Slashdot Mirror
South Africa Appeals ISO Decision On OOXML
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."
who farted?
Think of it as creative interpretation of the Directives.
Lacking <sarcasm> tags,
Wasn't the deadline for appeals two months after the original decision? Which I believe was end of March. I'm thrilled to see that someone finally stood up before the deadline. I have hope once again (despite the fact we all know MS will come up with a way to quash it).
You big fat blubbery lardass fatass piece of shit bags of entropy. I am so fucking tired of seeing big fat lardass fuckers everywhere I go every single time I go outside. Try having some self-respect you fucking corpulent flabby rolls-a-danglin' pieces of pitiful powerless shit! Don't give me this "big boned" or "plus size" or "more to love" bullshit either.
Their next tactic will be to necklace Steve Ballmer.
"Despite having an open source strategy the South African government doesn't really understand how to benefit from OSS. This is according to Microsoft director of corporate standards, Jason Matusow." http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2432
Some extra info and thoughts in this article: http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080523052458101
Dependency hell? =>
He managed to keep South Africa from using ODF. He thinks they have a problem benefiting from free software and he'd like to keep it that way.
Good for South Africa to nail M$XML. They might be learning faster than he can bribe his way out of it.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
OOXML is willing to play Sun City.
I wonder if Mr Shuttleworth had a hand in helping this?
Have to think that this might be some good work that Shuttleworth's folks are doing. A lot of the original votes are determined by a lot of lobbying (just like in Congress).
--- http://davidnehme.blogspot.com
It's kind of ironic how teh FOSSies and Stallmanistas whined and cried for years that MS wasn't following standards... but now that MS is submitting standards for approval, teh FOSSies and Stallmanistas are crying about the standards.
Any bets that now FOSSies and Stallmanistas will start rejecting standards, and do their own thing? That's the thing- when you stand for nothing, you fall for anything. It was never about "ZOMG TEH STANDERDZ!!11!"... it was always about having a bat to beat Microsoft with. Just like OLPC: it was never about providing learning tools to kids in the third world, it's about having a bat to beat Microsoft with.
I have a dream that one day FOSS stands for something besides attacking Microsoft.
Thank you South Africa!
Hip Hip Hurray!!
BTW, the pdf letter linked in TFA is a great read, perfect summary of all the problems that were so apparent to anyone actually looking into the whole mess.
Its a pity the SA government refuses to face the real problems, like unemployment, AIDS, corruption, crime and the refugee crisis caused by that maniac Mugabe running Zimbabwe into the ground. They need a little less solidarity with thier "Brothers in the Struggle" and a little more "Brother, what the hell do you think you are doing?".
Have computers?
It seems outrageous to me that OOXML was approved as a standard despite not having more then one implementation to prove that it's possible for it to be a common format.
However it's freakin' hilarious/sad/odd that there actually isn't even ONE implementation of OOXML and it was approved. Doesn't the ISO have any standards for standards? Or is it just a matter of gaming the process? Maybe the ISO itself should be reconsidered...
A cyberpunk common theme is multinational industrial concerns having equal or more power than the governments. In fact, the governments seem to have been broken of most power and now are nothing more than location-based unions.
The first time I saw this was actually Max Headroom (I suppose that show could be called the grandfather of cyberpunk).
It always seemed like fantasy to me (a pretty horrifying one), but nothing that could come true.
What's going on these days though feels like the first battles. Industries placing people in top government positions, controlling votes, manipulating laws and standards, Chevron killing villagers who are protesting, all the private police forces protecting industrial concerns in Iraq (and being better equipped than the solders to do so)...
I'm surprised they were as accurate as they were, and I trust their predictions for our future in a corporate-run world if we let it go on--not that I know what to do about it...
We've always been able to overthrow governments that became too problematic. How do you overthrow a multinational conglomerate that is in control of multiple governments? How do you even know who to fight?
I think South Africa has more pressing issues at the moment than to worry about this.
In the meanwhile, you can sign The Hague declaration in support for free and open digital standards
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Comment removed based on user account deletion
He would say that.
Not until it's gone through review.
Oh, that's right, there's no review!
So not a standard.
Well would I be a fanatic if I REFUSED to be killed in a satanic ritual and won't change my mind? When your parents told you time and time again, were they fanatics?
How come RMS gets the fanatic label but dancing monkey boy doesn't? Y'know, the one going on about 272 MS IP in Linux, time and time again. Or Bill Gates, always yibbering on about how MS is innovative and OSS isn't without letup?
And IS fanatacism wrong? Without it, what would change? Without it, the biggest and strongest would always win, because "fanacical support" cares not the cost, so is more willing to risk losing to win.
My understanding is: the fast-track process is designed for existing de-facto standards. Since OOXML is not implemented anywhere, it is hard for me to understand how OOXML would qualify for the fast-track process.