Norway: ODF Must Be Used on Government Websites' Forms
,----[ Quote ]
| Everyone should have equal access to public information: Open standards
| become compulsory within the government
|
| The government has decided that all information on governmental websites
| should be available in the open formats HTML, PDF or ODF. With this decision
| the times when public documents where only available in Microsoft's
| Word-format is coming to an end.
|
| - Everybody should have equal access to public information. From 2009 the
| citizens will be able to chose which software to use in order to gain access
| to public information. The government's decision will also improve the
| competition between suppliers of office applications, says IT-minister Heidi
| Grande Røys.
|
| This is the decision of the government:
|
| * HTML should be the primary format for publication of public information on
| the Internet.
|
| * PDF (1.4 or newer, or PDF/A - ISO 19005-1) is compulsory when you wish to
| preserve the original layout of a document.
|
| * ODF (ISO/IEC 26300) must be used when publishing documents that are meant
| to be changed after downloading, eg. forms that are to be filled in by the
| user.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/newsitems.php
http://www.regjeringen.no/en/dep/fad/pressesenter/pressemeldinger/2007/Apne-dokumentstandarder-blir-obligatoris.html?id=494810
Related:
Norway and OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| "There is now a report from Norway on how Microsoft rallied its partners to
| try to get a favorable vote on MSOOXML."
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200708301301334
Norway Decides: No with Comments on OOXML and a Hint from Hungary
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070831115138106
norway says no to ooxml
,----[ Quote ]
| Standard Norge actually gives a conditioned yes to OOXML, but that's a big NO
| with comments. What does it mean? It means that Microsoft have to fix all the
| comments before it can be approved as a ISO standard.
`----
http://phun-ky.net/2007/08/norway-says-no-to-ooxml
Microsoft admits Swedish employee promised incentives for Open XML support
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. admitted Wednesday that an employee at its Swedish subsidiary
| offered monetary compensation to partners for voting in favor of the Office
| Open XML document format's approval as an ISO standard.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9033701
ODF vs. OOXML: Microsoft Has Mastered the Art of Unfair Play (Updated)
,----[ Quote ]
| The adoption of a standard is supposed to be an open, transparent process.
| Any companies interested in participating in the standard setting process in
| any significant way have to pay a fee to get a seat at the table. Many
| companies played by the rules and participated in the process. And it was
| becoming clear that Microsoft was not getting there way. In the recent vote
| in Sweden, it looked like Microsoft was going to lose. So what does Microsoft
| do? They pull the cards out of their sleeve and in a way that competing
| interests have no time to react. . Out of nowhere, Microsoft Business
| Partners are ponying up the $US2,444 to get a vote just in time for the vote.
| The final vote was in favor of Microsoft: 25 Yes, 6 No and 3 Abstentions.
`----
http://www.controlscaddy.com/A55A69/bccaddyblog.nsf/plinks/CBYE-76JGCQ
ISO boards face OOXML deadline pressure
,----[ Quote ]
| In Denmark, a source reportedly said that Microsoft pressured him to send an
| expression of support to Dansk Standard, the Danish standards board. By
| Groklaw's translation, Version2 reported: "'If I had not sent in a positive
| comment, it would have had consequences for our relations with Microsoft', he
| says. Our source points to e.g. leads, support and seminars as areas that
| might be jeopardised if 'he did not behave'."
|
| The Danish MP reportedly wants assurance that only technical factors were
| considered by Dansk Standard and that political or economic influences were
| not brought to bear.
|
| Also, a member of the Danish parliament has reportedly lodged a pointed
| question with a government minister as to whether the government has had any
| contact with Dansk Standard with regard to the ISO vote on OOXML.
|
| In Norway, Microsoft apparently mounted an astroturfing campaign against the
| Norwegian standards body Standard Norge. Out of 59 comments received by
| Standard Norge, 37 were a Vole form letter that many of its Norwegian
| business partners didn't even bother to sign before sending them in.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=42055
Microsoft Hires Programmer to edit Wikipedia Entry For OOXML
http://lxer.com/module/newswire/view/79130/index.html
Microsoft Looks for the Big Guns in OOXML In-Fighting
,----[ Quote ]
| Bill Gates has reportedly been making phone calls to the Secretary of Defense
| and the Secretary of Commerce to push the American National Standards
| Institute to ignore the votes of its advisory committees and vote "yes" on
| ISO standardizing Microsoft's Open Office XML (OOXML) format, the one in
| competition with the OpenDocument Format (ODF) pushed by IBM and Sun.
|
| Gates reportedly picked up the phone when the last INCITS ballot failed by
| one vote to support Microsoft.
`----
http://xml.sys-con.com/read/419573_p.htm
,----[ Quote ]
| Everyone is in the same boat with this: KOffice, Corel, Google, IBM, anyone
| who has applications that work with Microsoft documents. We’re all faced with
| the prospect of significant expenses to rewrite our file format support with
| no net benefit to our customers. This is the toll we all must pay to
| Microsoft just for the ability to fight for the scraps their monopoly may
| leave behind. If Microsoft jerks their format around, we all must run and
| chase after it, reallocating resources away from feature work, becoming in
| the process less competitive in the marketplace, while Microsoft forges ahead
| with new features. They can easily repeat this game every few years, just to
| keep competitors busy. This is what a death spiral looks like.
|
| Giving absolute control of a standard document format to a monopolist that is
| notorious for abusing their control of file formats in the past is insanity.
| It doesn’t take a Sherlock Holmes to figure that out.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/08/dog-that-didnt-bark.html
IBM is still locked out of the Portuguese OOXML meeting
,----[ Quote ]
| In spite of various communications, we [IBM] are still locked out and will
| not be allowed to participate. Microsoft will be there, as well as a special
| Microsoft guest, as will various Microsoft business partners, and others.
`----
http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=1755
Microsoft is Outmuscling OOXML Opposition in Spain
,----[ Quote ]
| The Andalusian Government has reported recently the manipulation of Microsoft
| in the National Technical Committee 71 of AENOR. On July 10th, just the day
| before the one and only meeting of AENOR to study DIS 29500 and vote on it,
| Microsoft announced officially (via the secretary of the Committee) that that
| Andalusian Government and several other Spanish public entities were asking
| for the approval of ISO DIS 29500 (what finally resulted all a fake!).
`----
http://boycottnovell.com/2007/07/27/ooxmll-spain/
Packing The Court At The ISO?
,----[ Quote ]
| ...P member countries ('participating member' countries) sending
| representatives, and I am interested to note the majority of
| their representatives are, as individuals, also Microsoft employees.
|
| [...]
|
| How can they not see that OOXML (ECMA 376) is unwanted by anyone outside of
| Microsoft? How about it Brian Jones? Are you really so desperate that you
| have to resort to that?
`----
http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/packing-the-court-at-the-iso/
|
|
