Has OOXML Broken the British Standards Institution?
,----[ Quote ]
| That the BSI, long the quintessence of standards in this country, should see
| itself dragged through the courts over something as apparently minor as a
| document standard, is truly an extraordinary development. But of course it is
| not a minor issue: at stake is the question of how something as central to
| technology and business as standards should be decided. Unless people have
| complete confidence in the process, the end-result will be deemed worthless –
| truly, little more than a “rubber-stamping”.
|
| A good start along the road of bolstering confidence would be making the
| standards-setting process completely open, which currently it is not. The
| practice of voting on an open standard behind closed doors borders is simply
| not justifiable in the age of the Internet and of increasing openness in
| general. And as the UK government loves to remind us: if you have nothing to
| hide, you have nothing to fear....
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/community/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=753&blogid=14
Now watch what Alex Brown is doing (some nerve):
ODF Validation for Dummies
,----[ Quote ]
| I think you agree that these are bold pronouncements, especially coming from
| someone so prominent in SC34, the Convenor of the ill-fated OOXML BRM,
| someone who is currently arguing that SC34 should own the maintenance of
| OOXML and ODF, indeed someone who would be well served if he could show that
| all consortia standards are junk, and that only SC34 (and he himself) could
| make them good.
|
| Of course, I've been known to pontificate as well. There is nothing
| necessarily wrong with that. The difference here is that Alex Brown is
| totally wrong.
|
| But let's see if we can help show Alex, or anyone else similarly confused,
| the correct way to validate an ODF document.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/05/odf-validation-for-dummies.html
Alex Brown is said to have intervened with the BSI as well (it was a secretive
meeting).
Recent:
UK standards body taken to court over OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| The British Standards Institution has been taken to court by a group of Unix
| users in an attempt to get the standards body to recant its approval of
| Microsoft's Office Open XML document format.
|
| The UK Unix & Open Systems User Group (UKUUG) said on Thursday that the
| British Standards Institution's (BSI's) controversial decision to vote for
| approval of OOXML in a recent International Organization for Standardization
| (ISO) ballot followed a flawed decision-making process.
`----
http://news.zdnet.co.uk/software/0,1000000121,39408917,00.htm
BSI faces High Court challenge over OOXML U-turn
,----[ Quote ]
| OSC director Mark Taylor told The Register that the UKUUG and chums
| were "very confident that the BSI has a case to answer". He claimed
| that "they haven’t followed procedures and we want them to explain their
| controversial actions".
|
| However, even if legal action against the BSI leads to the UK standards body
| being forced, in the form of mandatory orders, to withdraw its vote to the
| ISO, its impact could be muted.
|
| Taylor agreed: "Should the BSI be asked to remove its vote, that in itself
| probably won’t change the outcome."
|
| He added that the group hopes to see individuals in other countries mount
| similar challenges against national standards bodies in order to force the
| ISO to "sit up and take notice".
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/05/01/bsi_ooxml_vote_high_court/
MEPs Question Microsoft's Eligibility for Gov't Projects
,----[ Quote ]
| The Commission, which has not responded yet, is allowed a few weeks to reply.
`----
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/144591/meps_question_microsofts_eligibility_for_govt_projects.html
Is Microsoft Now Banned from EU Contracts?
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?entryid=697&blogid=14
Euro MP thinks Microsoft should be banned from government contracts
http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/04/10/member-eu-parliament-asks
Green MEP says Microsoft should be excluded from EU contract awarding procedure
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/106338/from/rss09
EC probes OOXML standards-setting process
,----[ Quote ]
| A spokesman for the European Commissioner for Competition, Neelie Kroes, told
| The Register that regulators were continuing to scrutinise interoperability
| issues related to Microsoft’s products following complaints from the
| Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS) group.
|
| As part of that process, the EC formally contacted a number of national
| standards bodies, including the Norwegian Standards Institute (NSI),
| requesting more details about possible irregularities in the OOXML
| standardisation process.
|
| [...]
|
| “It must be stressed that it is not the Commission's intention to influence
| the outcome of this process, but the Commission considers it essential to
| ensure that European competition law is not violated in the course of the
| standard setting process,” he said in an email to El Reg.
|
| In January the EC began formal anti-trust probes against Microsoft in two
| cases where it was alleged that the multinational firm had abused its strong
| market position. As part of the investigation into the first case, the
| Commission said that it would scrutinise OOXML on the grounds that the
| specification doesn't work with those of competitors.
`----
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/04/04/ooxml_ec_investigation_iso/
Related:
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
Norway and OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| There is now a report from Norway on how Microsoft rallied its partners to
| try to get a favorable vote on MSOOXML.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200708301301334
|
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