[odf-discuss] Gnome, Ecma, and what governments (and FOSS?) should have done

[Pamela Jones]

Precisely.  Since you are having trouble with your email app, I am 
resending a couple of comments that haven't appeared and I presume got 
lost somehow - One a question for Jody, and 2 a comment by Richard 
Stallman on the issue we are discussing here:


1. Jody has not, to my knowledge, told us what he will be doing, once 
the comments are presented in an organized way to the National Bodies 
and the work begins.

At that point, in Jan-Feb, what will you do, Jody? Are you going to be 
working on resolving technical issues at that stage of the process?

****

2. This issue will impact on the acceptance of FOSS in the market, and 
you argue that you like the tech of MSOOXML so that outweighs that factor?

Daniel argues that after all Intel and Novell sponsor it. But who are 
they to the community?  Should we accept destructive behavior and 
direction from corporate interests because they have money and want to 
make some more?  Look at what the corps did to unix.  They have no 
ability to see anything but short term gain, and they are perfectly 
willing to cut off their noses to spite their face.

Here's what Richard Stallman, on the Gnome Foundation board, wrote 
yesterday on the gnome list:


"Is joining ECMA TC45 really like using a library?  According to your
own words, it is engaged in modifying the OOXML spec:

     That is inaccurate.  Whom do you think will be responding to
     national body issues ?  ECMA, and by proxy TC45, have the ability to
     propose changes in the spec to resolve issues, and to raise their
     own issues preemptively for resolution.

I gather that such modification intended to bring about the acceptance
of OOXML as an ISO standard.  (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

If that is the case, anyone who is represented on the ECMA committee
is helping to promote the ISO acceptance of OOXML -- which would hurt
our community substantially.  If the GNOME Foundation is to be
represented in on the ECMA committee, it should explicitly counteract
that backfire effect by doing something else.

One way to do so is by publishing a statement, addressed to all
countries that vote in ISO, asking them to vote against any and all
versions of OOXML as a standard"

Ian Lynch wrote:
> On Fri, 2007-11-02 at 14:16 +0000, Alex Brown wrote:
>> Ian Lynch <ian.lynch at zmsl.com> wrote:
>>
>> [of the OOXML BRM]
>>
>>> But who then makes the judgement that the conflicts are or are not
>>> sufficiently resolved?
>> The 87 National Bodies participating in the process make that judgement.
> 
> Which then comes back to how objective and independent they all are.
> Certainly some scope for politics :-)
> 
> Ian