OOXML oops, protests S. Africa, India, Brazil, and Denmark

It's IT Blogwatch: in which four ISO member countries protest the Microsoft OOXML standards-setting process. Not to mention job security by obfuscation...

Peter Sayer says:

India and Brazil have filed appeals against the adoption of the Microsoft-sponsored Office Open XML (OOXML) document format as an international standard. Their appeals join one from South Africa, filed last Friday with the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), the two standardization bodies responsible for the technical committee which approved the OOXML standard ... The so-called Fast Track process leading up to that vote has been widely criticized by participants and observers as too rushed. If a draft standard going through that process is rejected in an initial vote because it requires further work, a ballot resolution meeting (BRM) is called to discuss the criticisms made and improve the draft. Delegates at the February BRM for OOXML had just five days to deal with over 1,000 editorial changes and technical criticisms. more

NetworkWorld's anonymous gnomes add:

Apparently, some of Brazil's technical objections seemed to vanish from the list of objections ... Given the uproar this vote has caused -- coupled with the fact that Microsoft has said it plans to support ODF, ISO should go back and fix this mess ... Until and unless a true challenger to Office arises ... enterprises, students, consumers will want to be able to easily work with documents created by Office and Microsoft will hold the cards ... Enterprises need not watch this from the sidelines. Before renewing those enterprise licenses, enterprises can firmly and in no uncertain terms tell Microsoft to do a good job of supporting ODF and to move quickly on that. more

Ryan Paul looks worried:

The matter of gravest concern to the countries that are appealing the approval is that many of the issues brought up during the initial review were glossed over during a block-voting process due to time constraints. During the Ballot Resolution Meeting, most of ECMA's responses to problems in the specification were approved collectively without discussion ... They also complain that the final text of the standard still hasn't been published despite clear rules requiring publication within 30 days after the Ballot Resolution Meeeting. Where the dispute goes from here is still unclear ... [but] the OOXML controversy ... will likely continue to cast a cloud of uncertainty over Microsoft's format. more

Andy Updegrove polishes his crystal ball:

Ironically, "what happens next" is described in the same general and sometimes vague Directives that have caused ongoing dissent in the process to date, and figure prominently in the South African and Brazilian appeals themselves ... As with the other rules that have been at issue in the OOXML Fast Track process thus far, those that will apply here are superficially rational - but also superficial, when it comes to detail. As has consistently been the case to date, that means that a great deal is left to the discretion to those in the ISO/IEC hierarchy ... ultimate control of the resolution remains in the hands of the same individuals, and their colleagues, that made or approved, the decisions in the first instance upon which the appeals are based. As a result, we can expect that any poorly justified rejection of these appeals will be met with the as much disagreement and emotion as virtually ever other judgment made under the same Directives along this long and winding road.. more

Pamela Jones adds Denmark to the list:

A strong letter of protest has been sent to ISO from Open Source Leverandørforeningen in Denmark (OSL) ... It states that ISO rules were broken, there was no consensus in Denmark, and that the Fast Track process [was against the rules] ... for clarity, it's a letter of protest, not an appeal ... a letter from a member of the technical committee who participated in the BRM and who raises serious concerns ... the complaint is based on the fact that Denmark's committee was seriously divided, and amendments they wanted to OOXML were never applied. And worse, they were arguing over an unfinished draft. How can that work well? ... I thought this might be an excellent time to take a moment and remind ISO of its published Code of Ethics [PDF] ... Have they lived up to these goals, would you say? It never hurts to get back to core values ... The whole world is watching. more

Mikel Kirk agrees:

As a wiser poster than me observed some time ago, that ISO failed to have management processes in place a year in advance of predictable environment changes is evidence they fail even at following their own standards ... ISO 9000 ... If they abort this atrocity all is not yet well. Until they dig out and expel every agent that perverted their mission and monitor for some time that their processes do now work, they will remain suspect. If they fail to do the right thing, well, they're done. Stick a fork in them. The nations of the world would prefer to return to the bad old days of setting their own standards and negotiating equivalence by treaty. They will not stand for having their standards dictated to them by a US corporation, even through a puppet ISO. more

But Aussie Bob doesn't blame ISO:

Microsoft deliberately subverted ECMA, a number of national standards bodies as well as ISO itself. The influence they brought to bear was unprecedented, and ISO simply was not designed to deal with it. The fast track process was abused to prevent a reasonable response, and the short deadlines are being used to the same effect in this protest phase. It was a deliberate, calculated attack on an unprepared target ... Whether ISO can recover from this is questionable now. Responding correctly will be hard because the committees are still stacked with Microsoft reps. They're like a rooted box - untrustworthy without some extensive malware cleaning. more

And finally...

• Superencryptalisticexpialidocious

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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:

• Android amazes and amuses at assembly
• Intel's Montevina mistake causes Centrino setback
• Windows 7: click here to know more