02.07.08
Geneva BRM: Microsoft Puppet Show, Invite-only
No room for critics
The broken process [1, 2, 3] in Geneva will be very secretive, but we will be keeping busy during that week. Behind the scenes, Microsoft is already very busy.
Microsoft tries it with little success. It invests into European interoperability lobbying, sponsors a lot of conferences but thus is forced to spearhead the call for Interoperability — and “choice”.
Thankfully, in the BRM there will be a so-called moderator (or a fox watching the hen house).
As I have mentioned, one of my jobs this month is for Microsoft, to play Devil’s Advocate with the Ecma responses … -
This comes from Microsoft’s own ‘Wikipedia editor’, Rick Jelliffe. This was far from the only incident where Microsoft paid or promised favours in change for OOXML support. What on earth will it be in Geneva? Portugal and Ireland are represented by Microsoft employees and even devil’s advocate is a man who was hired by Microsoft. It’s just like watching a puppet show routine yet again.
If there was a cartoonist here, here is an assignment idea: several Microsoft employees and partners sit around the table pushing papers around. Some attendants are not Microsoft partners, but they sit on a large pile of Microsoft-branded cash. Then, like in a wine-tasting party, they all savour the wonderful aroma of that huge pile of paper called OOXML and basically pass their 5 days in Geneva throwing paper planes that are made from OOXML specifications and a single printout of comments from the Web site asking for public feedback. █
Highlight: Novell was the first to acknowledge that Microsoft FUD tactics had substance. Novell then used anti-Linux FUD to market itself. 
Highlight: Xandros let Microsoft make patent claims and brag about (paid-for) OOXML support. 
Highlight: Linspire's CEO not only fell into Microsoft arms, but he also assisted the company's attack on GNU/Linux. 
Highlight: Microsoft craves pseudo (proprietary) standards and gets its way using proxies and influence which it buys. 
Highlight: The invasion into the open source world is intended to leave Linux companies neglected, due to financial incentives from Microsoft. 
Analysis: Xen, an open source hypervisor, possibly fell victim to Microsoft's aggressive (and stealthy) acquisition-by-proxy strategy.