03.23.08

Gemini version available ♊︎

What OOXML Manipulations Will Microsoft Have in Store for Poland This Time Around? (Updated)

Posted in Europe, Formats, Fraud, GNU/Linux, Google, IBM, Open XML, OpenDocument, Standard at 1:38 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

It is difficult to find stories where a vote on OOXML is confirmed to have been made calmly and peacefully. There is almost always some form of intervention by Microsoft (and/or its partners), to whom this decision is very crucial.

Memories returned at the sight of this new report from Poland.

Last Thursday PKN (Polish Normalization Committee) had a meeting on which it was supposed to come up with the decision concerning Polish recommendation for ISO/IEC DIS 29500 (OOXML) proposed standard. The common stance has not been acheived.

[...]

Yes, we do know a few more details concerning the process and the type of dirty politics that took place just before and during the meeting, but we are not going to releal it just yet, hoping that the chairman of KT 182 and the PKN itself makes a proper decision in the end (which is to abstain from voting as there has been no consensus about OOXML in KT).

The author, who appears to be the lead figure of this Polish Web site, must be disappointed. Half a year ago, trust in the government was lost after a fiasco. This author, who has been watching it closely enough to comment on these matters, might find the following flashbacks partly useful. Let us go through some past events.

Here you find Poland recognising OpenDocument format.

The OpenDocument Format Alliance (ODF Alliance), a broad cross-section of organizations, academia and industry dedicated to improving access to electronic government documents, today applauded Brazil’s decision to recommend ODF as the government’s preferred format; India’s decision to use ODF at a major state government agency; and Italy’s decision to recognize ODF as national standard.

The Alliance also recognized Poland, too, for demonstrating serious interest in adopting ODF in the wake of a national meeting held for its government with broad participants from industry and non-profit agencies.

At the time, Poland was also against OOXML. Watch these numbers.

Polish Technical Committee no 171 has just voted 80% against the adoption OOXML as an ISO standard [PL].

Read that again if you must. 80% against OOXML. Here is some more information:

Polish National Interoperability Framework promotes Open Standards

[...]

This basically means that Microsoft’s Office Open XML will not be treated as open standard, thus not preferred in Polish e-Government services, making OpenDocument Format the office standard of choice.

But watch what happened eventually. Have a look

Poland votes yes on OOXML

Several protests were sent already to PKN and TC 182 on behalf of: Free and Open Source Foundation, TC 171 members, Google Poland, IBM Poland, but I really doubt they will make the difference in Polish vote among ISO. The whole process was planned to the last minute so that there is not enough time to protest or make any changes. Although it is not as clear situation of vote-buying as in Sweden, it strikes me as something from typical Microsoft lobbying portfolio.

Someone from Poland had us informed about the situation, translating some bits of text and adding:

There was no practical reason to do that and as you remember first [Polish] comitee rejected MSOOXML with 82% votes against it, but now second comittee approved MSOOXML without single vote against it!

“Polish citizens who followed this were very furious at the time.”At risk of memory betraying me, a minister in the country was potentially approached to cancel the first vote and rerun a vote (stuffed with Microsoft puppets of course) to vote ‘properly’. Suspicions at the time resolved around the possibility of Microsoft pulling diplomatic strings as it had done in the United States, 2705 for a fact.

Polish citizens who followed this were very furious at the time. You can explore this further if you wish. There is plenty of damning evidence.

The European Commission is watching such abuses, so this time around, rather than addressing complaints at “[the] Free and Open Source Foundation, TC 171 members, Google Poland, [and] IBM Poland”, local watchers should report to Neelie Kroes et al. They would love to receive some further evidence.

“We’ve got to put a lot of money into changing behavior.”

Bill Gates

Update: Groklaw chimes in with plenty more details.

This is different. There is a report by Borys Musielak of PolishLinux.org that Poland met to vote on OOXML on Thursday. Of 45 members of the committee eligible to vote, 24 showed up to vote, and it split almost down the middle, with 12 for, 10 against and 2 abstaining. This is extraordinary, since Poland voted yes in September, despite the technical committee being opposed. I call that progress.

But here is the worrying part: when it became clear that there was no consensus, and it was not going to be a Yes vote, the chairman “decided to allow the missing members to vote by e-mail during the next 10 days”.

What to make of a process that keeps reinventing itself as it goes along?

Share in other sites/networks: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages.
  • Reddit
  • email

Decor ᶃ Gemini Space

Below is a Web proxy. We recommend getting a Gemini client/browser.

Black/white/grey bullet button This post is also available in Gemini over at this address (requires a Gemini client/browser to open).

Decor ✐ Cross-references

Black/white/grey bullet button Pages that cross-reference this one, if any exist, are listed below or will be listed below over time.

Decor ▢ Respond and Discuss

Black/white/grey bullet button If you liked this post, consider subscribing to the RSS feed or join us now at the IRC channels.

