OOXML, objections raised!

By golly, South Africa seems to have some objections over the document format and the approval process that it has officially lodged a complaint. This is going to delay things even more on a normally staid and slow standards body.

Engaging in a bit of schadenfreude, it will be that once the complaint is registered, more complaints will be lodged by other parties once the approval process document trail is shown.

And it's not going be pretty.

Now, the EC gets interested in OOXML!

Actually no. Given the initial intent and final vote of the OOXML, the EC is now planning to look into the voting process itself.

A little too late now; a bit like the cops in the movies.

Even with all the clamouring, it'll take years for any allegations to be proved or falsified. By that time, OOXML would have become mainstream thus making it all moot.

Rather, the standard should be on indefinite hold till a consensus is reached by all concerned that Microsoft got the votes fair and square.

Who's going to complain about this?

Microsoft? Actually, they'd benefit as they have nothing to hide, wouldn't they?

The Open Source crowd? It's not a standard yet, till the allegations are proved either way, so they might have to wait a couple of years before they have a technical locus standi in this discussion.

That about settles it then?

*wink

All this will be apparent to those who've the "Yes Minister" series where the Minister and the Civil Services folks clash over policy.

OOXML and Microsoft: Getting the votes

Looks like a lot of "negotiations" have changed the outcome of the OOXML standards vote. OOXML is probably going to be voted as an ISO standard. Appears that I spoke too soon.

The next logical thing is get funding for another truly open document standard.

As Andrew Tannenbaum says, the good thing about standards is that there are so many to choose from!

If the open source waters are being muddied, muddy it a little more and move to the new standard. However long it takes. A document is one of the fundamental blocks of business transactions in an electronic world. Making it unreadable at some future date due to legal and technical reasons is clearly not in anyone's interest.

Royalty free, non discriminatory and under a standards body NOT controlled by any entity is what the target should be.

Microsoft and OOXML revisted

When the lede to the story has the lines

by reiterating that it won’t sue over future versions of its file format.

and the title is one about Microsoft, you know it's not going to be good.

For both Microsoft and the public at large.

So, UK might revisit it's yes vote on the OOXML file format.
Microsoft's stand is now wobbly considering they and other vendors have been bashing Sun for not making a Java a true open standard. All approvals had to be routed through Sun and everyone cried foul. Now Microsoft is in the same situation. It seems to need the Open Source tag without losing control over the file format specifications.

That is going to be tough. Very.

It's better to be proprietary and arbitrary in your file formats than to take a stand which is viewed as fake and with suspicion. At least, while not getting good karma, you don't get bad press either.

OOXML and Microsoft; getting nowhere?

India has voted to NO to OOXML.

That was expected. What is surprising is how the battle is being fought. Here's one insider's account of how the votes played out and the after effects.

Reading between the lines, there seems to be a lot of quid pro quo and none of the Indian IT players come out in a better light. Of course, one is well within their rights to question the motives of the blogger too who gave his perspective of things.

However coloured the views might have been, IF there were technical demerits to the standard, then it really is a good idea to throw it out.

Microsoft has only itself to blame on this vote; none of the competition is going to help it along. Clearly, the more the NO votes, the bigger the embarrassment and consequent bureaucratic revisions and time that OOXML is going to get bogged into. The competition is also going to spread a good amount of FUD about it, right or wrong. Questions on patents, whether it is truly open, the NO votes from the academic establishments are ripe for talking points attack.

And I still don't understand why there is a need for another document standard when the ODF (Open Document Format) exists and there is ISO approval for the same.