The Shuttleworth Foundation Supports South Africa’s Appeal Against OOXML

“The Shuttleworth Foundation has sent out a press relase
explaining what it believes is wrong with OOXML as a standard, and
stating its conviction that the the South Africa Bureau of
Standards has a strong case for appeal. It says SABS expects others
to join them in appealing against OOXML as an ISO standard. If the
appeal is successful, then OOXML would be rejected as a standard
and would have to be resubmitted, the latter being something the
Foundation hopes will not happen, since it believes having two
standards for the same thing reduces interoperability.

“It’s a matter of due process not being followed, the Foundation
explains, ‘several vital ISO procedures were bypassed.’ And now, by
introducing complexity into standards, there is a threat to open
access to information, which ‘impacts negatively on education and
citizen access to government services.’ It’s about being able to
open any document, edit and save, without difficulties, after
all…”

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