03.10.08
OOXML: Stacking, Exclusion and Snubbing in the US, Australia and New Zealand
More evidence of rule-bending and misconduct
Write these down as another set of dirty tricks from Microsoft.
United States
It has been no more than a couple of days since we last mentioned the United States and OOXML. This has been outrageous from the very start, going back a long, long way. It is hardly surprising to finally find that Microsoft is ’stealing the elections’ yet again.
In the latest demonstration of how broken the process is the US V1 technical committee voted on Friday to recommend approval of OOXML in a 17-4 vote, where Microsoft and no fewer than 11 of its business partners voted in favor of the specification. Am I the only one to see a major conflict of interest at play in this?
Australia
We last mentioned Australia and New Zealand just several days ago and finally we’re starting to find new complaints. Here is one from Australia:
AUSTRALIA’S stance in the global stoush over Microsoft’s bid to make its XML document file format an international standard will be thrashed out by local experts today.
[…]
Open Source Industry Australia spokesman Brendan Scott said he only received Standards Australia’s report late last Friday for discussion by the technical working group today.
“It’s very difficult to work out what’s involved in the final draft,” Mr Scott said. “There isn’t a complete document containing all the changes.
“It’s a big ask to have sensible comment on such a big document in such a short time.”
It’s deja vu all over again. Limit time, limit opportunity to scrutinise.
New Zealand
New Zealand’s story isn’t any better. A month ago we heard about ECMA virtually ignoring Italy’s gripes with OOXML and here comes a case where ECMA (Microsoft) disregards over 98% of the comments.
As you can see from the attached document, in the lead up to the BRM Ecma offered improvements to only 13 of the 54 SNZ comments. Out of these 13 “improvements” we found only one that really did address the fundamental issue. That’s right, Ecma “fixed” 1 comment out of 54.
Who are they kidding? OOXML is broken, it cannot be mended as quickly as Microsoft wishes (or needs), so the company withholds information from critics and stacks technical committees (or Working Groups). Is this the way to earn an international standard? █
Rubbish specs belong in the trash can
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.