Sun Microsystems Joins Other Industry Leaders as Platinum Member of The Open
Group
,----[ Quote ]
| The Open Group, a vendor- and technology-neutral consortium focused on open
| standards and global interoperability within and between enterprises, today
| announced that Sun Microsystems...
`----
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/080313/aqth053.html?.v=43
DIS 29500/OOXML - What you can do
,----[ Quote ]
| I was at the OOXML BRM in Geneva on behalf of my national body.
|
| [...]
|
| If you have strong feelings about the procedures used in the voting (e.g. the
| O members vs P members debate, or the voting on issues that were not
| individually discussed):
|
| * Contact your national body
| * Describe your concerns (with reference to the appropriate directives,
| if possible)
| * Allegations of corruption are unlikely to convince anyone of anything
| * Ask your national body to investigate, and to raise an objection to the
| process if they are not satisfied
|
| I suspect that most national bodies will prefer communication via email -
| it's easier for the NB to distribute it to any relevant committee members.
| But some people feel that emails are cheap and easy, and sending a letter on
| paper carries more weight: if you agree, then just be aware that there isn't
| very much time before the decision on voting is due.
`----
http://surguy.net/articles/ooxml-brm.xml
Related:
Danish Unix User Group Files Complaint With EU Commission Against Denmark For
Mandating MSOOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| The Danish Unix User Group, DKUUG, has filed a formal complaint with the EU
| Commission regarding Denmark's mandating ECMA 376, better known by us as
| MSOOXML, for certain procurements.
|
| The complaint [PDF] is grounded in breach of the EC Treaty article 81 on
| unfair competition. The press release says that the regulation "can be seen
| as an attempt to continue the de facto monopoly of Microsoft in the Danish
| state on office software, as the various public agencies and institutions
| need to buy the products of Microsoft to comply to the regulation."
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080226164131724
,----[ Quote ]
| Re: In Denmark, Microsoft has 2 out of 4 votes
|
| InzpektorInzpektor 18 Feb 2008, 15:20 BST
|
| The Danish delegation for the BRM will consist of:
|
| * IBM
| * Dansk Standard (the national standards body)
| * Microsoft - Themselves!
| * Microsoft Gold Certified Partner Ciber A/S
|
| So, I guess that means that the Danish votes are a tie. (Ofcourse with the
| national standards body being the joker here :-) )
|
| Reference:
| http://www.ds.dk/3537 (In Danish)
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-41947/microsoft-s-wikipedia-editor-goes-to-the-brm-to-represent-australia
Microsoft influencing partner NGOs to support OOXML in India
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft is encouraging its business partners to promote its Office Open XML
| specification (OOXML) to the Indian Bureau of Standards (BIS) and Ministry of
| IT. This move has incensed supporters of the rival OpenDocument Format (ODF)
| who fear that the "soft" Indian state may not be able to stand up to
| Microsoft pressure tactics.
`----
http://www.linux.com/feature/128528
Bam! Comical Creese debunks OpenDocumentFormat Alliance
,----[ Quote ]
| You are free to inspect the irregularities website that documents few cases
| reported by the online press and blogs. We got much more reports on an
| informal base per email. The Swedish single employee story is not credible,
| actually committee stuffing took place in Sweden.
|
| On loopholes, that’s another subjective call, but since Microsoft
| competitors managed to establish control over a standards initiative with
| potentially dire consequences for one of Microsoft’s most important
| business domains, we are not surprised that Microsoft (legitimately,
| albeit with what some consider to be poor standards etiquette) exploited
| the loopholes. As we noted, we assume ISO will update its procedures to
| eliminate the loopholes in the future.
|
| What?
|
| Microsoft competitors managed to establish control over a standards
| initiative…
|
| What?
|
| Microsoft competitors managed to establish control over a standards
| initiative with potentially dire consequences for one of Microsoft’s most
| important business domains, we are not surprised that Microsoft …
| exploited the loopholes.
|
| ???
|
| but since Microsoft competitors managed to establish control over a
| standards initiative with potentially dire consequences for one of
| Microsoft’s most important business domains, we are not surprised that
| Microsoft (legitimately, albeit with what some consider to be poor
| standards etiquette) exploited the loopholes.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-41447/bam-comical-creese-debunks-opendocumentformat-alliance
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
,----[ Quote ]
| Pieter Hintjens, president of the Foundation for a Free Information
| Infrastructure, a non-profit organisation that is campaigning against the
| Microsoft proposal, said: "We've recorded fairly systematic manipulation of
| the voting process. We've seen what amounts to vote-buying in Italy,
| Portugal, Colombia, Spain. In Sweden and Denmark, much the same happened –
| Microsoft paying their business partners to join the vote."
`----
http://news.moneycentral.msn.com/provider/providerarticle.aspx?feed=FT&Date=20070830&ID=7401878
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
Robbery at the BRM?
,----[ Quote ]
| LinuxWorld mentions that the BRM organisors are making a paper ballot on all
| the 900 comments. It seems that the BRM organisors are "robbing national
| delegations of the opportunity to propose their own modifications".
|
| [...]
|
| The purpose of this robbery might be to avoid any fix to the standard.
| MS-ECMA have not proposed any changes, and this robbery is designed to get
| the message that the BRM have fixed some issues.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-43897/robbery-at-the-brm
Microsoft Memo to Partners in Sweden Surfaces: Vote Yes for OOXML - Updated
,----[ Quote ]
| He acknowledges that the rules might need to be changed.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070829070630660
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
|
|
