Waiting for OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| At the time this post is being written, there is still no news of the final
| version of Ecma 376/DIS-ISO 29500, aka OOXML. I guess we’ll have to wait
| until midnight, today, Geneva time to have it. Yet some also claim that the
| deadline was midnight yesterday on the First of April.
`----
http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2008/05/02/waiting-for-ooxml/
Recent:
New Report Critical of ECMA's role in Standardisation of OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| The report applies the Brinkburn Analysis™ to evaluate the validity of Ecma's
| privileged status within ISO, one not enjoyed by any other Consortia, and
| criticises ECMA for having “virtually no representation for many points of
| view” and “no outreach and no liasons with other consortia”. Most damning of
| all is the conclusion in respect of OOXML - “It is a breach, almost, of
| common sense. Ecma, through its members, has created, with the exploitation
| of a loophole, a precedent that may well enable the breakdown of the formal
| standards process”.
`----
http://www.openforumeurope.org/press-room/press-releases/new-report-critical-of-ecma-s-role-in-standardisation-of-ooxml/
Microsoft Denies Threatening to Withdraw Funding
,----[ Quote ]
| However, the denial was a contradiction to comments by Bitange Ndemo,
| permanent secretary in the Ministry of Information and Communication, who
| said that Microsoft may have made comments regarding funding, though not
| directly or in writing.
|
| "They may have said something to that effect though not directly and not in
| writing. Microsoft cannot threaten us. In any case, our policy is very clear,
| we encourage people to use open-source software and those who want to use
| proprietary software are at liberty to do so" Ndemo said.
|
| There was heated debate in Kenya's technology sector before the decision to
| abstain. The decision was made by a 12-member committee. Some experts felt
| that the committee was comprised of a majority of Microsoft partners.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144898/microsoft_denies_threatening_to_withdraw_funding.html
Days ago:
[Tim Bray:] ISO Fantasy
,----[ Quote ]
| What OOXML Is · The ISO process, brutal and corrupt as it was, has been
| ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
| covered to death by everyone. Its output, soon to be known as ISO/IEC 29500,
| differs from ECMA-376 in two ways. ¶
|
| [...]
|
| What Microsoft really wanted was that ISO stamp of approval to use as a
| marketing tool. And just like your mother told you, when they get what they
| want and have their way with you, they’re probably not gonna call you in the
| morning.
`----
http://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/2008/04/15/OOXML
Sinclair's Syndrome
,----[ Quote ]
| For ISO, in a public relations pitch, to blithely suggest that several
| thousand page Fast Tracks are "not unusual" shows an audacious disregard for
| the truth and a lack of respect for a public that is looking for ISO to
| correct its errors, not blow smoke at them in a revisionist attempt to
| portray the DIS 29500 approval process as normal, acceptable or even
| legitimate. We should expect better from ISO and we should express
| disappointment in them when they let us down in our reasonable expectations
| of honesty. We don't expect this from Ecma. We don't expect this from
| Microsoft. But we should expect this from ISO.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/04/sinclairs-syndrome.html
Software wars
,----[ Quote ]
| Allegations of committee-stuffing, the outcome of votes overridden by
| political appointees, a final decision that many involved consider tainted:
| this may sound like a discredited election in some third world country. But
| it is actually a description of an ugly fight over international technical
| standards that wrapped up this week. Microsoft came out on top, but at the
| cost of tarnishing its reputation and the credibility of an important
| back-room process that oils the wheels of many global industries.
`----
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/c9743360-01a8-11dd-a323-000077b07658,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fc9743360-01a8-11dd-a323-000077b07658.html%3Fnclick_check%3D1&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.computerworlduk.com%2Ftool
Related:
Martin Bryan: we are getting “standardization by corporation”
,----[ Quote ]
| A November informative report of Martin Bryan, Convenor, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34
| WG1 highlights the fallout of the ECMA-376 fast-track process for ISO. He
| says he is 'glad to be retiring before the situation becomes impossible'
|
| [...]
|
| In what is an astonishingly outspoken report, Martin Bryan, Convenor, ISO/IEC
| JTC1/SC34 WG1 has given us insight into the total mess that Microsoft/ECMA
| have caused during their scandalous, underhand and unremitting attempts to
| get - what is a very poorly written specification {i.e. DIS 29500 aka OOXML,
| AR} - approved as an ISO standard. …
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-30107/martin-bryan:we-are-getting-standardization-by-corporation
Dysfunctional ISO - Courtesy of Microsoft
http://opendotdotdot.blogspot.com/2007/12/dysfunctional-iso-courtesy-of-microsoft.html
Microsoft accused of stacking ISO committee
,----[ Quote
| In a memo sent following his last meeting as head of the working group on
| WG1, which is handling Microsoft’s application to make the Word format an ISO
| standard as ECMA 376, outgoing Governor Martin Bryan (above), an expert on
| SGML and XML, accused the company of stacking his group.
`----
http://blogs.zdnet.com/open-source/?p=1777
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
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