Lots of news about OOXML last week, in the lead up to the ISO ballot resolution meeting later this month.
Ars Technica and others cover news reported in Friday's Wall Street Journal, that the EU is apparently investigating the OOXML standardization process:
European regulators have now decided to examine whether Microsoft violated antitrust laws during the OOXML standardization struggle. EU antitrust officials want Microsoft to turn over information about its conduct during the standards-setting process.InternetNews.com has a similar, but more in-depth story at "More EC Troubles for Microsoft?":
The company has been accused of packing several nations' ISO committees with pro-Microsoft delegates prior to a crucial vote on OOXML in early September--a vote that ultimately came out against its adoption as a standard.It's not just about Sweden...
Indeed, the WSJ report cites what occurred with the Italian delegation as a particularly egregious example, stating that the group grew from a half dozen members to 85 in the run up to last summer's balloting.
According to the report, the EC is examining whether Microsoft's activities--including pressuring countries to vote for OOXML--constituted "undue stifling of competition," and thus violated European antitrust laws.
Meanwhile, Burton Group has posted a three part response to the ODF Alliance's response to the original Burton Group report on OOXML, "What's up, .DOC?" A lot of the serve-and-volley in those is down to differing opinions. I am still personally frustrated that the MS side of the equation seems to have a borg-like hold on the notion that files created in Office 2007 are somehow equal to the format being proposed for standardization... I realize that the final ECMA proposal will look very similar to the 6000+ page OOXML spec as it exists today, but that spec is not what is implemented in Office 2007 nor, in most cases, in any of the OOXML community products in full. There will be changes, one way or another, and any Office 2007 documents will have to be part of that change to evolve forward.
Last, in the pathetic category, I see that someone with way too much time on their hands has created a fake Rob Weir weblog. As much as free speech is protected in the US, this is just a lame character assassination of Rob. Anyone thinking that the politics of the OOXML effort have gotten a little out of hand when someone on the other side of Rob puts their energy into this kind of bs?
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- 2
Mike Brown | 2/12/2008 5:04:38 AM
Oops. That's "FSJ", not "FSG". (Long day).
cheers,
- Mike
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david racicot | 2/13/2008 7:34:03 AM
I'd say the creator of the fake sight should be going to jail.
{ Link }
And to think that the only time that I ever used to think of myself as "European" was when the Ryder Cup was on!
Sadly, at the speed these things move, it's unlikely that an EU investigation will have any material impact on the current OOXML/ISO standardisation process. But who knows? Maybe a "hey you, we saw that and we're watching your ass" from the EU is just the thing to concentrate a few minds later this month. If only the US DoJ hadn't been set to Autopilot for the last eight years. (Any changes there next year, one wonders?)
The Fake Rob Weir blog is seriously frakking dull. Couldn't they have got somebody with a sense of humour to do it? FSG was, at least, occasionally amusing.
Cheers,
- Mike