-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
Hash: SHA1
Free software history was made at CONSEGI
,----[ Quote ]
| In returning from CONSEGI 2008, North by South has been extremely busy
| keeping up with our schedules and lives here in San Francisco. But, tonight,
| we’ve taken the time to put together the attention due to CONSEGI here on our
| news site. CONSEGI 2008 was history being made — we spoke with people from
| the Latin American Free Software Foundation, public officials from Brazil to
| South Africa, free software activists struggling to convince their
| governments to adopt the path forged by Brazil and Venezuela. Seeing it all
| together, in one place, with people from over the Americas — it was dizzying.
`----
http://news.northxsouth.com/2008/09/15/free-software-history-was-made-at-consegi/
Recent:
Consegi 2008 encerra com carta de protesto contra adoção do padrão OXML
,----[ Quote ]
| CONSEGI 2008 DECLARATION
|
| We, the undersigned representatives of state IT organisations from Brazil,
| South Africa, Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba and Paraguay, note with
| disappointment the press release from ISO/IEC/JTC-1 of 20 August regarding
| the appeals registered by the national bodies of Brazil, South Africa, India
| and Venezuela. Our national bodies, together with India, had independently
| raised a number of serious concerns about the process surrounding the fast
| track approval of DIS29500. That those concerns were not properly addressed
| in the form of a conciliation panel reflects poorly on the integrity of these
| international standards development institutions.
|
| Whereas we do not intend to waste any more resources on lobbying our national
| bodies to pursue the appeals further, we feel it is important to make the
| following points clear:
|
| 1.The bending of the rules to facilitate the fast track processing of
| DIS29500 remains a significant concern to us. That the ISO TMB did not deem
| it necessary to properly explore the substance of the appeals must, of
| necessity, put confidence in those institutions ability to meet our national
| requirements into question.
| 2.The overlap of subject matter with the existing ISO/IEC26300 (Open Document
| Format) standard remains an area of concern. Many of our countries have made
| substantial commitments to the use of ISO/IEC26300, not least because it was
| published as an ISO standard in 2006.
| 3.The large scale adoption of a standard for office document formats is a
| long and expensive exercise, with multi-year projects being undertaken in
| each of our countries. Many of us have dedicated significant time and
| resources to this effort. For example, in Brazil, the process of translation
| of ISO/IEC26300 into Portuguese has taken over a year.
|
| The issues which emerged over the past year have placed all of us at a
| difficult crossroads. Given the organisation's inability to follow its own
| rules we are no longer confident that ISO/IEC will be capable of
| transforming itself into the open and vendor-neutral standards setting
| organisation which is such an urgent requirement. What is now clear is that
| we will have to, albeit reluctantly, re-evaluate our assessment of ISO/IEC,
| particularly in its relevance to our various national government
| interoperability frameworks. Whereas in the past it has been assumed that an
| ISO/IEC standard should automatically be considered for use within
| government, clearly this position no longer stands.
|
| -Aslam Raffee (South Africa)
| Chairman, Government IT Officer's Council Working Group on Open Standards
| Open Source Software
|
| - Marcos Vinicius Ferreira Mazoni (Brazil)
| Presidente, Servico Federal de Processamento de Dados
|
| - Carlos Eloy Figueira (Venezuela)
| President, Centro Nacional de Tecnologías de Información
|
| - Eduardo Alvear Simba (Ecuador)
| Director de Software Libre, Presidencia de la República
|
| - Tomas Ariel Duarte C. (Paraguay)
| Director de Informática, Presidencia de la República
|
| - Miriam Valdés Abreu (Cuba)
| Directora de Análisis, Oficina para la Informatización.
`----
http://www.convergenciadigital.com.br/cgi/cgilua.exe/sys/start.htm?infoid=15653&sid=76
The Dominion of British West Florida Subscribes to the CONSEGI 2008
Declaration.
,----[ Quote ]
| The Dominion of British West Florida Joins Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela,
| Ecuador, Cuba, and Paraguay in condemning the actions of the ISO/IEC in
| rejecting the appeals lodged against the approval of DIS29500.
|
| All Dominion of British West Florida Government offices are required to seek
| first systems that support ISO/IEC 26300.
`----
http://dbwf-provisional-post.blogspot.com/2008/09/dominion-of-british-west-florida.html
The Beginning of the End for the ISO?
