Brazil Votes 'NO' to OOXML

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Cyrus_the_virus

Cyrus_the_virus

Unmountable Boot Volume
uesday, March 25 2008 @ 08:07 PM EDT
Another No to Microsoft's OOXML, this one from Brazil. Avi Alkalay has the news:

It is now official. Brazilian vote was decided by consensus of the entire technical team, including Microsoft crew’s: OOXML does not deserve to be an international ISO standard. Our first vote, in august, was also NO, due to the same reasons: OOXML is an awful specification.

That outcome was expected because we simply followed the process: technically analyze the OOXML specification, make comments, wait for responses, analyze them and see if all problems were fixed. Is there any single remaining unresolved problem? Vote NO. And in fact there were many many unresolved problems.

If every country followed this simple process, OOXML would receive a NO from 100% of them.

But in some countries, how is the process? Invite a few companies and simply count their votes. The problem here: 10, 20 or 80 votes can never represent what is the best for that country. Only, maybe, if you collect one vote for each citizen.

What I am trying to say is that in this case a decision must be reached by technical consensus, not vote. It is not a matter of will, but a technical issue that can only be reached by rational analysis and deliberation.
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Updated: Czechia however has voted Yes, which changes from their earlier Disapprove, adding these extraordinary words:

Czech Standards Institute agrees with the proposal of the international standard ISO/IEC DIS 29500 (Information technology – Office Open XML file formats) Czech Standards Institute (CSI) sent to ISO/IEC secretariat in Geneva, on Thursday 20th March 2008, its acceptance of the proposal for establishing ISO/IEC DIS 29500 file format (Information technology – Office Open XML file formats)....

During processing the standard proposal ISO/IEC DIS 29500 CNI was observing the maximum openness and transparency of the whole process and created conditions allowing every interested person to join the expert discussion. All received suggestions were carefully discussed and their enlistment into the standard proposal considerably contributed to the improvement of its technical expertise.
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Hahahaha. "Maximum openness and transparency of the whole process." Pinocchio, Pinocchio, wherefore art thou, Pinocchio? We want to see your nose!

Here is one comment that must have slipped off the table and got overlooked, a comment the Czech Republic attached to its vote in September:

Coexistence of two very similar international standards such as ODF and OOXML is undesirable in a long term perspective. Therefore we ask JTC1 to start work on a progressive harmonization of both formats in cooperation with OASIS and ECMA organizations which are originators of these document formats.
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slugger

slugger

Banned
u forgot all about India buddy :)

Cuba, India vote no on OOXML
Cuba and India are the latest countries to vote against Microsoft’s Office Open XML (OOXML) file format being adopted by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC).

Meanwhile Germany and the US confirmed that they won't be backing down on their call for the format to be ISO/IEC-approved.

The decisions from national delegates from 33 countries who took part in the DIS29500 ballot resolution meeting in Geneva in late February have been trickling in ahead of this Saturday’s crucial deadline.

Late last week India overwhelmingly rejected OOXML. Of the nineteen companies in the country submitting a vote, which included ODF supporters IBM, Sun Microsystems and Red Hat, only five came out in favour of adopting it as an ISO standard, according to the Economic Times.

Meanwhile, Cuba said it won’t be backing Microsoft’s file format this time around.

Representatives of the Cuban National Bureau of Standards have also claimed, according to an email seen by Groklaw (*www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080324121844682), that Cuba had in fact voted against OOXML in September, suggesting that their votes had been miscounted in the original Geneva ballot. This claim hasn't been verified elsewhere.

Microsoft, which previously failed to secure enough votes in September last year, has been hoping to push OOXML through as an international standard with its second attempt.

Delegates who voted in the original fast-track ballot have been given until 29 March to change their position on the Office 2007 format should they wish to do so.

If enough of the 87 national member bodies reconsider their original vote then the format could proceed to publication alongside Open Document Format (ODF), which gained ISO approval last year.

But if Microsoft fails to secure enough votes this time around the standardisation proposal will be thrown out and the fast-track procedure will be axed. ®
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lywyre

lywyre

Cyborg Agent
It is irritating when people give a 'Yes' to such non-standards. A good read at this is enough to understand why it should not be a standard.
 
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