08.15.08
ISO Tells ISO: “You Did a Great Job!”
Despite heaps of evidence of manipulation, bribery, extortion, vote-stuffting and so forth, ISO decided to shoot itself in the foot and endorse such unaccpetable behaviour by denying valid complaints. Noooxml.org has the first report.
It is evident to me that the appeal voting is highly vulnerable to manipulation when you have to get a 2/3 majority. The voting was not even on the substance of the appeals but on “further processing” them and I am not aware of any “further processing” formality decision requirement. A 2/3 majority rule always means that one option is favoured in advance. In ISO and national bodies it is common for processing of specifications where the bias is usually towards adoption. Do you need a 2/3 majority for “processing further” the appeal or “rejecting it before consideration”? You get the point. At times you vote until you get the wanted results. A friend of mine was furious about the ISO/IEC decision and asked himself similar questions:
Where is it written that it is needed a support of 2/3 to process an appeal? This could be considered a humiliation for the countries that have summitted the appeals.
Looks like the ISO/IEC procedural rules and their interpretation offer great surprises again. Or as a more devilish commentator suggested
It is an elegant abuse of newly invented rules to justify the abuse of previous rules. You have to admire the way it even sounds democratic…
[...]
This is not the end
The NB concerned may appeal this decision to the Councils.
I am curious if that would happen. The effects are described by the ISO press release
According to the ISO/IEC rules, DIS 29500 can now proceed to publication as an ISO/IEC International Standard. This is expected to take place within the next few weeks on completion of final processing of the document, and subject to no further appeals against the decision.
Effectively it would make a lot of sense for National Bodies to do it.
So, its not over yet, but ISO is left standing on a toe, being an implicit accomplice in Microsoft’s systematic criminal behaviour (no less) to make OOXML a standard. █
“37 letters with exactly the same words. Some of the senders didn’t even care to remove the ‘Type company name here’ text.
Simular letters has been circulating in Denmark as an e-mail from the Danish MD Jørgen Bardenfleth to customers and business partners.
I call it fraud, cheating and disgusting. If I wasn’t anti-Microsoft before, I am now. Disgusting !”
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gggggg said,
August 16, 2008 at 1:27 am
Corruption! Corruption! Corruption!
They didn’t even consider the substance, the contents of the appeals, they simply refuse hear them.
See no evil, Hear no evil, Speak no evil!
Shame, shame, shame!
Look for pockets full of green! Look carefully for the major players in this charade in the coming months. And look how big their pockets are.
Can anyone who has an open mind not conclude that Microsoft just bought a ISO standard?
gggggg said,
August 16, 2008 at 1:41 am
I just saw a pathetic post by Rick Jelliffe on Groklaw. There’re people in this world that are incapable of being themselves and just go around being heralds of propaganda for others. Without having the decency of warning of that beforehand. Just truly pathetic.
Call them trolls, astroturfers, shills, apologists or whatever. Where’s their character?
Roy Schestowitz said,
August 16, 2008 at 1:45 am
Rick has made his share of $$ from OOXML (as a consultant for Microsoft). It’s best to ignore him.