[... After Microsoft's Corruption of the Whole Process]
Leaving Home for Good: It's Time for a Global Consortium Standards Organization
,----[ Quote ]
| But bridges such as this have proven to be imperfect, and susceptible to
| abuse. Currently, SC 34, an ISO/IEC JTC 1 committee, is grappling with DIS
| 29500 — an ECMA developed standard based upon Microsoft's OfficeOpen XML
| specification. Many harried participants in the review process have expressed
| the view that the "Fast Track" program being used to propel the submission
| through the adoption process from start to six months was inappropriate for a
| specification that weighs in at more than 6,000 pages. Moreover, there have
| been widespread reports of disinformation, vendor pressure, and (in one case)
| even offers of financial reimbursement to business partners as incentives to
| join National Bodies in order to vote for approval.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20071121045231677
A bit off topic, but:
U.K. government reveals its 'biggest privacy disaster'
,----[ Quote ]
| The disc went missing and was not encrypted.
`----
http://news.zdnet.com/2100-1009_22-6219772.html
Who needs encryption? They ought to have just saved it as OOXML. Nobody would
be able to access the data. ;-)
Days ago:
Portugal will send Microsoft to the BRM
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft, as president of the Portuguese Technical Committee, is already
| controlling who will be at the BRM for Portugal. The Head of Delegation will
| be... Microsoft!
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-27501/portugal-will-send-microsoft-to-the-brm
Related:
,----[ Quote ]
| Just yesterday I was sitting in the relevant meeting of SNV/UK14
| (http://www.snv.ch/), that decides how Switzerland will vote. The
| chairman (Hans-Rudolf Thomann) explained the following rules:
|
| - we are here to create standards, not to reject them
| - if we reach consensus (>=75%) to vote for Microsoft, we will vote
| for Microsoft
| - if we only reach a majority (>=50%) to vote for Microsoft, we
| will vote for Microsoft
| - if we reach a majority to vote against Microsoft, we will vote
| for Microsoft
| - if we reach consensus to vote against Microsoft, we will abstain
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-15521/swiss-cheese
Microsoft’s secretive standards orgs in Former Yugoslavia
,----[ Quote ]
| Croatian laws keep its national body’s votes secret, so the only way for the
| Croatian public to find out how the process went would be if a board member
| illegally leaked information out of CSI. This is, of course, unlikely to
| happen. And the Serbian national standardization body is not officially
| formed, so those two votes were easy for Microsoft, and probably not only
| ones around the globe.
`----
http://www.linuxworld.com/news/2007/092407-ooxml.html?page=1
Microsoft Tech Ed 2007: OpenXML
,----[ Quote ]
| He was asked "Why did Microsoft push OOXML through the "Fast Track" process
| instead of the standard ISO process? Wouldn't they get less resistance than
| faced now?"
|
| His response was very frank: "Office is a USD$10 billion revenue generator
| for the company. When ODF was made an ISO standard, Microsoft had to react
| quickly as certain governments have procurement policies which prefer ISO
| standards. Ecma and OASIS are 'international standards', but ISO is the
| international 'Gold Standard'. Microsoft therefore had to rush this standard
| through. Its a simple matter of commercial interests!"
`---- ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2007/09/microsoft-tech-.html
Evidence of Microsoft Influencing OOXML Votes in Nordic States
,----[ Quote ]
| "This is how a standard is bought," Bosson wrote later. "I left the meeting
| in protest - pissed off."
`----
http://www.betanews.com/article/Evidence_of_Microsoft_Influencing_OOXML_Votes_in_Nordic_States/1188335569
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