[odf-discuss] Here is Microsoft's spin on the JTC-1 contradictions

[Daniel Carrera]

On Thu, 2007-08-02 at 06:35 -0500, Lars D. Noodén wrote:
> Either model works fairly well when there is a good faith effort from all 
> paritcipants.  I suspect that the model used by ISO and others, where 
> abstention counts as a yes, may be less robust in weathering abuse.

My understanding is that the ISO process, while very rigorous, does
expect some amount of good faith. For better or worse, that's the system
we have. Truth be told, systems that expect a minimum of good faith are
the norm, at least in the developed world, and they are necessary for
society to function. You have then have laws to deal with the few bad
apples. E.g. You don't have a cop on every bar checking IDs. You trust
the bar owner to act in good faith, and have a law to keep "honest
people honest". More often than not, making a system more draconian, to
deal with the worst offenders, usually does more harm than good (e.g.
police states, prohibition, etc).

In the specific case of ISO, a system that required every member to
review a submission, or counted abstentions as "no" votes, would likely
do more harm than good. Considering that even a fast-track submission is
still supposed to get a good review over a 5-month period, the system in
place looks appropriate.


> Take the case of summer holidays, which we've seen in the EC the last few 
> years in regards to trying to get sw patents into Europe.  The trick there 
> was to wait until most people were away on holiday and busy with 
> family activites and then quickly slide through a proposal that would have 
> little chance of passing, if subjected to scrutiny.

Which shows that even a rigorous system can be abused fairly easily.

Daniel.
-- English is essentially French converted to 7-bit ASCII.
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