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OSS advocates file human rights complaint against SA election body
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| The head of South Africa’s government open source working group, the chief
| technical officer of the State IT Agency (Sita) and The Shuttleworth
| Foundation, have laid a complaint with the Human Rights Commission (HRC)
| against the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) for excluding non-Internet
| Explorer users from it website.
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http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2915
Not to be confused with another IEC, Commission Electrotechnique
Internationale, which is ISO's buddy in the OOXML fiasco.
"Hey, Steve, just because you broke into Xerox’s store before I did and took
the TV doesn’t mean I can’t go in later and steal the stereo."
--Bill Gates, Microsoft
Recent:
EC probes ISO's approval of Microsoft
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| He refused to describe the nature of the investigation, but in a speech today
| about open standards, Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for competition
| policy, gave a hint: "If voting in the standard-setting context is influenced
| less by the technical merits of the technology but rather by side agreements,
| inducements, package deals, reciprocal agreements, or commercial pressure,
| then these risk falling foul of the competition rules," she said.
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http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/06/10/ec-probes-iso-approval
Neelie Kroes: "Choosing open standards is a very smart business decision"
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| Well, in the case of ISO, just formulating some required rules would be nice.
| You know, rules that can't change in the middle of the game. In my
| schoolyard, we called that cheating. I have a suggestion. How about a rule
| that a vendor proposing a standard can't stack committees trying to decide
| whether or not to approve it? No? Too simple?
|
| [...]
|
| Why is she lauding software patents when Europe doesn't for the most part
| recognize them? And in software, there is no "emerge from markets" because
| Microsoft owns the market, and not necessarily because it's the best choice
| or even a choice. Just try to buy a computer without Windows.
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http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=2008061009003111
Probe into votes on Microsoft standard
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| 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.
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http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/88e570a2-ea56-11dc-b3c9-0000779fd2ac.html?nclick_check=1
The Art of Being Mugged
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| 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.
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http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/03/art-of-being-mugged.html
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