[ILUG] [UKUUG] Please help prevent Microsoft creating a bad ISO standard

[Brian Foster]

 this is very probably of interest to some on this e-list.
  I've slightly edited the original posting to reflect the
   broader, and Irish, readership of this e-list.

 please note that if you do wish to act, you must do so
  very very soon (i.e., this week if at all possible!).

 I'm afraid I do not know what the national voting body is
  for Ireland, or who to contact (or for France, for that
   matter!) ....  ;-\

 I do not know if the ILUG itself takes positions on this
  sort of matter, but perhaps the board should consider an
   objection from the ILUG?  if so, then there are two letters
    so send:  one to the BSI (to represent the members in the
     North), and one to the Irish national voting body.
      in addition, individuals should send in their own letters
       to the appropriate national voting body.

------- Forwarded Message

Date: Mon, 22 Jan 2007 19:26:46 +0000
Subject: [UKUUG] Please help prevent Microsoft creating a bad ISO standard
From: Alain Williams <addw at phcomp.co.uk>
Organization: Parliament Hill Computers Ltd


Summary

The document format used by OpenOffice.org and other applications is
an ISO standard.  An open standard has been needed in this area for
many years to allow competition and for a range of tools to be
developed that all use a common data format.  Until the ISO standard
all we had (in the main) was de-facto proprietary binary standards.

The ISO standard is now seen as being under threat from a competing
standard proposed by ECMA based on Microsoft Office Open XML.
We think that you may want to object and if you read below, you can
find out why and how.

You must act by Friday 26 January.

Detail

An open standard (ISO/IEC 26300:2006) for document formats is currently
implemented by a number of office software suites, probably the most
notable of which is OpenOffice.org

Microsoft played little or no part in the ISO/IEC 26300:2006 process and
subsequently made its own proposal to ECMA (European Computer
Manufacturers' Association) for 'Office Open XML'.  That was approved by
ECMA and then submitted  to ISO/IEC for ratification as an independent
standard on a fast-track process.  A 30-day contradiction period is now
running which terminates on 5th February.

The fast-track proposal severely overlaps the existing ISO standard and
apparently contains numerous technical issues which deserve serious
consideration.  There does not appear to have been any effort at providing
a gap analysis to see where the existing standard does not provide support
for proposals in the ECMA document and hence no corresponding effort to
produce a single combined standard to meet the needs of both parties.  The
presence of more than one standard covering the same areas will inevitably
lead to confusion amongst users of standards.

Any voting national body (of which the British Standards Institute, BSI,
is one) can register a contradiction with ISO/IEC to cause the fast-track
proposal to be blocked and for a resolution phase to begin.
 [ ... ]
[ Anyone with an interest in this area should read ]
http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/EOOXML_objections  and then [ register
their view with their appropriate national voting body (such as the BSI).
The Chairman of the BSI panel looking into this area is ]
Francis Cave <francis at franciscave.com>, objections MUST be received
by 26th January to have effect.

To object to the fast-track procedure is not necessarily to object to the
proposal itself but it will at least cause a pause for thought and may
give time for more detailed scrutiny of the 6,000 page document.

If you do wish to object, please read the objections document and then
write to [ the appropriate national voting body ] (copy-and-paste from
this letter would be a bad plan) requesting that [ they ] formally
object to the fast-track proposal.

- -- 
Alain Williams
UKUUG Chairman
#include <std_disclaimer.h>

------- End of Forwarded Message

cheers!
	-blf-
-- 
Experienced (>25 yrs) kernel/software Eng: | Brian Foster   Montpellier,
 • Unix, embedded, &tc;  • Linux;  • doc;  | blf at utvinternet.ie   FRANCE
 • IDL, automated testing, process, &tc.   |  Stop E$$o (ExxonMobile)!
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