Microsoft wins this OOXML battle, but loses the war
,----[ Quote ]
| There is a two-month period for appeals before the ISO pronounces OOXML a
| standard, and it's already obvious that there will be some. Members of the
| Norwegian national standards committee, for instance, have already petitioned
| the government to investigate how the country came to register a "yes" vote
| on the draft standard when a majority of committee members were against it.
|
| I wrote a while ago about the disruption of the national process in Great
| Britain, and an appeal is promised there, as well. And I'm sure the list will
| grow: The New York Times this week also numbered Malaysia and Germany among
| countries where protests are rising.
|
| I'm sitting here wondering, what has Microsoft won? Not much, as far as I can
| tell.
|
| Its OOXML victory – if it turns out to be one after the appeals are heard –
| will certainly be won at the cost of huge damage to its credibility.
| Evidently, even while Microsoft was promising interoperability and openness
| it was actively subverting the primary interoperability vehicle of the
| international computing community: the standards-setting process.
|
| [...]
|
| Even if Microsoft has managed to buy enough votes to get OOXML approved, and
| bullies enough of the protestors into silence to make it stick, it still
| hasn't created a standard. At most it's created the very real possibility
| that it will be back in front of Neelie Kroes, the EU's commissioner for
| competition, shelling out another billion euros in fines.
`----
http://blogs.computerworld.com/microsoft_loses_on_ooxml
Comments from Canada (damaging to Microsoft):
,----[ Quote ]
| Canada voted to "Disapprove with Comments". Canada was among 10 countries
| that expressed concern with the Fast Track of ISO/IEC DIS 29500.
`----
http://www.scc.ca/en/news_events/news/newsdetails2_508.shtml
Related:
EU Initiates Investigation Against Microsoft OOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| But with Steve Ballmer taking over as CEO, there was supposed to be a kinder,
| gentler Microsoft - one that would play nicely with its competitors. When
| antitrust regulators in turn challenged this new Microsoft, it issued not
| challenges to fight to the end to prove that it had done nothing illegal, but
| statements promising to "cooperate fully."
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080208082501776
EU Commission Investigating Microsoft's MSOOXML Push
,----[ Quote ]
| I hope they think to investigate the smear campaigns that seem to always
| happen to anyone on the other side from Microsoft. What happened to Peter
| Quinn was by no means unique.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080208151410252
Corrupt countries were more likely to support the OOXML document format
,----[ Quote ]
| Is this just a random coincidence? The median of the CPI index of the above
| mentioned 70 countries is 3.95. Of the most corrupted half (CPI index less
| than 3.95) 23 or 77% voted for approval (approval or approval with comments)
| and 7 or 23% for disapproval; 5 abstained. Of the least corrupted half (CPI
| index more than 3.95) 13 or 54% voted for approval and 11 or 46% voted for
| disapproval; 11 abstained - see the table below.
`----
http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2007-09-05.en.html
Microsoft accused of more OOXML standards fiddling
,----[ Quote ]
| However the 11 new countries are refusing to say how they will vote. These
| include Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Ecuador, Jamaica, Lebanon, Malta, Pakistan,
| Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela. Most people seem to think
| that these have been put there by Vole to make sure the standard gets pushed
| through.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=42106
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