[odf-discuss] INCITS Admin Site - Vote Tally for ooxml with comments

[Peter Vandenabeele]

It is really interesting to see how the NIST position on ballot 2212 is
represented differently in different media ....

The formal position is very clear from the vote on Aug 9:

"NO"

  http://ballot.itic.org/itic/tallyvote.taf?function=detail&response_id=113254

It is a complicated text that states they they would like to "agree with
comments", but that the formality of the process:
[... [Note: Conditional approval should be submitted as a disapproval
vote.] ...]
requires NIST to vote "NO" in this case.

Further on NIST even mentions clearly:

[... NIST would support a US National Body conditional approval vote
(i.e., DISAPPROVE with comments). ...] (my emphasis added).

The problems with the current ballot 2212 are clearly documented in
the comment text.

Funny to see how this facts is enterpreted on Aug 10 by news.com as:

"NIST endorses Microsoft's Open XML in upcoming vote"
http://news.com.com/8301-10784_3-9758278-7.html

[... The U.S. standards body said on Friday that it has voted to
conditionally approve Office Open XML (OOXML) pending some technical
concerns in an upcoming standards approval vote. ...]

For some reason, I get the impression someone at NIST or news.com forgot to
mention that an intended "conditional approval" in the INCITS rules needs to
be formally translated into a "NO" vote for this specific 2212 ballot for
"approval with comments" and even this would even translate into a "YES" vote
to a a new "disapprove with comments" ballot.

I hope this can clarify the confusion about whether NIST now approved or not
the INCITS 2212 ballot for conditional approval.
http://ballot.itic.org/itic/archive.taf?function=detail&ballot_id=2212&_UserReference=AD9DFD33597AE89A46BD77A0

Peter