EXTRA: Microsoft triumph; OOXML appeals quashed

Welcome to a special IT Blogwatch EXTRA: where appeals fail to stop Microsoft's Open XML becoming an ISO/IEC standard. Not to mention a self-test for idiocy...

Elizabeth Montalbano spits alphabet soup:

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) have given the green light to publish the Microsoft-backed Office Open XML (OOXML) specification after organization leaders rejected appeals from four countries to protest the vote that approved OOXML as a standard.
...
Appeals by the national bodies of Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela did not garner [enough] support ... [so] the ISO and IEC technical boards approved the publication of ISO/IEC DIS 29500, the official name for the OOXML specification ... expected to be published within the next few weeks. more

Kurt Mackie adds:

Without elaboration, ISO/IEC said in a press release that the claims of the four participating members had not convinced the board members.
...
Microsoft expressed satisfaction ... "An unprecedented number of National Bodies engaged collaboratively and constructively in the Open XML standardization process, with 61 countries voting to approve Open XML as an international standard (IS 29500) ... We look forward to IS 29500 being published and we will continue to support the ISO/IEC process in every way that we can." more

Pamela Jones isn't surprised:

Keep in mind that Microsoft's Office 2007 does not implement OOXML ... No one does.
...
Should be hilarious, when they publish it and anyone tries to actually use it. Anyone? Bueller? more

Microsoft's Jerry Fishenden fishes for compliments:

Users now have what they have long asked for: independent ownership and maintenance of these important document formats. more

Brazilian delegate Jomar Silva blogs thuswise:

The curtain of smoke that ... covered this whole process, works again in favour of those who enjoy the obscurity ... What would happen if this appeal had been presented by England, United States, Germany and France? Do you believe that he would be summarily ignored as it was?

Brazil, India and South Africa were treated as second-line countries during the BRM, and together with Venezuela, the four were now treated with irrelevance again. This is for me a clear and concrete signal: ISO is not anymore the appropriate and legitimate forum to deal with the standardisation needs and aspirations of developing countries. more

On which, Andy Updegrove muses:

It will be significant to learn ... what the actual votes may have been. The greater the support, the more urgent it will be for ISO and IEC to reform their processes in order to remain credible and relevant to the IT marketplace. This is particularly true, given the origins of the four appeals, none of which came from North America or Europe. more

Glyn Moody agrees:

The fact that standards bodies representing the second- and fourth-most populous countries in the world were unhappy with the way the standardisation process was carried out doesn't matter, apparently.
...
ISO has decided it wants to be irrelevant ... Time for a new international standards body. more

Oh look! Norbert Bollow has just the thing:

Despite the name, ISO is not an international organization in the same sense as e.g. WTO or WIPO are international organizations with countries as members. ISO is simply a cartel of national "standardization organizations". Everyone has the right to start an organization to compete with them. I believe that ISO is so strongly committed to acting in the best interest of the dinosaurs that there is no real alternative anymore to doing this.

If you agree, please join us at OpenISO.org. more

And finally...

• Are you an idiot?

[No Buffer Overflow links in this EXTRA post -- normal service will be resumed Monday morning]

Like this stuff? Subscribe to the RSS feed.

Richi Jennings is an independent analyst/adviser/consultant, specializing in blogging, email, and spam. A 21 year, cross-functional IT veteran, he is also an analyst at Ferris Research. You can follow him on Twitter, pretend to be Richi's friend on Facebook, or just use boring old email: blogwatch@richi.co.uk.

Previously in IT Blogwatch:

• Windows 7 weblog drip-feeds fresh info
• Open source licenses *are* enforceable, FTW!
• Patch Tuesday is a biggie this month