Roy Schestowitz <newsgroups@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> espoused:
> Whatever Happened to Standards?
>
> ,----[ Quote ]
>| The British Standards Institution (BSI) has always been one of those iconic
>| central points of reference in British life ? a kind of Big Ben for
>| standards. But it's a little hard to square that image ? perhaps hopelessly
>| outdated ? with the BSI's recent decision to vote in favour of Microsoft's
>| OOXML document standard.
>|
>| You don't have to take my word for this cognitive dissonance. Someone rather
>| more qualified than me to comment on the process to produce the final version
>| of the proposed standard is Tim Bray. He's generally credited with being one
>| of the fathers of XML, which of course lies at the heart of OOXML. It's true
>| he's currently employed by Sun, the main backer of the rival ODF standard,
>| and so potentially biased, but I don't think anybody has ever impugned his
>| integrity because of that.
> `----
>
> http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=668&blogid=14
>
As I've just noted in another post, the BSI, British Library and BBC all
need a detailed investigation in order to determine just why publicly
funded bodies like the BBC and the Library are promoting the proprietary
wares of foreign companies (something well outside their remit), and
further, the UK vote from the BSI should be tagged to ISO immediately as
not trustworthy, since it was changed at the very last moment after an
influx of Microsoft partners.
Even HMG's own agency, Becta, is recommending /against/ OOXML, so the
BSI is clearly not reflecting the views of HMG's agents.
This is, at best, extremely embarrassing for BSI.
--
| mark at ellandroad dot demon dot co dot uk |
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