OOXML Abuse Index
OOXML Abuse Index: Please Register Your Complaint by Thursday
Background Information
A few days ago, South Africa submitted a formal complaint protesting against abuse within or against ISO. It has been clear to many for a long time that the standardisation process of OOXML was far from normal. Observations were made endlessly and documented also.
For the past couple of years we have assembled a set of stories covering incidents which illustrate the seriousness of this issue. Over the weekend, owing to South Africa’s complaint, we decided to organise much of what we had documented, nation by nation. The goal is not just to inform but to also take action. People are politely — yet somewhat urgently — asked to contact their standards body. OOXML can still be taken off the Fast Track and be declared a non-standard, at least for the time being. This would be significant for a variety of reasons.
Do consider asking your national standards body to join the complaint of South Africa. At this stage, after the first appeal has been filed, it should be simpler. The listings below contain telephone numbers of your national standards body and some accompanying posts that hopefully show what happened in your country. The listing is not complete because the indexes were put together in a rush. Thursday is the hard deadline for complaints to be made. If you need evidence to back your complaint, appended stories will hopefully prove handy.
The Index
Your nation’s name starts with letter…
- A-C | OOXML Incidents Index: From Algeria to Czech Republic
- D-G | OOXML Incidents Index: From [D]enmark to [G]reece
- H-J | OOXML Incidents Index: From [H]ungary to [J]ordan
- K-N | OOXML Incidents Index: From [K]enya to [N]orway
- O-S | OOXML Incidents Index: From [P]akistan to [S]yria
- T-Z | OOXML Incidents Index: From [T]hailand to [V]ietnam
Nations are sorted alphabetically, starting with more recent posts and including some redundancy. Many external links are contained therein. This opportunity to stop or slow down OOXML is rare and the days that are left to do so are few. We ought to take advantage of this while it lasts. █
Page last edited on May 26th, 2008, 10AM GMT
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy. 
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