[odf-discuss] Support South Africa’s appeal against OOXML

[Russell Ossendryver]

The South African national standards body, SABS, has appealed against the
result of the OOXML DIS 29500 ballot in ISO. In a letter sent to the General
Secretary of the
IEC<http://topicmaps.files.wordpress.com/2008/05/dis-29500-appeal-letter-iec-2008-05-22.pdf>(co-sponsor
with ISO of JTC1), the SABS expresses its "deep concern over the
increasing tendency of international organizations to use the JTC 1 process
to circumvent the consensus-building process that is the cornerstone to the
success and international acceptance of ISO and IEC standards."

Having resigned as Chairman of the Norwegian committee responsible for
considering OOXML for exactly this reason, I congratulate South Africa on
its willingness to stand up for the principles on which standardization work
should be based.

I would also like to take this opportunity to urge other national body
members of JTC1 to declare their support for this appeal. Let's make it
impossible for ISO and IEC to simply wave it aside.

One issue that does concern me is whether we can expect fair consideration
of the appeal on the part of ISO Technical Management Board (TMB): One of
its members is the very same Norwegian bureaucrat (the "Little
One<http://topicmaps.wordpress.com/2008/04/18/the-norway-vote-what-really-happened/#little-one>")
who arrogantly ignored the opinion of the overwhelming majority of Norwegian
technical experts and changed Norway's vote from No to Yes. This person is
clearly not impartial and should not be allowed to participate in the TMB's
discussion of the appeal.

South Africa's action confirms that the battle is not yet lost. Here in
Norway we are working hard to get the Norwegian vote changed back to No and
we think we might succeed. If we do, only two more votes will have to be
changed in order for the final outcome to be a rejection of OOXML. I urge
those of you in countries that voted Yes or Abstain to investigate any
irregularities and try to get the vote changed. Of course, we have no
guarantee that JTC1 will accept revised votes. Such a thing has never
happened before (to my knowledge), but then there are many things in this
process that have happened for the first time - not least the passage of a
6,000 page document through the Fast-Track process.

But even if JTC1 cannot be forced to accept revised votes, we can achieve a
moral victory that will make it easier for those trying to resist having
OOXML thrust upon them as a standard for national e-Government.
Once again, my thanks and congratulations to South Africa… Amandla!
http://topicmaps.wordpress.com/2008/05/23/support-south-africas-appeal-against-ooxml/

*More on it at the **
http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/05/the-south-afric.html*<http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2008/05/the-south-afric.html>


PS: Amandla is Zulu for "power"
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