Microsoft and ISO - how to destroy the ISO process

Report from the SC34 convener Martin Bryan is stepping down (after his three year term) as convener of ISO/IEC JTC1 SC34, the place of the OOXML debacle. Says he:

This year WG1 have had another major development that has made it almost impossible to continue with our work within ISO. The influx of P members whose only interest is the fast-tracking of ECMA 376 as ISO 29500 has led to the failure of a number of key ballots.

(ECMA 376 is OOXML), and

The days of open standards development are fast disappearing. Instead we are getting “standardization by corporation”, something I have been fighting against for the 20 years I have served on ISO committees.

So, Microsoft is single-handedly responsible for destroying the standardization efforts of numerous engaged individuals and organizations, as well as the work in an important international standardization organization. I can't find words for the disappointment I feel. Peter Kopelman, take some responsibility for the business ethics of your company!

ISO står stilla efter omstridd formatkupp - Computer Sweden

ISO står stilla efter omstridd formatkupp - Computer Sweden Holy Crap! In english: OOXML Payback Time as Global Standards Work in SC 34 "Grinds to a Halt" Well done Microsoft (and ISO itself gets to share the blame).

Boycotting MS Office documents

I've officially started my Microsoft office document format boycott. Why? Because of two things: 1. the unavailability of open documentation of the old document formats (.doc, .ppt, etc) 2. the behavior of Microsoft in the ISO process, in particular in Sweden, but elsewhere too, when voting on OOXML, the new, so-called "open" document formats for MS Office. Being engaged myself in standardization processes, I know how this hurts the standardization community. So, I'm not accepting files in Word or Powerpoint format, and I'm only sending ODF and PDF. What about everybody else? Well, either use an office application that supports the ISO standard for office documents, such as Openoffice.org, or use the following plugin for MS Office: http://www.sun.com/software/star/odf_plugin/