,----[ Quote ]
| I believe that this marks the beginning of the end of ISO's reign as the
| primary standards-setting organisation, at least as far as computing is
| concerned (for other industries, details of the standards-setting process, or
| even of the standards that result, may not be quite so crucial as they for
| the current phase of IT.) This is a view that I and others have articulated
| before, but one that was not really accompanied by any signs that things
| would actually change.
|
| The Consegi Declaration, by contrast, is a very real statement of intent by
| some of the most important players in the international computing community.
| Collectively, they have sufficient power to make a difference to how
| standards are set globally. Specifically, they could at a stroke help
| establish some alternative forum as a rival to the ISO by throwing their
| weight behind it.
`----
http://www.computerworlduk.com/toolbox/open-source/blogs/index.cfm?blogid=14&entryid=1209
Microsoft decision sparks dissent amid ISO members
,----[ Quote ]
| "The bending of the rules to facilitate the fast-track processing... remains
| a significant concern to us," they said, referring to a process many parties
| had complained was too fast and not transparent enough for such a complex
| format.
`----
http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSL140109520080901
OOXML won't be accepted in South America.
,----[ Quote ]
| Over the past month, the team at OpenMalaysiaBlog was really happy to
| showcase the good work Malaysians have done in government agencies and state
| governments in adopting OpenOffice.org in their offices. Some were driven
| from MAMPU's direction, but most were self initiatives, some even starting
| way back in 2003.
|
| I personally, have been deliberately avoiding OOXML news because basically, I
| was sick and tired of it; where the latest ridiculous situation is where the
| same people who voted for the standard, get to vote against the appeal of the
| decision. Surely it shouldn't be an immediate voting procedure (ala BRM), but
| more of a consensus gathering effort? What happened to the process of working
| out the sustained objections as espoused by ISO procedures? As far as I know,
| since the Contradiction documents prepared by all the NBs back in Feb07,
| there has been no effort by ISO to work that out. Looking at the ISO process,
| its clear its broken and when there are forces determined to push it through,
| it will push it through.
`----
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/09/ooxml-wont-be-a.html
The CONSEGI 2008 Declaration: Six Nations "Just Say No" to ISO/IEC
,----[ Quote ]
| The latest blowback from the OOXML adoption process emerged last Friday in
| Brasilia, Brazil. This newest challenge to the continued relevance of ISO
| and IEC was thrown when major IT agencies of six nations - Brazil, Cuba,
| Ecuador, Paraguay, South Africa and Venezuela - signed a declaration that
| deploring the refusal of ISO and IEC to further review the appeals submitted
| by the National Bodies of four nations. Those nations were Brazil, India,
| South Africa and Venezuela, and the statement is titled the CONSEGI 2008
| Declaration, after the conference at which it was delivered.
`----
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080901094932564
Southern nations frown on ISO
,----[ Quote ]
| State IT organisation representatives from Brazil, South Africa, Venezuela,
| Ecuador, Cuba and Paraguay have signed a declaration expressing their
| dissatisfaction with the International Standards Organisation (ISO).
|
| The countries signed the declaration at the CONSEGI conference in Brazil over
| the weekend in response to news that the ISO/IEC had rejected the appeals
| from South Africa, Brazil and Venezuela and India to the ISO process to adopt
| Microsoft’s OOXML format as an international standard.
`----
http://www.tectonic.co.za/?p=2905
CONSEGI 2008 Declaration -- Open Letter to ISO Reveals More OOXML Issues
,----[ Quote ]
| There is an unexpected reaction from major government IT agencies in six
| countries condemning the ISO/IEC refusal to act on the four appeals against
| OOXML, which they say "reflects poorly" on ISO/IEC. They have signed and sent
| an open letter to ISO, which I'll show you in full. The countries represented
| are South Africa, Brazil, Venezuela, Ecuador, Paraguay, and Cuba.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080901220545193
ISO OOXML support criticised
,----[ Quote ]
| As the INQUIRER previously noted, there are now two incompatible,
| international document standards on which the world can conduct its
| discourse, manage its business, and record its archives: ODF, which was
| designed by the people, for the people; and OOXML, which was created by
| Microsoft, the convicted monopolist.
