OpenDocument Voted In By ISO

cduffy writes "OpenDocument has been voted in as ISO/IEC 26300, with no dissenting votes and a small number of abstentions. There are still several formalities to take place before final issuance. Now the question: Will OpenXML get the same treatment, despite its technical weaknesses? There's also coverage on Groklaw."

Comments

Re:Comparison

[AKAImBatman]

[What] looked good in 1948, turned out bad (Tacoma bridge).

There's a huge difference between construction engineering and software engineering. In construction engineering, poorly understood physics and unforeseen weather patterns can create unpredictable situations and stresses. In software engineering, the rules of the system are predefined and well understood. While a lot of research goes into ways of doing specific tasks "better", the tradeoffs to each design are usually well understood.

The result is that standardized computer algorithms and formats are rarely incorrect. However, they do become obsolete in relatively short periods of time due to increases in computing power and informational storage/transmission requirements.

Re:So much for the list of experts

[AKAImBatman]

Experts from Boeing, bring them on.
Experts from the Society of Biblical Literature?? What have they got to do with a computer data formatting standard??

Isn't it obvious? Literary organizations have massive numbers of documents that need to be digitized and archived in perpetuity. As a result, they have a vested interest in using standardized formats that will be guaranteed to meet their needs for years to come. The Society of Biblical Literature is no different in these respects, especially as more and more fragments of apocryiphal and gnostic texts continue to be found.