[LINK] Microsoft Wins Open-Format Designation

[stephen at melbpc.org.au]

Reversing Loss, Microsoft Wins Open-Format Designation 
 
KEVIN J. O'BRIEN www.nytimes.com
Published: April 2, 2008

Microsoft has won an international standards designation for its open-
document format, according to voting results obtained Tuesday, apparently 
ending a divisive yearlong battle with software rivals before a global 
standards-setting organization.

Microsoft’s Office Open XML, a format for interchangeable Web documents, 
was approved by 24 of 32 countries in a core group in a ballot by the 
International Organization for Standardization. Approval by the standards-
setting body, a nongovernmental network of 157 countries based in Geneva, 
is considered almost certain to influence software spending by governments 
and large companies.

The tally reversed a loss by Microsoft in first-round voting before an 87-
nation panel in September, a process that involved blunt lobbying by both 
sides toward members of national standards committees — typically made up 
of technicians, engineers and bureaucrats.

In the final round of voting, which ended Saturday, three-quarters of the 
core group members — including Britain, Japan, Germany and Switzerland — 
supported Microsoft’s standard, according to the results document. Of the 
87 votes, 10 opposed the standard: Brazil, Canada, China, Cuba, Ecuador, 
India, Iran, New Zealand, South Africa and Venezuela. 

Under organization rules, at least 66 percent of core group members must 
accept a standard for it to be approved, and no more than 25 percent of 
all voting nations can be opposed.

Microsoft’s request for rapid approval of its standard in early 2007 
produced an intense lobbying campaign by I.B.M. and Sun Microsystems, 
which had helped develop a rival interchangeable document format called 
Open Document Format.

This rival was the first interchangeable document format to receive 
approval by the standardization group in 2006, and its backers used that 
in selling the technology to governments and large companies. The format 
is now being considered for use by 70 nations.

Microsoft’s push for speedy approval led to objections from many members 
of the standards group. They felt pressure from the company, whose Office 
application suite is the standard on more than 90 percent of computers and 
archives worldwide, according to International Data in Framingham, Mass.

There were tart remarks even from countries that abstained from the vote, 
like the Netherlands. “This is like someone with six shopping carts of 
food trying to go through the express lane at a supermarket,” said Michiel 
Leenaars, a member of the Dutch delegation. “The end result of this will 
be confusion. The standard is simply too big. There are still a lot of 
questions out there.”
--

Cheers people
Stephen Loosley
Victoria, Australia