You may personally politically disagree with the invasion of Iraq but as a commander of troops you have to carry out your mission and likewise order your troops to carry it out.

The “above my pay grade” remark springs to mind.

It is well documented that Novell is actually contractually obliged to support Open XML. The company became a drone. Roy is very emotional and attached about this but it also makes way for Microsoft technology on other platforms. Nothing wrong to buy companies or make business deals as such. My personal opinion with a grain of salt.

So it is two levels of questionable standard committee behaviour:
1. Objections are technically valid and you vote they are not and cover them (unprofessional attitude)
2. You serve an agenda but fake a community guy and accuse others

My assumption is that there are also objective and universal criteria that determine standard quality. You can even argue that Open XML is good enough as a standard because there are worse standards, compare the Open XML specification with other undocumented parts of IT infrastructure, bug level of productive software or websites and you might get another perspective. We both had the controversy before we started with the disapproval campaign.

It is also acceptable for others to take commercial avantage for unprofessional actions. It is a matter of compensation for you as you risk your reputation. When your company is contracted to do what you do. Roy will disagree and has every right to think Novell does ‘evil’. His opinion.

It is the same with an army. You may personally politically disagree with the invasion of Iraq but as a commander of troops you have to carry out your mission and likewise order your troops to carry it out. Roy would then so to speak argue for conscientious objection to the mission. No one should expect that from a soldier who made the decision for this job. Of course your rank makes a difference in terms of responsibility. And as a soldier don’t take it personal when you get shot. And mercanaries soldiers who talk about their personal convictions deserve medical treatment.

*But* people should not make their defense against standard war critics or opponents let them sacrifice personal dignity and respect:

“Charles is misrepresenting my participation in the Mexican standards group. I was an invited expert on the subject on the deliberations for OOXML as part of Linux AC (the civil association that promotes Linux in Mexico) just like a bunch of other people were.”

We know that the situation was different in Mexico and there is no benefit to play games. Probably Charles misrepresented the Ximian business model, it is a bit polemic and sticks, but there should not be any desire to see others proof the “just an invited Linux expert” story wrong.

I don’t really see an advantage to let Novell become a next Caldera. Fair enough it does not seem to be the objective behind the Novell investment.

– André

When I did lobbying in Parliament I often used to get “invited” by MPs. That is the process to enter the building if you don’t have a permanent badge (which makes MPs believe you are a professional lobby gun, has also sometimes disadvantages).

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080327104739103

in the Mexican standardization committee you represented the interests of Novell and Microsoft: in other words, the approval of the DIS 29500 (OOXML) as in the precarious status that it was at the time. It was, and still is, totally biased and discriminatory to the interests of the FLOSS community and Microsoft/Novell competitors, so not fulfilling by far indeed the neutrality that you must expect from an international standard.

Apart from that, you can dress your participation in the committee as you like. The fact that you had voting rights or not has little value, since everybody could vote if s/he would wanted (actually, it was the way used to hijack the final result with several hundred votes coming up and down from everywhere with many ballot recounts and recounts always getting out different “final” results… until extremely late in the night).

So at the end, only your words were the fact to take in account to judge your participation. And, so sorry, but they spoke enough about who was your master voice at that time.

Un saludo,
//Alberto Barrionuevo
FFII Vice President at the time
NoOOXML.org campaign leader for LatAm

The third question is: How to make OpenOffice.org independent from dominant vendors?

Maybe a bailout plan is worth to get considered. A proposal would be to ask for a one billion EUR European FLOSS Fund which aims to lower dependencies of European enterprises and citizens on Microsoft Office and strategically funds alternatives as Openoffice.org which promote competition. This would be a minor lobbying effort and feasible in the current environment. If there is political agreement in Europe to become software-independent the means would be found, e.g. a contract with the French military etc.

I mean, we accepted oil and gas to be strategic resources and supprt our military to deal with these dependencies. Why overlook the software related dependencies of our economy which enable a vendor to milk our economy, and undermine and endanger European democratic decision making procedures?

You just need a sponsor for an anti-lockin and Eurofloss campaign.

He criticizes both Novell and Sun in his article, concluding that both have good and bad points.

http://blogs.sun.com/webmink/entry/thursday_s_links_january_8th

I have a lot of respect for Charles’ work and independence. He was a good choice for a neutral, outside view. I’m disappointed in the whining and attacks subsequently coming from DeIcaza and the other microsofters.

Interview with a Non-Novell Go-OOo contributor next?

What would the point be? The Novell FUD was that Sun wouldn’t allow other contributors in OOo, and hence go-ooo was created. I don’t think Sun or Roy ever claimed something similar about goooo.

Point is that if you look for a specific person who will say anti-Novell things and then interview them and publish the results as if the person represents what the majority think, then that’s disingenuous.

And that’s exactly what you did.

You know, You Novell guys sometimes do the sins you blame Roy of. Noticed how you are blaming Roy of claiming that he represents the majority? I don’t see such claim, in fact, your comment was the first appearance of the word majority. Time to panic?

Maybe gather/archive the answers from anyone anywhere interested in replying.