New OOXML Scandal–A Leaked Email Surfaces in France

“Le Monde Informatique and LeMagIT are reporting on a leaked
email from Marc Meyer of the French government agency, DGME, which
urges that OOXML be quickly added to the official list of formats
that can be used by government entities, a document titled RGI, and
then the finalized v1.0 of RGI be quickly published, in effect
locking in OOXML, before the appeals process is completed. The
email and the media reports indicate that the RGI was put on a back
burner last October, when ODF was already on the list, and now,
immediately after OOXML is approved, albeit controversially, by ISO
but before the appeals process is complete, not to mention the
format, Meyer urges it quickly be added to the list of acceptable
formats, hence making it hard to remove OOXML from the list later,
as a fait accompli.

“Worse, the email indicates that work on the document was
brought to a crawl to wait for ISO approval of OOXML. ODF was
already on the list when work on RGI was brought to a standstill
last October. There were suspicions that the slowdown was
deliberate, and the email is giving legs to those
suspicions…”

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