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."

Comments

I hope its obvious by now

[hax0r_this]

That Microsoft couldn't care less whether their format becomes an ISO standard. Nearly every document stored by every business in the world is stored in Microsoft formats at this point. They don't need their format to be accepted, they simply need to make sure that being an ISO standard is meaningless. They would seem to have succeeded.

Re:I hope its obvious by now

[HiThere]

Well, no. If they *do* get approved they will have corrupted the system so badly, ISO certification means nothing. If they don't get approved they will merely have jammed the channel so full of junk that nothing further can get approved. Most of those "representatives" will only show up to vote when MS tells them to. This makes it impossible to get a quorum unless MS is pushing it...and MS isn't interested in routine business.

Or at least that's how I understand the matter. I remain uncertain. I also remain committed to odt files. (That's the extension, don't recall the acronym for the format. ODF?)

Re:Not true.

[bl8n8r]

> They make *acceptable* products

Since when is it acceptable for software to allow remote install of keystroke loggers and malware? How about vendor lockin? Forced hardware upgrades? This is acceptable too? Microsoft software is *not* acceptable and that's the whole point behind alternatives. The market is shifting, it's just that the U.S.A. is being left behind -- by their own doing.

Re:Not true.

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

Which of these European Union countries have kicked the Microsoft habit? Which ones, please? Exactly none.

So far:

• Belguim - By law, from September 2007 on every federal government department must be able to read OpenDocument documents. From September 2008 on, all exchanges of revisable documents (texts, presentations, spreadsheets) between federal government agencies must occur in ODF.
• Finland - the Ministry of Justice has chosen Open Office and thus the OpenDocument format as their main document format from the beginning of 2007. The decision has been made after deep research of ODF possibilities. Other ministries may follow.
• Germany - about half of government offices use StarOffice or OpenOffice and ODF although no law or rule requires it.
• Netherlands - From beginning of 2009 onwards OpenSource-software and the ODF will be the standard for reading, publishing and the exchange of information for all governmental organizations.
• Australia - ODF is mandatory for the national archives
• Argentina - one province has mandated ODF for all government use.
• India - the national court system has mandated ODF as the format for all document exchange.
• Japan - government hiring policy gives preference to programs that use ODF.
• South Africa - ODF, ASCII, or UTF-8 is mandatory for all document exchange within the Dept. of Public Service.
• Vietnam - all government systems are switching to OpenOffice and removing MSOffice (currently underway).

Those are the ones I know about from a quick Google mining. I'd say it is a bit more than "none." It isn't a huge movement, yet, but each one makes the next easier.

Re:Not true.

[rucs_hack]

You're a little wrong there, latex may be that old (I don't know its incept date), but it is the result of many years of gradual improvement and changes. Not all of it is that old.

it's matured into a great tool, with features taking a long time to get just right.

MS office on the other hand keeps being re-invented and added to in a sporadic fashion. Possibly it's a gradual maturity in house, but externally, to the many eyes, it keeps jumping forward to bright shiny new releases and expecting you to pay over and over.

The main difference is that latex matures, whereas each major version of MS office ages. I own a copy of Office, and its bizarre that a program I bought in 2002 is now considered too old and needing to be replaced by it's manufacturer, even though it works perfectly well for me doing a task that hasn't actually changed in the slightest. At least it hasn't for me.