Norwegian Standards Body Members Resign Over OOXML

tsa writes "Ars Technica reports that 13 of the 23 members from the technical committee of the Norwegian standards body, the organization that manages technical standards for the country, have resigned because of the way the OOXML standardization was handled. We've previously discussed Norway's protest and ISO's rejection of other appeals. From the article: 'The standardization process for Microsoft's office format has been plagued with controversy. Critics have challenged the validity of its ISO approval and allege that procedural irregularities and outright misconduct marred the voting process in national standards bodies around the world. Norway has faced particularly close scrutiny because the country reversed its vote against approval despite strong opposition to the format by a majority of the members who participated in the technical committee.'"

Comments

Boycott Novell has More to the Story.

[twitter]

Boycott Novell puts the Norwegian story into proper perspective. They have been covering another scandal, which is the OOXML team trying to take over ODF upkeep. The M$ goal has always been the destruction of standards and standards organizations like ISO. They may have won the battle against ISO but they are losing the war against ODF and other real standards. If ISO won't clean itself up, it will be replaced.

Re:Boycott Novell has More to the Story.

[right handed]

Boycott Novell also has a good summary on M$'s attack on OSI. If Vista and Office 2007 were worth using, all of this sabotage could succeed. As things are, it is pointless vandalism.

Re:Boycott Novell has More to the Story.

[guyminuslife]

You know, if I had a million different Slashdot troll accounts, I'd make sure I had one account to point out to everyone else that they were trolls.

Not an attack. Haven't been following Slashdot long enough to be "in the loop." I'm just crazy like that.

Re:Boycott Novell has More to the Story.

[samwichse]

by willeyhill (1277478) on Saturday October 04, @01:10AM (#25254041)
Twitter sock puppet, mod down.

Looks like he took that idea to heart. willyhill, willeyhill... thank goodness members have numbers by their names.

Sam

AC's Erect Body Member Ejaculates Over You

[Anonymous Coward]

and you loved every minute of it, you fucking catchers

- CmdrTaco

Norway? Does that even count?

[Anonymous Coward]

I mean, Norway? What that is useful comes from Norway? Besides being cold as ice, with a population described the same, what is Norway? I mean, Sweden, OK, it's got a ski team of buxom blondes, but Norway? What is Norway but an ice desert?

Re:Conflicted

[Anonymous Coward]

the next step would be for IBM, the Norwegian technical committee members, and other parties serious about standardization

IBM, serious about standardization? Surely you jest.

IBM was the least principled company involved in the OOXML standardization process. Two of their employees, Bob Sutor and Rob Weir, spread a lot of FUD. They made claims about the OOXML specification that were provably wrong (anyone could grab the spec, check it, and see--but almost no one did, so their FUD was widely believed). Interestingly, whenever they would post something that was a blatant lie, they would disable comments on their blogs for that post. They did have some valid criticism of OOXML, but even then, most of those were also problems in ODF. For example, they bitched about the fact that OOXML allows three different base dates to be used for calendars. But they were silent on the fact that ODF allows those three same base dates--plus tens of thousands of others.

This was quite a contrast to the blogs of people like Brian Jones, on the pro-OOXML side. His comments were not closed, and critics of his positions were allowed to respond, right on his blog. He had nothing to hide there.

Re:aw, come on, it's not that bad.

[Anonymous Coward]

OH, another twitter sock puppet. Stop trolling slashdot and get a life.