[old news maybe, but it's in the news again:]
Open XML vote: Politics, intrigue, and, oh, some tech
,----[ Quote ]
| Others have expressed their disillusionment with the standards process as a
| whole, even those who work for the ISO.
|
| The former convener, Martin Bryan, of the joint ISO/IEC committee working on
| document standards said that corporations are exerting more and more
| influence over the technical people at national standards bodies.
|
| "The days of open standards development are fast disappearing," he wrote last
| November. "Instead we are getting 'standardization by corporation,' something
| I have been fighting for 20 years."
`----
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9905477-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-20
The Future of ODF and OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| Many journalists and others have asked me whether I have a prediction on what
| the outcome will be, and also what I think it will mean if OOXML is approved.
| I don’t have an answer to the first question, as there are too many countries
| involved, and too much may change until the last minute. But I do have an
| answer to the second question, and that answer is the same one that I have
| given every time that a new decision point has loomed in the ongoing quest
| for a useful format standard that can bring competition and innovation back
| to the desktop, as well as ensure that the history and creativity of today
| will remain accessible far into the future.
|
| That answer is this: if anyone had asked me to predict in August of 2005
| (the date of the initial Massachusetts decision that set the ODF ball
| rolling) how far ODF might go and what impact it might have, I would never
| have guessed that it would have gone so far, and had such impact, in so short
| a period of time. I think it’s safe to say that whatever happens with the
| OOXML vote is likely to have little true impact at all on the future success
| of ODF compliant products.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080328080930159
Related:
How to Royally Annoy National Bodies
,----[ Quote ]
| Guide to future monopolists on how to alienate yourself from National Bodies:
|
| 1. Waste NBs time in reviewing monstrous draft specifications
| 2. Claim that these specs can do everything for anyone by standardising
| marketing material
| 3. If you don't get your way at a certain level, lobby the superior above.
| Dont stop! Go all the way to the head of the nation if you think you can!
| 4. Leak press stories to journalists to pressure Ministries to make a
| decision. Quick!
| 5. Try to shut down TCs if actual technical work is done revealing issues
| with your plan
| 6. Question Question Question everything (process, fairness, the system,
| members) when things dont go your way
| 7. Otherwise create another TC with friendly experts
| 8. If the NB allows new members just by paying membership fees, encourage
| your business partners to join with marketing funds. Stack-stack-stack it
| high!
| 9. Stalk decision makers, even if it means traveling around the globe with
| them
| 10. Refuse changes in the spec especially if it breaks your product which
| you released prior
| 11. Have private interviews with TC members in the guise of funding for
| their new projects/research grants/interoperability initiatives and
| conveniently talk about their position on your spec.
| 12. Get your Business Partners to write in form letters. Some don't even
| bother to change the templates
| 13. Attend TC meetings uninvited by fabricating business cards
| 14. Send Lawyers in to Technical Committee meetings who prefer not to
| engage in "high-school" debates
| 15. Make rude and inaccurate statements against TC members in public
`----
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/03/how-to-royally.html
Appeals Court Rules that Deceptive Conduct in Standard Setting can Violate
Antitrust Laws
,----[ Quote ]
| While many of us have been preoccupied with the OOXML vote, the rest of the
| world has naturally been continuing to go about its business. One piece of
| business that took an interesting turn in the last few days is a ruling by a
| Federal Appellate Court in the United States that breaks new ground in
| protecting the integrity of the standard setting system. The ruling may also
| have relevance to the regrettable conduct witnessed in the recent OOXML vote.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=2007090607324049
Danish Unix User Group Files Complaint With EU Commission Against Denmark For
Mandating MSOOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| The Danish Unix User Group, DKUUG, has filed a formal complaint with the EU
| Commission regarding Denmark's mandating ECMA 376, better known by us as
| MSOOXML, for certain procurements.
|
| The complaint [PDF] is grounded in breach of the EC Treaty article 81 on
| unfair competition. The press release says that the regulation "can be seen
| as an attempt to continue the de facto monopoly of Microsoft in the Danish
| state on office software, as the various public agencies and institutions
| need to buy the products of Microsoft to comply to the regulation."
