Microsoft's "open" win

I was disappointed to read that Microsoft’s attempt to bully national standards groups into voting for their Office OpenXML (OOXML) data format succeeded, making it an ISO standard, in spite of substantial concerns about the quality of the voluminous standard—even among standards bodies that voted for it.

According to the New York Times, “Of the 87 votes, 10 opposed the standard: Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Ecuador, India, Iran, New Zealand, South Africa and Venezuela.” Thank you to the OOXML 10.

Critics point to voting irregularities or problematic political pressure applied in national standards bodies in Mexico, Finland, Poland, Romania, Brazil, Belgium, Norway, Germany, Pakistan, Egypt, and Sweden. (1, 2)

More details:

• “Reversing Loss, Microsoft Wins Open-Format Designation”, New York Times
• “Microsoft’s Office Doc Format Wins ISO Approval”, Wired News
• “Analysis: ISO vote is only first step for Open XML”, Computerworld
• “20 good reasons to disapprove OOXML”, NoOOXML
• NoOOXML.org