"Regular readers will be aware that OOXML, the Microsoft Office XML-based formats adopted by Ecma, are now in the adoption queue at ISO/IEC. Ecma is a 'Class A Liaison' partner with ISO/IEC, which permits it to use the same Fast Track process that national standards bodies use. That process takes six months--the same amount of time that the PAS process takes (the route used by OASIS to submit ODF to ISO/IEC)--but has two steps rather than one, although the practical result is much the same.
"During the first one-month step, any member may submit 'contradictions,' which, loosely defined, are aspects in which a proposed standard conflicts with already adopted ISO/IEC standards and Directives..."
