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[News] Norway Tries to Change Vote on OOXML to "No" After Microsoft Corruption

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Support South Africa’s appeal against OOXML!

,----[ Quote ]
| South Africa’s action confirms that the battle is not yet lost. Here in 
| Norway we are working hard to get the Norwegian vote changed back to No and 
| we think we might succeed.  
`----

http://topicmaps.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/support-south-africas-appeal-against-ooxml/


Recent:

The Norway Vote - What really happened

,----[ Quote ]
| But lo… at this point, the “rules” were changed. The VP asserted that “Ecma 
| has clearly made steps in the right direction.” The most important thing now 
| was to ensure that OOXML came under ISO’s control so that it could 
| be “further improved”. However, the committee was not allowed to discuss 
| this.    
| 
|     The VP thereupon declared that there was no consensus, so the decision 
|     would be taken by Standard Norway. 
| 
| 
| Halfway through the proceedings, a committee member had asked for (and 
| received) assurance that the Chairman would take part in the final decision, 
| as he had for the DIS vote back in August. It now transpired that the BRM 
| participants had also been invited to stay behind. 23 people were therefore 
| dismissed and we were down to seven. In addition to Standard Norway’s three, 
| there were four “experts”: Microsoft Norway’s chief lobbyist, a guy from 
| StatoilHydro (national oil company; big MS Office user), a K185 old-timer, 
| and me. In one fell swoop the balance of forces had changed from 80/20 to 
| 50/50 and the remaining experts discussed back and forth for 20 minutes or so 
| without reaching any agreement.         
| 
|     The VP thereupon declared that there was still no consensus, so the 
|     decision would be taken by Standard Norway. 
| 
| 
| The experts were dismissed and the VP asked the opinion of the Secretary (who 
| said “Yes”) and the JTC1 rep (who said “No”). 
| 
|     The VP thereupon declared that there was still no consensus, so the 
|     decision would be taken by him. 
| 
| 
| And his decision was to vote Yes.
| 
| So this one bureaucrat, a man who by his own admission had no understanding 
| of the technical issues, had chosen to ignore the advice of his Chairman, of 
| 80% of his technical experts, and of 100% of the K185 old-timers. For the 
| Chairman, only one course of action was possible.   
| 
| [...]
| 
| The meeting was a farce and the result was a scandal. But it’s not over yet, 
| and one thing is clear: the “little one” is unfit to represent the interests 
| of Norwegian users. It’s time he was told, “Roll over, roll over…”  
`----

http://topicmaps.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/the-norway-vote-what-really-happened/


Computer experts stage street protest in Oslo against Microsoft document format
as standard

,----[ Quote ]
| OSLO, Norway: Roughly 60 data experts staged a rare and noisy street 
| demonstration in downtown Oslo on Wednesday to protest the adoption of 
| Microsoft Corp.'s document format as an international standard and against 
| Norway voting for the move.   
| 
| [...]
| 
| He claimed the committee ignored the advice of the vast majority of the 
| Nordic nation's software experts, was pressured by Microsoft and 
| displayed "scandalous behavior."  
`----

http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/04/09/business/EU-TEC-Norway-Digital-Demonstration.php


OOXML triggers demonstration in Norway: "Let's throw OOXML out of ISO"

http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-52412/ooxml-triggers-demonstration-in-norway:let-s-throw-ooxml-out-of-iso


Demonstration outside ISO conference

,----[ Quote ]
| Steve Pepper, the former Chairman of the Norwegian committee responsible for 
| deciding the Norwegian vote on OOXML, is calling for a demonstration to take 
| place outside the building where SC34, the ISO committee that has been landed 
| with OOXML, is holding its spring plenary.   
| 
| The demonstration will take place outside Håndverkeren, Rosenkrantzgate 7, 
| Oslo, Norway, on Wednesday April 9 at 12.00. Among the slogans are: 
| 
| * No to ISO approval of OOXML!
| * Defend the integrity of ISO!
| * Microsoft: Support ODF!
| * Ecma: Withdraw OOXML!
| * Norway must say no to OOXML!
`----

http://blogs.freecode.no/isene/2008/04/07/demonstration-outside-iso-conference/


2008-04 OOXML irregularities in Norway

,----[ Quote ]
| [...]
| 
|     * 2007: committee stuffing: the NS/K 185 committee grew from 6-7 persons 
|     to 30 persons due to the OOXML case... 
`----

http://wiki.efn.no/2008-04_OOXML_irregularities_in_Norway


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


EU: Europarlement testing Ubuntu, OpenOffice and Firefox

,----[ Quote ]
| The European Parliament's IT department is testing the use of GNU/Linux 
| distribution Ubuntu, OpenOffice, Firefox and other Open Source applications, 
| the British MEP James Nicholson explained last week in a letter to Italian 
| MEP Marco Cappato.   
`----

http://ec.europa.eu/idabc/en/document/7565


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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