Formal protest against Norway’s yes to OOXML
There was a massive protest when Standard Norge decided that Norway will say yes to OOXML, despite the fact that most of the comitee-representatives were against.
The ISO-vote is currently undecided, and Norway’s vote can tip the decicion in favor of accepting OOXML as an ISO-standard.
Things took another turn just a couple of minutes ago, as Steve Pepper, the chairman of the SN/K185 (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 mirror committee, has sent a formal protest to ISO. He asks that Norway’s vote be suspended, because it does not represent the opinion of the comitee members.
He has also asked the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry to look into the Norwegian process.
Here is the content of the fax sent by Steve Pepper:
Formal protest regarding the Norwegian vote on ISO/IEC DIS 29500
I am writing to you in my capacity as Chairman (of 13 years standing) of the Norwegian mirror committee to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34. I wish to inform you of serious irregularities in connection with the Norwegian vote on ISO/IEC DIS 29500 (Office Open XML) and to lodge a formal protest.
You will have been notified that Norway voted to approve OOXML in this ballot. This decision does not reflect the view of the vast majority of the Norwegian committee, 80% of which was against changing Norway’s vote from No with comments to Yes.
Because of this irregularity, a call has been made for an investigation by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry with a view to changing the vote.
I hereby request that the Norwegian decision be suspended pending the results of this investigation.
Yours sincerely,
Steve Pepper
Chairman, SN/K185 (ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 mirror committee)
Read more about the Norwegian OOXML-process here.
This story was first published in Norwegian at digi.no.
March 31st, 2008 at 4:17 pm
Thank you Steve Pepper for standing up on this!
One cannot help but think that Microsoft somehow influenced the outcome using money.
Democratic process certainly wasn’t the order of the day!
March 31st, 2008 at 4:55 pm
any other countries care to protest the results?
March 31st, 2008 at 5:06 pm
Well, I won’t be protesting my country’s vote. Standard New Zealand still considered OOXML short of being acceptable as an ISO standard and voted DISAPPROVE once again. A decision I completely agree with.
March 31st, 2008 at 5:50 pm
And I hope to see more of this!! OOXML as a standard? yeah as a standard way to keep things Microsoft and broken.
March 31st, 2008 at 7:52 pm
Thanks to Steve Pepper for his standards of integrity and moral fortitude! I only hope that members from other countries who have seen the proper standardization processes trampled over have the backbone to raise similar complaints.
It is absolutely intolerable that a proper engineering decision is layered over by Microsoft’s dictatorial and monopolistic tendencies and their total lack of morality.
Well done!
March 31st, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I find it shocking that the process is being hijacked in this fashion. Whatever actual will should be reflected accurately, not minuted in a way that amounts to outright falsification.
As to the merits of OOXML vs ODF as a base document format for the next generation of documents, we have only to consider the constant threats made by Microsoft in the recent past. Its “open source promise” has not reassured some lawyers who have written about it.
The elephant in the room is that ODF is to OpenOffice.org as OOXML is to Microsoft Office 2007. The difference is, that OpenOffice.org is licensed under liberal terms, and the specification for the ODF file formats is similarly unencumbered.
Microsoft has argued that its format is necessary to represent data, but the raw xml contains errors, work-arounds, and arcane references to the internals of MS Office 2007. ODF is open in every way. If the boys at Redmond need to look at OpenOffice.org, they can download its source code.
So on balance ODF is the better standard for storing data, in terms of licensing and openness. MS may even benefit by being forced to work within its structure, and abandon its own proprietary formats.
There may be merits to the MS approach to enterprise computing in some contexts. You may have Exchange and Sharepoint deeply integrated into a company’s DNA. And there are bound to be copies of MS Office 2007 purchased and deployed regardless of the file format they used.
But the world would be a better place and MS Office 2007 and OpenOffice.org would co-exist and compete for mindshare.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:17 am
Have you seen that the ODF editor is now supporting OOXML?
http://www.pcworld.idg.com.au/index.php/id;1454056082
He makes some good points!
Could it be that you are on the wrong side of this issue?
April 1st, 2008 at 2:01 am
El voto noruego a favor de OOXML a la basura…
Las reacciones no se han hecho esperar en Noruega. Steve Pepper, el presidente del comite ISO noruego (SN/K185) ha mandado una carta oficial a ISO para que anulen y tiren a la basura el voto noruego debido a las irregularidades en la votacion. Se ha pe…
April 1st, 2008 at 2:06 am
@Anthony I don’t consider myself to be on any side. I’m a Norwegian IT journalist, and I try to report the industry stories.
In my day job, I write in Norwegian, and I’ve covered that part of the story at digi.no.
This English blog is a test to see if I can do some interesting stories for readers outside of the Norwegian border. It’s no point for me to write about the stories that everyone else already have covered.
April 1st, 2008 at 4:49 am
@Anthony:
‘Supporting’ is not really the correct term now is it? but nice FUD anyway.
Your article is arguing that they can both be ratified as standards, and then people will have a choice and the best standard can ‘win’. There was quite a lot of discussion of this when that article was published. And it’s a viewpoint I personally agree with.
The problem being discussed in this blog post (which you failed to address) is that MS have apparently gamed the system to get their standard approved even if it fails the technical tests the committee members apply. This isn’t some bureaucratic nicety, it’s a test to see if OOXML is fit for purpose, and it has failed this time. The scandal is that this fail becomes a pass at whim of a poxy papershuffler.
April 1st, 2008 at 5:55 am
I am not a citison of norway.
but I strongly oppose the decision of the nation’s standard’s commitee to say yes to ooxml.
I work as a project fellow in a very reputed research organisation in India called Tata Institute for Fundamental Research.
I work in a lab which is engaged in science education and we exclusively use free software not to mention support and recommend open standards.
as an experienced person in the Information technology field for over 8 years, I feel that letting ooxml become a standard of any level, we will be putting at risk the freedom of millions of human beings and specially if the majority of people say no and yet the organisation says yes then I wold strongly second the idea of suspending any such resolution in favour of the masses.
April 2nd, 2008 at 12:44 pm
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April 2nd, 2008 at 4:53 pm
Norge får internasjonal oppmerksomhet i OOXML-saken…
Den norske prosessen rundt ISO-sertifisering av OOXML har vært så kontroversiell og full av irregulariteter at den har skapt overskrifter verden over. Alle disse artiklene omtaler Norge:
The New York Times: Microsoft Open Format Standard Said to Get…
April 2nd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
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April 5th, 2008 at 3:41 pm
Now that Microsoft has its people in place, they can move on to the next phases.
All Microsoft software will be approved as ISO standards.
All software standards that are not Microsoft will be repealed.
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