Stuff that in your ballot box
Microsoft has once again proven that they are ten cents short of a dime, but still manage to throw their money around. Recall a previous post, Microsoft gets raped by ODF, where ODF was accepted to be used as the default file format by the state agencies of Massachusetts. Microsoft made a big stink about this, they said it was “inconsistent and discriminatory”, and they stood their ground. Guess what other file format is now going to be used alongside ODF in Massachusetts? You guessed it, Microsoft’s brand-spanking new file format!
Allow me to digress: Microsoft came up with a new XML standard specially for their Office 2007 product line, claimed it to be an “open” standard, and submitted more than 6,000 pages of documentation to Ecma for standardization. The Ecma savants somehow managed to plow through this jalopy of a format and approved what came to be their Ecma 376 standard — Office Open XML (OOXML). Before this, ODF had already been an ISO-approved, international standard. After Ecma approved OOXML, they put it on the fast-track approval process from ISO in hopes that it would become an international standard as well.
Since ISO is an international standard, every country participating votes independently in order to determine an approval. ANSI is the official representative for the US vote, and INCITS V1 is a technical committee that provides recommendations to ANSI. Since ANSI is typically known to follow the recommendations of INCITS, an OOXML approval by this group would be critical for ANSI to give OOXML approval on behalf of the US.
But how does one get to vote in the V1 committee? Well, according to Rob Weir (a member of V1), “The qualifications for voting rights are that you must be a US domiciled organization, pay an $800 membership fee and attend two consecutive meetings.” Enjoy this clip from his blog, An Antic Disposition:
At the start of the year, V1 had only 7 voting members. But by Friday’s meeting V1 had 26 voting members. There was a clear pattern in the voting where the long-time V1 members voted for the “Disapproval, with comments” position as well as “Abstention, with comments” while the newer members voted overwhelmingly “Yes, with comments” and against “Abstention with comments.” This is not surprising since the new members were largely Microsoft business partners.”
On Friday July 13th they voted, and the results? Fourteen of the sixteen new members voted “Approval, with comments”, with fifteen approving in total — clearly less than the 2/3 majority vote required to gain approval by V1. It was a noble attempt to stuff the ballot box by Microsoft, but unfortunately they were … 2 votes short of an approval. Stuffing the technical committee with their partners wasn’t the only Microsoft faux pas, but it appears that 177 people suddenly felt the need to submit letters to INCITS with their approval of OOXML. Poke through some of the pdf submissions, they look amazingly similar. Where did everyone get that letter from? Perhaps the same place people in Ireland are getting theirs from?
The INCITS executive board still has the final say, and with any luck they will realize that OOXML certainly does not (in any way, shape, or form) deserve to become a standard of any kind. And of course, if we all wish on enough shooting stars, OOXML will be rejected by ISO when all the decisions come in.
Why should OOXML be rejected as a standard? Read through a website dedicated entirely to this matter, www.noooxml.org, and see the long list of issues that this poorly designed standard has. Yet another job well done Microsoft.
