[odf-discuss] ISO issues: Maddog, Holland, Belgium and France about MS-OOXML fast-track

[Arend van Beelen]

Unfortunately I have to note Holland caved in to pressure from Microsoft
only 3 days after the article you mention. Here's the follow-up (again in
Dutch):

http://automatiseringgids.sdu.nl/ag/nieuws/nieuws/toon_nieuwsbericht.jsp?di=305075

The basic argument was they were contacted by a Microsoft representive and
would not submit a formal objection because they want to stay friends with
MS.

A similar follow-up to the Belgian story is at:
http://www.zdnet.be/news.cfm?id=65147 (Dutch as well)
It says the Belgium standards body did not submit any advice about the
fast-track process because they could not come to internal consensus with
Microsoft and Intel holding their foot in the body's commission.

On 2/4/07, Alberto Barrionuevo <abarrio at ffii.org> wrote:
>
> Hi all,
>
> FYI from our collaborators of SoftwareLivre in Brazil here comes a
> letter from Maddog to ISO representative:
>
> http://www.softwarelivre.org/news/8389
>
> Additionally good news: Holland asks to reject fast-track:
>
> http://automatiseringgids.sdu.nl/ag/nieuws/nieuws/toon_nieuwsbericht.jsp?di=304881[in NL]
>
> And things are hot in Belgium also:
> http://www.zdnet.be/news.cfm?id=65093 [in Flemish]
>
> And getting so warm in France (text from FFII France President):
>
>         ---
>         - APRIL (French Free Software Association) has sent a letter to
>         AFNO (fr
>         representant at ISO) :
>         http://www.april.org/groupes/institutions/20070202-AFNOR.pdf [in
>         FR]
>
>         - Bernard Carayon (MP of government party->PPE) has asked a
>         written
>         question to the Minister of Industry, pointing at the conflict
>         of this
>         fasttrack adoption of OOXML with the recommandation of Open
>         Document
>         Format in the General Referential on Interoperability (a
>         government
>         initiative to "impose" open standard for public documents, it
>         was backed
>         by CCIA in an open letter
>         http://www.ffii.fr/IMG/pdf/RGI-06-2006.pdf) :
>
> http://www.bcarayon-ie.com/blog/index.php?2007/02/02/48-question-ecrite-a-lattention-de-monsieur-le-ministre-delegue-a-l-industrie-sur-la-coherence-de-la-position-francaise-en-matiere-de-formats-logiciels-ouverts[in FR both]
>         ---
>
> ---Maddog letter to ISO---
> Dear Mr. Bryden,
>
> It has come to my attention that ECMA 376 is under Fast-Track processing
> as an ISO specification. This is in regards to the OpenXML
> specification, which is over 6000 pages long. Microsoft has submitted
> this as a Fast-Track submission to ISO and is ramming it through.
>
> The review period was only a month, and given the fact that people in
> that short time have found several objections:
>
> (http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/EOOXML_objections)
>
> to a specification that will have such world-wide impact, I think that
> some more time and effort should be put into the review process and that
> ECMA should come to resolution of these issues and consensus in the
> world-wide community before re-submitting this proposal.
>
> In addition, as an elder 38-year member of the commercial computer
> industry, historian and computer scientist, I really have to say that I
> am *shocked* at the concept of invalidating existing standards of
> calendar creation (ISO 8601) and the *definition* of the Georgian
> calendar just because of a bug in one commercial vendor's particular
> product. If you do not know what I am talking about, and especially if
> you *do* know what I am talking about, then you *have* to send the
> Fast-Track proposal back to ECMA.
>
> Warmest regards,
>
> Jon "maddog" Hall
> --
>
> Saludos,
> //Alberto.
> --
> Alberto Barrionuevo   Vice-President F.F.I.I.   +34 639708494
> abarrio(@)ffii·org
>                            ~~ LEX INIUSTA NON EST LEX ~~
>    Open Standards coordination at FFII
> http://action.ffii.org/openstandards
>    Coordinación de EstándaresAbiertos.org
> http://www.estandaresabiertos.org
>
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>



-- 
Arend van Beelen jr.
"If you want my address, it's number one at the end of the bar."
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