DecorWhat Else is New


  1. Links 27/03/2023: GnuCash 5.0 and Ubuntu 20.04 LTS on Phones

    Links for the day



  2. Links 27/03/2023: Twitter Source Code Published (But Not Intentionally)

    Links for the day



  3. IRC Proceedings: Sunday, March 26, 2023

    IRC logs for Sunday, March 26, 2023



  4. Links 26/03/2023: OpenMandriva ROME 23.03, Texinfo 7.0.3, and KBibTeX 0.10.0

    Links for the day



  5. The World Wide Web is a Cesspit of Misinformation. Let's Do Something About It.

    It would be nice to make the Web a safer space for information and accuracy (actual facts) rather than a “Safe Space” for oversensitive companies and powerful people who cannot tolerate criticism; The Web needs to become more like today's Gemini, free of corporate influence and all other forms of covert nuisance



  6. Ryan Farmer: I’m Back After WordPress.com Deleted My Blog Over the Weekend

    Reprinted with permission from Ryan



  7. Civil Liberties Threatened Online and Offline

    A “society of sheeple” (a term used by Richard Stallman last week in his speech) is being “herded” online and offline; the video covers examples both online and offline, the latter being absence of ATMs or lack of properly-functioning ATMs (a growing problem lately, at least where I live)



  8. Techrights Develops Free Software to Separate the Wheat From the Chaff

    In order to separate the wheat from the chaff we’ve been working on simple, modular tools that process news and help curate the Web, basically removing the noise to squeeze out the signal



  9. Links 26/03/2023: MidnightBSD 3.0 and FreeBSD 13.2 RC4

    Links for the day



  10. IRC Proceedings: Saturday, March 25, 2023

    IRC logs for Saturday, March 25, 2023



  11. Links 26/03/2023: More TikTok Bans

    Links for the day



  12. Links 25/03/2023: Gordon Moore (of Moore's Law) is Dead

    Links for the day



  13. Links 25/03/2023: Decade of Docker, Azure Broken Again

    Links for the day



  14. [Meme] Money Deducted in Payslips, But Nothing in Pensions

    Sirius ‘Open Source’ has stolen money from staff (in secret)



  15. IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 24, 2023

    IRC Proceedings: Friday, March 24, 2023



  16. The Corporate Media is Not Reporting Large-Scale Microsoft Layoffs (Too Busy With Chaffbot Puff Pieces), Leaks Required to Prove That More Layoffs Are Happening

    Just as we noted days ago, there are yet more Microsoft layoffs, but the mainstream media gets bribed to go “gaga” over vapourware and chaffbots (making chaff like “Bill Gates Says” pieces) instead of reporting actual news about Microsoft



  17. Sirius 'Open Source' Pensiongate: Time to Issue a Warrant of Arrest and Extradite the Fake 'Founder' of Sirius

    Sirius ‘Open Source’ is collapsing, but that does not mean that it can dodge accountability for crimes (e.g. money that it silently stole from its staff since at least 12 years ago)



  18. Links 24/03/2023: Microsoft's Fall on the Web and Many New Videos

    Links for the day



  19. IRC Proceedings: Thursday, March 23, 2023

    IRC logs for Thursday, March 23, 2023



  20. Links 24/03/2023: Social Control Media Bans Advancing

    Links for the day



  21. Links 24/03/2023: GNU Grep 3.10 and Microsoft Accenture in a Freefall

    Links for the day



  22. Links 23/03/2023: RSS Guard 4.3.3 and OpenBSD Webzine

    Links for the day



  23. Experiencing 15 Years of LibrePlanet Celebration Firsthand as a Volunteer: 2023 - Charting the Course

    Article by Marcia K Wilbur



  24. [Meme] Grabinski the Opportunity

    Reports of European Patents being invalidated (judges do not tolerate fake patents) have become so common that a kangaroo court becomes a matter of urgency for the EPO‘s Benoît Battistelli and António Campinos; will the EU and the EPO’s Administrative Council go along with it, helping to cover up more than a decade of profound corruption?



  25. Union Syndicale Fédérale Cautions the EPO's Administrative Council About Initiating an Illegal Kangaroo Court System for Patents (UPC) While EPO Breaks Laws and Sponsors the Ukraine Invasion

    Union Syndicale Fédérale (USF) is once again speaking out in support of the staff union of Europe's second-largest institution, which lacks oversight and governance because of profound corruption and regulatory capture



  26. Investigation Underway: Sirius 'Open Source' Embezzled/Stole Money, Robbed Its Own Staff

    In light of new developments and some progress in an investigation of Sirius ‘Open Source’ (for fraud!) we take stock of where things stand



  27. [Meme] Sirius 'Open Source' Pensions: Schemes or Scams? Giving a Bad Name to Open Source...

    What Sirius ‘Open Source’ did to its staff is rightly treated as a criminal matter; we know who the perpetrators are



  28. Sirius 'Open Source' Under Investigation for Pension Fraud, Several Pension Providers Examine the Facts

    2 pension providers are looking into Sirius ‘Open Source’, a company that defrauded its own staff; stay tuned as there’s lots more to come. Is this good representation for “Open Source”? From a company that had many high-profile clients in the public sector?



  29. Links 23/03/2023: Sparky 2023.03 Special Editions and SUSE Changes CEO (Dirk-Peter van Leeuwen)

    Links for the day



  30. Links 23/03/2023: Linux 6.2.8 and XWayland 23.1.0

    Links for the day


RSS 64x64RSS Feed: subscribe to the RSS feed for regular updates

Home iconSite Wiki: You can improve this site by helping the extension of the site's content

Home iconSite Home: Background about the site and some key features in the front page

Chat iconIRC Channel: Come and chat with us in real time

Recent Posts