--Steve Pepper (just days ago)
RARELY do we find journalists with guts these days, but Mark Ballard has been the exception for quite a few years and by addressing Microsoft's "fuckwittery" he helps bring to light again a lot of the corruption surrounding OOXML -- a systematic abuse of massive scale which the press almost forgot about. Based on one who seems to have conspired with Microsoft, standards just don't matter and here is what Ballard has to say about that:
A senior member of a leading British tech standards body has launched an excoriating attack on Cabinet Office efforts to implement the central plank of its ICT Strategy.
The outburst has opened a crack into the secretive world of formal tech standards, suggesting it may be convulsed in a fit of pique not seen since Microsoft got its derided OOXML document format passed by standards bodies around the world in 2008.
Alex Brown, British Standards Institute committee member infamous for overseeing OOXML's approval, said in his personal blog how he had become exasperated with government efforts to bring ICT standards in line with its policy of easy interoperability of public computer systems.
[...]
The failure and, it was alleged at the time, susceptibility of that process to corruption may have been demonstrated by the OOXML affair.
The alleged corruption was never confirmed, to this correspondent's knowledge. But it has for more substantial reasons left the process with a stigmata that goes right to the heart of government policy.
The culture of transparency that has swept along in the wake of Sir Tim Berners Lee's open data initiative has in addition made the BSI look anachronistic.
Comments
twitter
2011-05-03 00:43:57
For evidence of ISO corruption, please see the Techrights indexes.
http://techrights.org/ooxml-abuse-index/
http://techrights.org/2008/05/24/ooxml-incidents-a-c/ http://techrights.org/2008/05/25/ooxml-incidents-d-to-g/ http://techrights.org/2008/05/26/ooxml-incidents-k-to-n/ http://techrights.org/2008/05/26/ooxml-incidents-p-to-s/ http://techrights.org/2008/05/26/ooxml-incidents-t-to-v/
Thank you for noticing.
Actual standards experts have shown that the OOXML specification was hoplessly inadequate. Despite being more than 6,000 pages it was both incomplete and self contradictory, often referencing the undocumented behavior of subversions of Microsoft's previous software. It only passed ISO because Microsoft corrupted the process and stuffed the vote as documented above. Because people like Steve Pepper of Noway are still trying to correct national votes, it is too early to condemn ISO.
Only a hypocrite can at once decry a defacto standard and recommend a phoney replacement which is technically identical in many parts. OOXML is impossible for anyone but Microsoft to implement but not even they have. It is amusing to watch someone with such low standards for documents resort to foul language but he does not have much else to stand on. I suppose that Mr. Brown is upset that anything but OOXML is being considered.
Government and industry bodies should adopt the simpler but more complete ISO standard, ODF. Those who do can chose between a number of free and excellent implementations, at least one of which does a better job of importing legacy documents than Microsoft's own software.
Dr. Roy Schestowitz
2011-05-03 16:37:56