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Neil Williams wrote: > FFII PRESS RELEASE -- [ Europe / Economy / Innovation ] > > ====================================================== > OOXML fails to get approval, but ISO process continues > ====================================================== > > Brussels, 5 September 2007. The draft standard OOXML submitted by > Microsoft and ECMA has been rejected in a vote at ISO, reaching > neither the required 2/3 majority among "participating countries" nor > the required 3/4 majority among all countries. However, ISO decided > not to finish the procedure yet, but instead to go for a ballot > resolution meeting in February, where Microsoft will attempt to > present solutions to the numerous problems that have been pointed out. > If enough countries change their vote, the proposal still has a chance > to pass. > > Several irregularities have been reported in the ISO process. These > include purchasing of votes in Sweden, admitted by Microsoft; > rejection of Microsoft's competitors in Portugal because of lack of > chairs; hijacking of standardisation committees in many countries, > including USA, Italy, Colombia and Mexico; manipulations of the vote > process by presidencies in Switzerland and Uruguay; replacement of an > insufficiently Microsoft-friendly technical committee by a "more > agreeable" one in Poland; non-acceptance of competition in Venezuela > and Ukrania; and more. In general the process has been driven, except > in a minority of the countries, by attempts to put as many gold > partners as possible in the committee responsible. > > Benjamin Henrion, leader of the FFII NoOOXML.org campaign, comments: > "The OOXML proposal is so poor that if anyone else had submitted it > they would have been laughed at. I don't understand why the ISO > secretariat has not already put it in the waste basket. The > continuation of the process means more scandals hurting the public > image of ISO." > > Alberto Barrionuevo, FFII vice president, agrees: "What is at stake is > not so much the fate of the inappropriately named 'Open XML' format, > but ISO's reputation. The fact that many ISO member bodies have > approved of OOXML due to severe manipulations suggests that the > process needs to be overhauled. We strongly recommend that ISO > reconsiders its system and regulations." > > ====================== > Background Information > ====================== > > Microsoft has been pushing for adoption of its Microsoft Office file > format as an ISO standard. The format was adopted as ECMA 376, and > ECMA subsequently submitted it to ISO for fast-track (six-month) > approval. An unprecedented number of comments by ISO member bodies had > been submitted in the first stage of the process in February 2007. > > More information is available in http://www.NoOOXML.org/, FFII's web > site campaign. The ballot results are at > http://www.NoOOXML.org/ballotresults. > > An HTML version of this press release, as well as previous press > releases, can be found at http://press.ffii.org/Press_releases/. > > ============== > About the FFII > ============== > > The FFII is a not-for-profit association active in over thirty > countries, dedicated to the development of information goods for the > public benefit, based on copyright, free competition, open standards. > More than 850 members, 3,500 companies and 100,000 supporters have > entrusted the FFII to act as their voice in public policy questions > concerning exclusion rights (intellectual property) in data > processing. > > > Next time we have a meeting, and talk about vendor trust, all we need to do is print this and related articles off, and hand them out to people to read, over coffee, then have a open discussion on the subject,. I am sure a lot of people are unaware of M$;s underhand tactics, at getting their own way. It could be an eye opener for people. -- Support open file formats use ISO 26300 Open Document format as used by openoffice.org, http:///www.openoffice.org Events 15th September 2007 - Software Freedom Day 20th October 2007 - Lug clustering meeting. 18th October 2007 - Ubuntu 7.10 release date 28th October - Penzance Computers meet 11th November. Penzance Computers meet details on lug site, www.dcglug.org.uk under meetings. visit us on IRC - irc.phractured.net / 6667 #dclug -----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK----- Version 3.1 GIT d S: a C+++ UL++++ P+ L++ W++ N+ W--- O! V! PS+ Y! t+++ 5 X+++ R tv- b- DI! D++ G e H! r! z? -----END GEEK CODE BLOCK---- -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG http://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/linux_adm/list-faq.html