OOXML Roundup Aug 30, 2007, 13 :30 UTC (2 Talkback[s]) (8311 reads)
The Wall Street Journal: Microsoft and Its Rivals Take 'Office' Politics Global
"Ente Nazionale Italiano di Unificazione, or UNI, Italy's national standard-setting body, handles such matters as drawing up specifications for water tanks and establishing the proper diameter of nuts and bolts. Its work rarely draws a crowd.
"That changed this spring when a UNI subcommittee began to consider a bid by Microsoft Corp. to win its support for the file format used in new versions of its ubiquitous Office software... Within months, a technical committee of some half-dozen members ballooned to no fewer than 85 Italians..."
Reuters: Critics Urge Rejection of Microsoft "Open" Format
"'More parallel standards makes for better standards. It's good not to decide for a single standard too soon,' Michael Groezinger, Microsoft's chief technology officer in Germany, told Reuters in an interview.
"He declined to speculate on the outcome of the ISO vote but welcomed last week's decision of the German Institute for Standardisation--an ISO member--to give Open XML a conditional 'yes' vote..."
"Mr János Kóka, Minister of Economy and Transport, has sent a mail to György Pónyai, General Director of Hungarian Standards Institution (HSI), about its the Hungarian vote on OOXML issue. In this mail the minister informed the director, that the IBM Magyarországi Kft (the Hungarian subsidiary of IBM) signed concerns about the way how the Hungarian vote was decided on the OOXML issue (draft of ISO/IEC DIS 25900 standard) on the meeting of the Committee on 25th June 2007..."
"For most of us, file formats are right up there with printer drivers in terms of fun. Certainly, they're important, but not something you'd look to for excitement. And yet that is precisely what the battle between the OpenDocument Format and Microsoft's OOXML is providing. And I'm not just talking about the dry, intellectual excitement derived from comparing well-formed XML tags: this is a no holds barred, down-and-dirty mano a mano fight over the soul of document standards.
"Microsoft encouraged partners to participate in Sweden:
"An employee in Sweden sent an email to 2 partners that was inconsistent with company policy. When he realized what he had done, he did the right thing by immediately reaching out to the two partners to address the situation. He contacted them by phone and email letting them know that they should disregard the mail..."
