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ISO Relevance Questioned After OOXML Appeals Fail
Cowards Anonymous passes along an Australian PCWorld piece that begins "Countries whose appeals were dismissed regarding the ISO/IEC's approval of Microsoft's OOXML as an international standard are questioning the judgment and relevance of the ISO/IEC and the standards they approve. In a statement made at the Congresso Internacional Sociedade e Governo Electronico (CONSEGI) 2008 conference, representatives from three of the four countries that appealed against an April 1 vote to approve OOXML as a standard said they are 'no longer confident' in the ability of both the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission to be vendor-neutral and open when it comes to setting technology standards." Here is the statement signed by South Africa, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Cuba. The countries won't pursue further opposition to OOXML.
In the USA, it is the other way around. The commerce controls the Government. Just as the RIAA gets what it wants through Congress. Just as the oil interests killed the development of a hybrid car a while back. Just as in a report I read, a vendor of a deadly contaminated product controlled the Town Council, including the health inspector, and kept selling the stuff and killing people. Life is cheap in the U.S. You don't know whether the next person you meet is going to turn a gun on you.
How did the USA vote on the appeals?