Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> ECMA: Stranger than Fiction
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| I've joked about the Ecma process before, but I never thought I'd see it
>| written out officially like this. Standards are made available "on time"?
>| Minimise the "risk" of changes? I thought the whole purpose of technical
>| review was to find the problems and fix them? As always, the man who pays the
>| piper calls the tune.
> `----
>
> http://www.robweir.com/blog/2007/07/stranger-than-fiction.html
ECMA always existed to play to the tune of manufacturers - there's a big
clue in the name. The risk of change to a manufacturer is that the
standard will no longer be equivalent to what they happen to make, so
they need to keep customers out of the loop, and standardise on what
they have designed, and then prevent any kind of change in order to be
able to sell it. What the customer /wants/ doesn't really feature very
much in this kind of process.
>
> Proprietising Standards
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| But when you proprietise standards, you touch me. And that is precisely what
>| is happening with OOXML. Microsoft's own expert at the Portugal meeting said
>| so pointblank: Microsoft will add proprietary extensions, he said, to do
>| things ODF can't do.
> `----
>
> http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070720073215943
>
> IEEE group changes voting rules
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| I mention this because this general issue of stacking committees to force
>| favourable votes is now under examination with respect to OOXML and the
>| ISO/IEC JTC1 Fast Track process.
> `----
>
> http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=1746
>
> The whole OOXML mess smells really really bad. Everywhere you look. Where does
> Microsoft find these people? Are they being brainwashed 'boot-camp style'
> until they become so predatory and deceitful?
>
>
> Related:
>
> Guest Commentary: The converter hoax
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| Microsoft maintains that while it would have been easy to support the Open
>| Document Format (ODF) natively, it had to move to MS-OOXML because this was
>| the only way for them to offer the full features of its office suite. But if
>| Microsoft itself is not able to represent its internal data structures in the
>| Open Document Format (ODF) in its Microsoft Office suite, how could an
>| external conversion programme from MS-OOXML accomplish this task? The answer to
>| both questions is that it is not possible because two things cannot be the
>| same and different at the same time.
> `----
>
> http://www.heise.de/open/artikel/92735
>
>
> http://www.openxml.info/index.php?option=com_content&task=category§ionid=5&id=7&Itemid=13
>
> Portugal's ISO says no room for IBM & Sun in the room ! ?
>
> ,----[ Translation ]
>| Portugal, and more concretely, its national organisation of certification IPQ
>| is a member "O" (observator) of ISO/IEC for the voting of OOXML (ISO DIS
>| 29500).
>|
>| WARNING: the first meeting of the Technical Commission "Language for document
>| definition" was on Monday 16 of July. The vote was delayed. Representatives
>| of IBM and Sun were not allowed to attend because there "was no available
>| space in the room"
>|
>| Dear G [Sun Microsystems] due of restricted number of members of the CT
>| (Commissao Tecnica) that can attend the scheduled meeting room to host the
>| meeting, we cannot, in this stage, accept your proposal of integration of the
>| CT.
>|
>| With my best regards,
>| D [Microsoft as president of the Technical Commission]
> `----
>
>
> http://mv.asterisco.pt/2007/Jun/cat.cgi?MS%20OOXML
>
> ,----[ Translation ]
>| * More details are emerging from Portugal regarding the kerfuffle there
>| over Ecma-376. If you read Portuguese, here you go -- just click on the
>| link. I asked a Groklaw member to do a rough translation, and if you see
>| ways to improve it, sing out, but it gives a bit of the history of how
>| this committee that has no room for Sun or IBM (see previous News Picks
>| item) was formed and how it happened to choose a Microsoft representative
>| to be president of the committee that decides whether to "approve"
>| Microsoft's submission as a "standard". Unless I'm missing something, it
>| appears to have been set up so Microsoft can "approve" itself. Now that's
>| handy. Here's the translation of the part about how Microsoft is
>| represented on this committeee with no room for IBM or Sun:]
>|
>| I was present on the meeting of the Technical Commission (CT) created
>| to award the ISO standards in the area of structured documents (in
>| Portugal)
>|
>| A Technical Commission (CT) did not exist when ISO 26300 (Open
>| Document) was submitted neither when there was a submission of OOXML
>| (ECMA 376, potential ISO 29500) for the the fast track, and that was
>| the reason why Portugal did not submit any opinion nor had any right to
>| vote. We expect that now, with the pressure made and the CT created
>| there would be right to vote.
>|
>| The CT was created by the Computing Institute, in which is delegated
>| the responsability for the norms of the IT sector; a delegation granted
>| by the Portuguese Institute of Quality (IPQ), the point of contact of
>| ISO in Portugal. Its creation is motivated mainly by the pressures and
>| availability of some people when the proposal for fast tracking of
>| OOXML and a neccessity to avail now the OOXML as standard ISO and as a
>| Portuguese National Standard
>|
>| In the meeting they were present:
>|
>| * 2 persons from II (Instituto de Informatica [Computing Institute])
>| * 1 person from the local government (Alentejo region)
>| * 1 person from Jurinfor [Jurinfor is a Microsoft partner]
>| * 2 persons from Microsoft
>| * 1 person from Primavera [Primavera is a Microsoft partner]
>| * 1 person from ISCTE
>| * 2 persons from Assoft [reportedly, most members of ASSOFT are Microsoft
>| partners]
>| * 1 person from the Inst. Informatica da Seg Social [Computing Institute
>| of the Social Welfare Department]
>| * 1 person from the Inst. Tecn. Informacao da Justiça (eu) [Technical
>| Institute Information of Justice (eu)]
>|
>| The meeting dealt basically with the bureaucracy details of the creation of
>| the CT. It didn't go into details of OOXML; that discussion will be held in
>| the next meeting, on July 16th about 14:30 in the II [Instituto de
>| Informatica, I assume]
>|
>| The CT, thus, was composed of 8 vocal elements, one representative for each
>| of the organisations present. The II [Instituto de Informatica] is arranging
>| and hosting the initiative and is a not-named representative.
>|
>| The 8 vocals will readily follow to the election of the president of the CT.
>| There was 1 candidate in the place (Miguel Sales Dias, from Microsoft). I did
>| not present my candidature but made myself available in case the rest of
>| representatives deemed it neccesary -- informed not adequate since to begin
>| with, as a member of the OpenDocument Alliance, I had a conflict of interest.
>|
>| The vote results were 7 votes in favour of Miguel Sales Dias, of Microsoft,
>| who was designated to preside over the CT, and a (1) blank vote.
>|
>| It was decided to adopt consensus as the form of adoption of any proposed
>| norm, following to majority vote in case there is no consensus in the CT and
>| if there is a strong opposition to submit any norm.
> `----
>
>
> How the Game is Played: INCITS V1 Narrowly Votes Down OOXML
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| As significantly, Rob reports that a very dramatic increase in the membership
>| of V1 was observed in the months leading up to the vote ? most of whom were
>| coincidentally were representatives of Microsoft business partners, and the
>| great majority of whom voted as a block in favour of advancing the
>| specification in a manner that would permit, and against any vote that would
>| prevent, final approval as an ISO/IEC standard.
> `----
>
> http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20070715200544734
>
>
> 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/
>
>
> http://antitrust.slated.org/www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/3000/PX03096.pdf
--
| Mark Kent -- mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
| Cola faq: http://www.faqs.org/faqs/linux/advocacy/faq-and-primer/ |
| Cola trolls: http://colatrolls.blogspot.com/ |
| My (new) blog: http://www.thereisnomagic.org |
|
|
