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

[renegadesx]

It's not so much that they care that much that their format is an ISO standard or not, its more about the following points

1) When someone accuses Microsoft of not using open standards they will point to OOXML if it gets passed
2) They dont want ODF to be more of a "standard" than OOXML, on paper or otherwise as it gives people incentives to switch even if it is a small amount.

They have to be careful not to get to arrogent in the media, saying boldly ISO standards are meaningless, Microsoft standards have more meaning will expose them as bragging about not adopting standards and bragging about being a monopoly that wants to lock you in. That too could turn people away.

Re:I hope its obvious by now

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Not true.

[Anonymous Coward]

They're facing legislation requiring that government documents be kept in open formats. Yes, they're working on the governments directly to ensure that Microsoft Office isn't "excluded" whether "Office Open XML" is meaningfully open or not, but making their own ISO standard is insurance.

And if they can pervert the ISO to their own ends, they can find plenty of other things to do with that power.

Don't misunderstand, I agree insofar as you're saying that their lock-in won't evaporate even if they lose the battle to get OOXML rubber stamped, but it's only one piece of a tide that's going against them right now. Their lock-in is weaker now than it has been in ages, and those who want out are making their move now. It may or may not work in the end, but I wouldn't expect Microsoft to go down quietly.

Anyone who plans to ever compete with Microsoft should be challenging them now. Once they get people to transition to Microsoft's newest stuff, they're going to be stronger than ever.

Re:Not true.

[99BottlesOfBeerInMyF]

First, it's only a few governments, and those cases are not as black and white as Slashdot articles would have you believe.

Massachusetts, Sweden, the entire European Union all have proposed or passed open format laws. Mind you, the laws themselves are interpretable. Those writing the laws want the advantages of open standard formats, but most of the legislators have a limited understanding of the subject, and so may be tricked into approving things that are called "open" but which actually remove the benefits they are seeking. Still, this is a common trend and a significant number of governments are looking into this subject and some will certainly required an approved standard format (which is why MS is pursuing this farce).

...it's what the majority of Big Corporate Business does.

How many big businesses do you suppose have to do business with governments including exchanging documents? So if all those companies then make provisions for handling ODF files, what is to stop other businesses from emulating the government and saving money on licensing? Exchanging documents is no longer a big problem, since everyone can handle ODF since it is required by so many governments.

And the reality is that Big Corporate Business loves Microsoft.

Corporate business, loves MS, but they also love IBM; especially in enterprise. You know what else they love, money. In particular they like making a "cost saving" move that catapults them into the limelight and sets them up for a big promotion. More and more American businesses are feeling the crunch these days and there has been some real trends towards alternatives, both OpenOffice and even the corporate version of Google docs and other, similar services.

The truth is, MS doesn't like to compete either on price or features. They like to avoid competing using lock-in strategies and their file formats are their biggest customer lock-in. Government adoption of ODF undermines that lock-in and makes it easier for companies to use alternatives for some or all of their needs. Once Google and the like get their offerings to compete with the big, expensive CMS solutions in use by big corporations, I predict we'll see a lot more companies opting for all-in-one solutions that are better integrated than MSOffice+Documentum or Livelink. You know IBM will be pushing FileNet and Domino pretty hard.

Will MS lose significant market share? Maybe, maybe not, but there is a real chance they will have to fight on price and features for the first time in a decade and that will be good for everyone (except MS).

What's next?

[arotenbe]

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.