Company and Johnson & Johnson at #1 and #2 
| respectively, unchanged since 2004. Meanwhile, Microsoft's corporate brand 
| declined in stunning fashion over the past four years, falling from 11 in 
| 2004 to 59 in 2007 Microsoft, a decline of 48 places!    
`----

http://www.marketwire.com/mw/release.do?id=834308


Computer experts stage street protest in Oslo against Microsoft document format
as standard

,----[ Quote ]
| OSLO, Norway: Roughly 60 data experts staged a rare and noisy street 
| demonstration in downtown Oslo on Wednesday to protest the adoption of 
| Microsoft Corp.'s document format as an international standard and against 
| Norway voting for the move.   
| 
| [...]
| 
| He claimed the committee ignored the advice of the vast majority of the 
| Nordic nation's software experts, was pressured by Microsoft and 
| displayed "scandalous behavior."  
`----

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/09/business/EU-TEC-Norway-Digital-Demonstration.php


Photos: http://flickr.com/groups/750232@N22/pool/


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

http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-52412/ooxml-triggers-demonstration-in-norway:let-s-throw-ooxml-out-of-iso


Related:

Martin Bryan: we are getting “standardization by corporation”

,----[ Quote ]
| A November informative report of Martin Bryan, Convenor, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 
| WG1 highlights the fallout of the ECMA-376 fast-track process for ISO. He 
| says he is 'glad to be retiring before the situation becomes impossible'  
| 
| [...]
| 
| In what is an astonishingly outspoken report, Martin Bryan, Convenor, ISO/IEC 
| JTC1/SC34 WG1 has given us insight into the total mess that Microsoft/ECMA 
| have caused during their scandalous, underhand and unremitting attempts to 
| get - what is a very poorly written specification {i.e. DIS 29500 aka OOXML, 
| AR} - approved as an ISO standard. …    
`----

http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-30107/martin-bryan:we-are-getting-standardization-by-corporation


Dysfunctional ISO - Courtesy of Microsoft

http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2007/12/dysfunctional-iso-courtesy-of-microsoft.html


Microsoft accused of stacking ISO committee

,----[ Quote
| In a memo sent following his last meeting as head of the working group on 
| WG1, which is handling Microsoft’s application to make the Word format an ISO 
| standard as ECMA 376, outgoing Governor Martin Bryan (above), an expert on 
| SGML and XML, accused the company of stacking his group.   
`----

http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1777


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

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