Commentary: ISO Should Kick OOXML Off the Standards Bus

[ Thanks to Roland for this link. ]

"ECMA, the international IT standards association, recently published its responses to comments of the ISO National Bodies in response to Microsoft's Office Open XML application for ISO standardization (the actual 2,293-page response is closed to the public). The ECMA proposals will be discussed at a Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) in Geneva after which the National Bodies may reconsider their original vote. Microsoft's responses make clear that within one year, it will have four different OOXML specifications to implement and interoperate with, and each of those specs will be closed. Under no circumstances should such a flawed specification become an international standard.

"The main specification is OOXML 1.0 (i.e. ECMA 376 today)..."

Complete Story

Related Stories:

• Response to Ars Technica's Article on the ODF/OOXML Report(Jan 21, 2008)
• OOXML Questions Microsoft Cannot Answer in Geneva(Jan 12, 2008)
• The Deprecated "Smoke Screen" of MS Office Open XML (OOXML)(Dec 28, 2007)
• National Boards to Vote No for OOXML (Office Open Xml) at ISO(Dec 19, 2007)