06.02.08
How OOXML Brought International Unrest
OOXML has been called many things, including the above. Put simply, as plenty of evidence convincingly suggests, OOXML is one of the biggest fraudulent crusades in recent years. To quote another person who is intimately familiar with this matter, Microsoft’s OOXML may be the “greatest scam of computing history.”
The mainstream media and Microsoft’s analysts may have covered the abuse poorly, downplayed it or turned a blind eye to it because falsely accusing someone (let alone a paying client) of fraud leads to risk. Nevertheless, people who were closely involved told their story.
“Some people’s status was wounded by smear campaigns, of which there were many.”Telling the true story is not all that useful unless action is taken to restore justice and retract deeds which have caused great damage, sometimes at a personal level. Some people’s status was wounded by smear campaigns, of which there were many.
OOXML is under fire at the moment, and not just because Microsoft said it would adopt ODF [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Earlier on we wrote about the latest appeal from Venezuela. We still haven’t a confirmation from Denmark (claim originated in a ComputerWorld article), but here is what you find in a new ZDNet UK article about the damage to Dansk Standard’s reputation.
Jesper Jerlang, the director of standardisation for Dansk Standard, the official Danish national standards body, told ZDNet.co.uk on Monday that Dansk Standard “did not agree” that processes had not been followed in the Danish OOXML voting process.
More information about the complaints from Denmark you can find in [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6]. Like in Poland, some Danish people are likely to have lost confidence in their own authorities because of Microsoft’s misbehaviour and sheer abuse of system. Everybody loses because a bully brought the system down.
According to the following new article from Ars technica, an “OOXML revolt” might be brewing. The article is aware only of 3 appeals, but there are more. In addition to this, the BSI came under legal action and the EU silently builds a case.
Here is the overview of just one among several vectors of scrutiny, whose effect is yet to be realised.
OOXML revolt brewing? Three countries appeal ISO approval
India, Brazil, and South Africa are attempting to appeal ISO’s fast-track approval of Microsoft’s controversial Office Open XML (OOXML) format. The organizations representing those countries in ISO complain of process irregularities, lack of inclusiveness during meetings and debates, and insufficient time to address all of the issues and concerns raised by participants during the review process.
There is some more overage of this right here. (cited for the bits we highlight in red)
The chief executives of the two international bodies involved, the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission, will take a month to try to work out the complaints with the individual nations’ standards bodies. If the complaints cannot be worked out, wider committees of the two international bodies will take up the issues.
In this particular context, it is worth adding that the IEEE and ISO grew a little closer not so long ago. This was by all means bad news. It was bizarre considering the time it came about (ISO lambasted).
At the end of the day, this uproar reflects badly on Microsoft Office. Should Microsoft be worried about its Office franchise at the moment? Well, just take a look at these screenshots.
RedOffice shows a possible way OOo could develop in the future.
As we wrote before, not only have sales of Microsoft Office declined but the future does not look bright for it, either. Free software is quite a mighty force and the Chinese programmers seem to be working with — not against — OpenOffice.org. RedOffice shows promise and demonstrates the power of derivation and open standards. There is only one document standard for the time being. OOXML got blocked. Hopefully, if justice is permitted to prevail, it will be shunned and dissolved while Microsoft moves to ODF. █
ZiggyFish said,
June 3, 2008 at 2:17 am
If these 4-5 cases do win, it’s a very very very big win for not only ODF and OpenOffice. But Linux, and any Microsoft competitor out there (even Apple). These reasons why are
The community was able to foil a Monopolizer’s plans.
The Microsoft lover community, are starting to relies what Microsoft really is about.
it shows that although there are holes in the ISO standardization processes, the process itself does work.