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Microsoft's Influence On Upcoming ISO Vote
christian.einfeldt writes "Microsoft has experienced some criticism for its handling of its bid to have OOXML accepted as an ISO standard, including the use of financial incentives to affect the Swedish national vote, which resulted in Sweden reversing its pro-Microsoft position; and failing to honor a promise to relinquish control of the OOXML specification if it gained ISO status. A few days ago Groklaw published an article that raises questions about Microsoft's influence on the upcoming February vote, citing concerns with the limitation of discussions of patent issues, public accountability of the process, and even irregularities with choosing the size of the room so as to limit the delegates opposed to OOXML ISO status, as had been done in the past."
What's next? Will Microsoft try to bribe OpenOffice.org to make OOXML the new default file format? Will they attempt to make Microsoft Bob an ISO standard? Will they try to release a document specification that has four different definitions of a "percent"?
Oh, wait... they are already doing that last one.
Tomato wedge sperm darts that are Republican.
NB is a national body... the one from each nation that gets a vote at the ISO.
BRM is the ballot resolution meeting... it's where all the nations get together and finalize the changes upon the document and then they go home to their respective countries and they decide whether they'll change their vote.
So what this means in english is that anyone with copyright/patent/trademark/business-process problems should take that up outside the BRM because the BRM is only about the wording of the document.
It's advising national bodies to take this up with the ITTF, which many of them are doing.