ISO Puts OOXML On Hold

schliz alerts us that ISO, in response to the four appeals (Venezuela, India, Brazil, South Africa) filed in recent weeks, has put the OOXML standardization process on hold. Here is ISO's press release, which says that ISO/IEC DIS 29500 will not be published for at least "several months" while the appeals process goes forward.
Update: 06/11 10:13 GMT by KD : Reader Alsee points out that the fourth officially recognized appealing country is Venezuela, not Denmark as originally stated. The protests of Denmark and Norway are being disregarded, as they do not come from the administrative heads of their national organizations.

Comments

Wow

[sheepweevil]

Maybe the ISO hasn't been bought off totally. They actually made a rational decision about OOXML.

Re:Wow

[ianare]

Except no decision has been made yet.

The two management boards will then decide whether the appeals should be further processed or not. They are simply "considering" the appeals. All MS has to do is stack the two management boards (should be at leats partly there already, considering almost all of ISO has been tampered with), and get them to reject the appeals.

There is only a faint glimmer of hope, a pinhole of light at the end of the tunnel.

Re:Wow

[flnca]

Exactly. And the OOXML standard has already been ratified by ECMA anyway, almost two years ago. There are so many standards that aren't followed, that one more or less really doesn't matter. ;-)

When I look at the C++ standard, or the POSIX standard -- they're used as guidance, but they aren't implemented by the word, because it's not always possible. The OOXML standard became obsolete the moment Office 2007 was brought to market.

Standards are often used as a sales argument, and I guess that's what Microsoft was trying to do. To be able to say: "We support standards!" :-D

Re:hurrah!

[Chyeld]

Actually "on hold" is more along the lines of "Microsoft has gotten what it wanted and would really like this format to die on the table so it doesn't have to actually implement any of its promises".

[corporate spin]Oh sure! MS Office 2010 was going to be fully open spec, but the ISO never got around to finalizing OOXML, and we got tired of waiting. So, Hey! Here's a new proprietary format. After all, it's not our fault, we upheld our part of the bargain and released the specs...[/corporate spin]

Re:hurrah!

[Elektroschock]

As Microsoft finally announced to switch to ODF and refuses to implement the unpublished OOXML format before adding full ODF support there is really no reason to go on with ISO OOXML. Governments should simply mandate ODF as the XML based document standard format in their own administration. The Netherlands are a perfect example. More governments will follow. Microsoft can just embrace the domino effect. Ironically it was the ISO OOXML process that made ODF adoption happen.

Norway set aside the comittees no, and said yes

[viking80]

The Norwegian Standards committee was also almost unanimously against the OOXML. Then the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation offered a few hundred million $$ to various pet projects of the Norwegian prime minister such as a Svalbard seed bank http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Svalbard_Global_Seed_Vault as well as vaccination of kids in poor countries.

To everyones big suprise, the government set aside the No vote, and ruled by fiat that Norway would vote Yes.

But then again, why care about a petty little standard and some petty corruption when you can save the world.

that's OK

[nguy]

Since even Microsoft has switched to ODF, that's pretty much a no-brainer :-)