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080226164131724
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
Bam! Comical Creese debunks OpenDocumentFormat Alliance
,----[ Quote ]
| You are free to inspect the irregularities website that documents few cases
| reported by the online press and blogs. We got much more reports on an
| informal base per email. The Swedish single employee story is not credible,
| actually committee stuffing took place in Sweden.
|
| On loopholes, that’s another subjective call, but since Microsoft
| competitors managed to establish control over a standards initiative with
| potentially dire consequences for one of Microsoft’s most important
| business domains, we are not surprised that Microsoft (legitimately,
| albeit with what some consider to be poor standards etiquette) exploited
| the loopholes. As we noted, we assume ISO will update its procedures to
| eliminate the loopholes in the future.
|
| What?
|
| Microsoft competitors managed to establish control over a standards
| initiative…
|
| What?
|
| Microsoft competitors managed to establish control over a standards
| initiative with potentially dire consequences for one of Microsoft’s most
| important business domains, we are not surprised that Microsoft …
| exploited the loopholes.
|
| ???
|
| but since Microsoft competitors managed to establish control over a
| standards initiative with potentially dire consequences for one of
| Microsoft’s most important business domains, we are not surprised that
| Microsoft (legitimately, albeit with what some consider to be poor
| standards etiquette) exploited the loopholes.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-41447/bam-comical-creese-debunks-opendocumentformat-alliance
Final vote at the brm - catastropic failure at BRM
,----[ Quote ]
| Unrecoverable Application Error or UAE or BSOD to the nonsense ooxml stuff.
| So, some of the stuff was hand-waved through. But the end is here. We have to
| expose all the underhanded, manipulations that MS has done everywhere to buy
| votes. I am glad that the EU is investigating.
`----
http://harishpillay.livejournal.com/
Microsoft’s secretive standards orgs in Former Yugoslavia
,----[ Quote ]
| Croatian laws keep its national body’s votes secret, so the only way for the
| Croatian public to find out how the process went would be if a board member
| illegally leaked information out of CSI. This is, of course, unlikely to
| happen. And the Serbian national standardization body is not officially
| formed, so those two votes were easy for Microsoft, and probably not only
| ones around the globe.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/092407-ooxml.html?page=1
Microsoft Tech Ed 2007: OpenXML
,----[ Quote ]
| He was asked "Why did Microsoft push OOXML through the "Fast Track" process
| instead of the standard ISO process? Wouldn't they get less resistance than
| faced now?"
|
| His response was very frank: "Office is a USD$10 billion revenue generator
| for the company. When ODF was made an ISO standard, Microsoft had to react
| quickly as certain governments have procurement policies which prefer ISO
| standards. Ecma and OASIS are 'international standards', but ISO is the
| international 'Gold Standard'. Microsoft therefore had to rush this standard
| through. Its a simple matter of commercial interests!"
`---- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2007/09/microsoft-tech-.html
Probe into votes on Microsoft standard
,----[ Quote ]
| The European Commission is investigating the process under which a key
| Microsoft document format could be adopted as an industry standard - a move
| that would carry significant commercial benefits for the software company.
|
| Officials at the European Commission's competition directorate have written
| to members of the International Organisation for Standardisation, asking how
| they prepared for votes in September and later this month on acceptance of
| Microsoft's OOXML document format as a worldwide standard. Without ISO
| acceptance, Microsoft could stand to lose business, particularly with
| government clients, some of which are becoming increasingly keen to use only
| ISO-certified software.
|
| The ISO process has been widely criticised, however, with some members of
| national standards' bodies accusing Microsoft and its rivals of attempting to
| influence the vote.
|
| Tim Bray, a member of the Canadian national standards body, called the
| procedure "complete, utter, unadulterated bullshit" in a recent blog posting.
|
| [...]
|
| In addition, in several countries, a large number of Microsoft partners
| joined the national standards organisations just ahead of a vote on the issue
| in September.
|
| [...]
|
| Microsoft said it openly encouraged its partners to participate in the ISO
| process, but was not funding any third parties doing so. The company said it
| would cooperate with the European Commission's inquiry.
`----
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/88e570a2-ea56-11dc-b3c9-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
The Art of Being Mugged
,----[ Quote ]
| The four options presented were:
|
| * Option 1: Submitter's responses (Ecma's) are all automatically
| approved.
| * Option 2: Anything not discussed is not approved.
| * Option 3: Neutral third-party (ITTF) decides which Ecma responses are
| accepted
| * Option 4: Voting (approve + disapprove) must be at least 9 votes.
| Abstentions not counted.
|
| We were told that these options are not in the Directives and that were are
| given these choices because ITTF "needs to act in the best interests of the
| IEC". I don't quite get it, but there appears to be some concern over what
| the press would think if the BRM did not handle all of the comments. One NB
| requested to speak and asked, "I wonder what the press would think about
| arbitrarily changed procedures?". No response. I thought to myself, why
| wasn't ITTF thinking about the 'best interests" of JTC1 when they allowed a
| 6,045 page Fast Track submission, or ignored all those contradiction
| submissions, or decided to schedule a 5-day BRM to handle 3,522 NB comments.
| Isn't it a bit late to start worrying about what the press will think?
|
| We break for lunch.
|
| After lunch and after more discussion, the meeting adopted a variation of
| option 4, by removing the vote minimum. I believe in this vote the BRM and
| ITTF exceeded its authority and violated the consensus principles described
| in JTC1 Directives.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/03/art-of-being-mugged.html
|
|
