[LINK] Fwd: <NO>OOXML: Your action is required: Contact SA now!

[anthony hornby]

Hi All,
This was interesting - received it today.
Passing it on in case it is useful to others.

The list at http://www.noooxml.org/brm is interesting too.


Anthony.


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Benjamin Henrion <bhenrion at ffii.org>
Date: Dec 7, 2007 1:47 AM
Subject: <NO>OOXML: Your action is required: Contact SA now!
To: anthony.w.hornby at gmail.com



Dear anthony hornby,

You signed the <NO>OOXML petition, a movement backed now by more than
70.000 supporters worldwide. Our effort to influence the OOXML (Office
Open XML) standardization process has been an astonishing success so
far. We aim for at least 100.000 signatures in February when the Geneva
Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) will convene with the aim to resolve
comments.

Microsoft is trying by all means to get its "standard" adopted without
substantial changes despite of its thousands of officially reported
technical flaws and the pre-existence of ISO 26300:2006 (OpenDocument,
ODF) as the most appropriate international standard for the
representation of office documents.

By next Tuesday Dec 11 2007 delegates from your National Standards Body
SA who will participate in the BRM have to be announced to
ISO. At least Portugal and Ireland will be represented by Microsoft. In
many other countries, we know that Microsoft gold partners are proposing
themselves as heads of national delegations. Many of them will prevail
if we do not take action.

Will you let Microsoft represent your country at Geneva and decide the
future of OOXML?

You can make a difference and call now SA at +61-2-92376000 and help
us to find out:

  a. Who will represent SA on DIS 29500 at the Ballot
     Resolution Meeting in Geneva?
  b. When will the decision on delegates be made and if SA is
     aware of the Dec 11 deadline?
  c. Does your national delegates for the BRM are independent enough
     from Microsoft?
  d. Does the responsible Committee of SA for DIS 29500 work
     on resolution proposals for all the 3500 comments tabled or - if at
     all - only for the national comments that they submitted?

Please report your findings by replying to this email, we will update
this page with the members of each national delegation:

http://www.noooxml.org/brm

More things that you can do to help our effort against this broken
standard proposal:

  1. Join our mailing list and get in touch with many other
     activists:
     http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/noooxml-club
  2. Become a member of FFII, the worldwide association leading the
     <NO>OOXML campaign:
     http://action.ffii.org/member_application
  3. Become a member of DIGISTAN, the organization for the promotion
     of true digital open standards worldwide; please indicate your
     interests to: members at digistan.org
  4. Blog about OOXML which shapes the public debate; blogging has been
     instrumental to our success in Sweden for example;
  5. support our campaign work with financial means:
     http://www.noooxml.org/donations

Best regards,

--
Benjamin Henrion <bhenrion at ffii.org>
<NO>OOXML Campaign leader