`----
http://www.theinquirer.net/feeds/rss/generic/en/GB/inq/latest/gb/inquirer/gb/inquirer/news/2008/09/02/iso-ooxml-support-criticised
Four governments go ballistic over Open XML
,----[ Quote ]
| South America and South Africa have been aligned for quite some time on many
| occasions of international legislation and often vigorously oppose government
| agendas of the "North". What makes me as a European feel ashamed is that they
| take the freedom to speak in plain words while European and Northern American
| standard bodies fail to express the obvious. A reform of ISO would only be
| possible when all nations work jointly on that matter. Here it looks like the
| four nations actually consider to leave ISO and set up their own
| vendor-neutral standard organisation. I guess many standards consortia will
| try to gather the fortune and get these nations on board.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-85391/four-governments-go-ballistic-over-open-xml
Teenage Riot?
,----[ Quote ]
| But who are we to interfere with the Masters of Scholastics of Geneva?
|
| The most interesting part of that letter is not the protest itself: Those
| countries are outraged. Actually, the most interesting part of that letter is
| that it clearly shows that they have run out of options -and will- to appeal
| the ISO decisions. Which does not mean OOXML is a folded case; in contrary,
| the letter implicitly shows these countries will evaluate other kind of
| options. After all, the ISO has failed in its mission with OOXML. It has
| showed to the world that it could only accommodate the will of the mightiest
| and not reach consensus. Thus conclusions will be reached, and decisions
| made, and actions will be taken. And I don’t think it will comply with the
| ISO directions.
`----
http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2008/09/01/teenage-riot/
OpenXML: Finally the hidden agenda is emerging
,----[ Quote ]
| Not so long ago, the major evidence for me was the number of countries that
| changed their votes in the last days OpenXML voting, signaling a major
| political agreement for the approval of standard, but now, a few months later
| more strange thing is happening.
|
| The last of them is that we in Brazil, and all other NBs, will have to cast
| until July 29, our vote regarding a proposal for a “new work item” at SC34,
| which deals with the translation between ODF and OpenXML documents. If this
| proposal is approved, it will be generated by SC34, trough an “accelerated
| process”, a technical report on the subject.
|
| I think this discussion is really natural, but we need to observe a simple
| detail: “The approval of OpenXML as an international standard is under
| appeal !!!”.
`----
http://homembit.com/2008/07/openxml-finally-the-hidden-agenda-is-emerging.html
Toy Soldiers
,----[ Quote ]
| One example is the proposals in SC34 to create a new project to create a
| Technical Report on translating between ODF 1.0 and OOXML 1.0. This might
| have made sense at some point in the past. But this proposal seems out of
| place now.
|
| Consider:
|
| 1. No one supports ODF 1.0 today. All of the major vendors have moved on
| to ODF 1.1, and will be moving on to ODF 1.2 soon.
| 2. No one supports OOXML 1.0 today, not even Microsoft.
| 3. No one supports interoperability via translation, not Sun in their
| Plugin, not Novell in their OOXML support, and not Microsoft in their
| announced ODF support in Office 2007 SP2.
|
| [...]
|
| Given the leisure to do the job right, my bet is on Microsoft. Everyone knows
| it for what it is now. There is no longer need for elaborate attempts to
| disguise the fact that OOXML is and will remain a Microsoft-only standard.
`----
http://www.robweir.com/blog/2008/07/toy-soliders.html
The ISO Document: Brazil's Appeal and ISO/IEC's Attachments 1 & 2 - as text
,----[ Quote ]
| Brazil is a P member of SC 34, so according to my reading of the clause, it
| has the right to appeal if any of the three above issues apply, and arguably
| they all do. According to South Africa, if the issue is ISO's reputation, or
| if there is a matter of principle involved, Brazil can appeal. Even point
| three could apply, in that Brazil raises matters such as incorrect tabulation
| of votes, which, if true, one would hope ISO wasn't aware of.
|
| [...]
|
| Why did they bother to go, one might ask? Why vote, if votes disappear from
| the record? By my reading, Brazil paints a picture of an orchestrated event,
| tilted away from criticism or a negative result and a refusal to give
| substantive consideration to issues delegates wanted to discuss, due to time
| constraints Brazil calls arbitrary, and worse.
`----
http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080712052212484
New doubts about ISO's fast-track standardisation of Microsoft OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| An internal document of the International Standards Organization (ISO) that
| found its way late last week on to the Wikileaks whistle-blower platform
| raises further questions about the choice of a fast-track certification for
| Microsoft's OOXML document format. The paper, by Joint Technical Committee
| No. 1 (JTC 1) of the Geneva standards organization, which dates back to July
| 2007, says the fast track procedure chosen for certifying Microsoft's
| document format is only intended for the acceptance of unaltered standards
| and that a standard not accepted in its original form, while not to be
| regarded as "2nd class" or illegitimate, should be put through the normal
| five-stage standardisation process, should necessary corrections be
| identified in advance. The fast-track process, it says, is intended for
| making changes to an original draft.
