[LINK] Office 'Open' XML

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

So, MS can sell to countries that have mandated open source ..

Microsoft Favored to Win Open Document Vote 
K. O’BRIEN www.nytimes.com September 4, 2007

BERLIN, Sept. 3 — Amid intense lobbying, Microsoft is expected to squeak 
out a victory this week to have its open document format, Office Open XML, 
recognized as an international standard, people tracking the vote said 
Monday.

The move would help Microsoft, the world’s largest software maker, 
maintain its competitive advantage in the expanding field of open document 
formats.

“After what basically has amounted to unprecedented lobbying, I think that 
Microsoft’s standard is going to get the necessary amount of support,” 
said Pieter Hintjens, president of Foundation for a Free Information 
Infrastructure, a Brussels group that led the opposition.

The underlying code of an “open” document is public, allowing developers 
to improve and derive new products without having to pay royalties. The 
first open format to become an international standard, in May 2006, was 
OpenDocument Format, developed by a group led by International Business 
Machines.

Microsoft sought a similar status for Office Open XML so it could also 
sell software with open characteristics, which are increasingly being 
demanded by national and local governments in Belgium, France, Germany, 
the Netherlands and Brazil, as well as by Massachusetts in the United 
States.

Member countries in two global standards bodies, the International 
Organization for Standardization, known as I.S.O., and the International 
Electrotechnical Commission, or I.E.C., both based in Geneva, have been 
casting votes since April on whether to designate Office Open XML as a 
global standard.

The issue has split the groups, with some members asserting that the 
I.S.O. and I.E.C. should not be endorsing the commercial product of a 
single company.

Others say a standards designation would reflect reality, because more 
than 90 percent of electronic documents are in Microsoft format.

Electronic voting closed Sunday. Roger Frost, an I.S.O. spokesman in 
Geneva, said his organization was tallying the votes and expected to 
announce the results on Tuesday or Wednesday.

The European Computer Manufacturers Association, known as E.C.M.A., a 
standards group based in Geneva, endorsed Office Open XML as a European 
standard last December.

According to Mr. Hintjens, whose group has been tallying the votes of 
participants, countries including Japan, Canada, India, China, Brazil, 
France and Britain voted against Microsoft’s proposal. France and Britain 
made their votes conditional, meaning they could later change them to yes, 
should Microsoft alter its 6,500-page standard to allay technical and 
liability concerns.

Switzerland, the United States, Portugal and Germany supported Microsoft’s 
bid, Mr. Hintjens said, as did some smaller countries like Trinidad and 
Tobago, Kenya and Ivory Coast, some of whom became active late in the 
voting at Microsoft’s urging.

To win passage, Microsoft’s standard must gain support from at least two-
thirds of 37 countries on an information technology panel of the I.S.O. 
and I.E.C. called the Joint Technical Committee 1, and cannot be opposed 
by more than 25 percent of all countries casting ballots. 

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