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South Africa Appeals ISO Decision On OOXML

Posted by kdawson on from the first-of-the-dominos dept.

mauritzhansen sends us a blog post by Steve Pepper, former chairman of the Norwegian standards committee responsible for evaluating OOXML, reporting that the South African national standards body, SABS, has appealed against the result of the OOXML DIS 29500 ballot in ISO. From the blog: "In a letter sent to the General Secretary of the IEC (co-sponsor with ISO of JTC1), the SABS expresses its 'deep concern over the increasing tendency of international organizations to use the JTC 1 process to circumvent the consensus-building process that is the cornerstone to the success and international acceptance of ISO and IEC standards.' Having resigned as Chairman of the Norwegian committee responsible for considering OOXML for exactly this reason, I congratulate South Africa on its willingness to stand up for the principles on which standardization work should be based."

6 of 79 comments (clear)

  1. They can't do that by overshoot · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Aside from the fact that they're protesting other NBs' votes (or so the Secretariat will rule) there's the little matter of there not being any IS-29500 text to object to. No standard, no objections.

    Think of it as creative interpretation of the Directives.

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    Lacking <sarcasm> tags, /. substitutes moderation as "Troll."
    1. Re:They can't do that by uucp2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Unfortunately, this is probably exactly what Microsoft wants.

    2. Re:They can't do that by gunnk · · Score: 2, Interesting

      No central standards body? Oh dear! I guess we'll have to decentralize the process and make it transparent... an open standards process!

      Nah, I think Microsoft actually likes ISO because they've found ways to distort it. However, the gp post is spot on: ISO will either clean up its act or lose credibility -- and for an organization whose existence relies on credibility that means extinction.

      --
      Life is short: void the warranty.
  2. Re:No, he's right. by mckorr · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Isn't Shuttleworth South African? More likely he is getting to the politicos first in order to keep Ubuntu growing.

  3. Re:Word is... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Actually, as a (not very proud at the moment) South African, I am familiar with the term.

    It just seem that you are not aware of recent news....

    I was making an observation not a recommendation...

  4. Re:South Africans... by bsDaemon · · Score: 2, Interesting

    First World countries are NATO-aligned, Second World countries are Soviet-aligned, and Third World countries are up for grabs...

    Who has filled the Soviet void? And since the ANC was always backed by the USSR, is "democratic" SA a 2nd World country?

    see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_World
    http://www.libertyfilmfestival.com/libertas/wp-content/pMandela1.jpg