`----
http://www.heise-online.co.uk/news/New-doubts-about-ISO-s-fast-track-standardisation-of-Microsoft-OOXML--/111065
Puppet countries leaves P membership
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Puppet countries are leaving the P membership. Lebanon, Turkey,
| Cyprus, and Trinidad & Tobago have already dropped out. All those countries
| voted Yes without comments to OOXML.
`----
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-59702/puppet-countries-leaves-p-membership
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
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
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
Microsoft admits Swedish employee promised incentives for Open XML support
,----[ Quote ]
| Microsoft Corp. admitted Wednesday that an employee at its Swedish subsidiary
| offered monetary compensation to partners for voting in favor of the Office
| Open XML document format's approval as an ISO standard.
`----
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9033701
Microsoft Looks for the Big Guns in OOXML In-Fighting
,----[ Quote ]
| Bill Gates has reportedly been making phone calls to the Secretary of Defense
| and the Secretary of Commerce to push the American National Standards
| Institute to ignore the votes of its advisory committees and vote "yes" on
| ISO standardizing Microsoft's Open Office XML (OOXML) format, the one in
| competition with the OpenDocument Format (ODF) pushed by IBM and Sun.
|
| Gates reportedly picked up the phone when the last INCITS ballot failed by
| one vote to support Microsoft.
`----
http://xml.sys-con.com/read/419573_p.htm
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
Microsoft India using NGOs to fake support for OOXML
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-44038/microsoft-india-using-ngos-to-fake-support-for-ooxml
Becoming a better company: Microsoft helps NGOs in India
,----[ Quote ]
| Of course, there has to be some trade-offs, because there should never be
| free lunch, even for the ones who starve: Microsoft, according to this
| article, has conditioned its help to Indian NGOs to their support of OOXML.
| What the NGOs had to do was to send letters of support on OOXML to the
| federal government of India.
`----
http://standardsandfreedom.net/index.php/2008/02/29/becoming-a-better-company-microsoft-helps-ngos-in-india/
Microsoft "persuades" NGOs to support OOXML
,----[ Quote ]
| Our friends at Linux Delhi have put up a copy of the form letters that
| Microsoft has been sending NGOs on the OOXML issue. Apparently, these NGOs
| have been sending copies of these letters to the Ministry of IT and Bureau of
| Indian standards.
`----
http://osindia.blogspot.com/2008/02/microsoft-persuades-ngos-to-support.html
Developers around the world, unite!
,----[ Quote ]
| Monopoly and proprietary software have an advantage in influencing state and
| governmental institutions because of their large market base and ready
| capital. Unscrupulous ways of influencing state governments have persisted in
| India, for example, where executives of proprietary software cajole
| government heads to promote their brands in lieu of some form of charity
| given. FLOSS activists must overcome this huge challenge in order to get
| their philosophy accepted and model implemented for the good of people who
| are still on the barren side of the digital divide.
`----
http://thepost.com.pk/OpinionNews.aspx?dtlid=147277&catid=11
Using NGOs to Push Agendas
,----[ Quote ]
| The extent to which Microsoft can go in its efforts to get OOXML is
| interesting. Microsoft has "persuaded" several non-profit organizations to
| bombard the Indian IT Secretary and the Additional Director General of the
| Bureau of Indian Standards with letters supporting its OOXML proposal. A copy
| of the form letter they have been circulating to NGOs is given below.
| Somebody should interview these NGOs to see how much they really know about
| OOXML and open standards.
|
| The sequence of events leading up to the spamming of GoI? is:
|
| Letter from an NGO thanking Microsoft (name changed to protect their
| identity)
`----
http://wiki.linux-delhi.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/OpenStandards/MsNgoLobby
,----[ 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
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.9 (GNU/Linux)
iEYEARECAAYFAkjRg5gACgkQU4xAY3RXLo4qpgCdHtYLOEbD6tJqVjXTRKNSqkWn
ue4AoIyI1Kcl2PLCfLaT30Zh8KvyQWmz
=50Dc
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
|
|
