Microsoft now attempts to sabotage ODF
By releasing MS Office SP2 with a formula syntax incompatible with most of the applications supporting ODF, Microsoft tries to sabotage ODF and fragment the corpus of ODF files. The supporters of ODF...
View ArticleNew Wordprocessing Patent
Word-processing document stored in a single XML file that may be manipulated by applications that understand XML A word processor including a native XML file format is provided. The well formed XML...
View ArticleISO will meet in Redmond, dinner paid by Microsoft
The capture of the ISO process by the vendor is not finished. Microsoft is organising the next ISO SC34 meeting in Redmond on OOXML maintenance. The next ISO SC34 meeting, who should review more then...
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800 pages of defect for OOXML, here it is
800 pages of defect for OOXML, here it is. ISO is such a transparent organisation that they are afraid of the web, and the public light of the blogosphere. Here is the leak for you [3.9MB, PDF]. If...
View ArticleOpen XML is a foul apple
Imagine that, Apple supported Microsoft's Open XML standardisation. Last week’s Microsoft Office 2008 Service Pack 2 (SP2) release wasn't so great for Mac Office users, a giant fail. You know, when...
View ArticleSoftpatent trolls OOXML and Word
The Seattle PI reports about a tragic patent ruling in the United States. A Texas judge ruled Tuesday that Microsoft cannot sell one of its flagship products, Word, in the United States because of...
View ArticleOOXML as a response
James D. Mason says: I spent 22 years as the chairman of what is now ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34. SC34 is the committee that standardized SGML in the 1980s and now is responsible for both ODF, supported by many...
View ArticleANSI: international standards system is working well
ANSI/S. Joe Bhatia responds to Congressman Gordon Unlike the standards development systems of many other countries, the U.S. system systematically considers the views of all interested parties in a...
View ArticleEU settlement: ECMA 376 not ISO 29500
16 Dec 2009; Microsoft Statement on European Commission Decision (17) Office Open XML. The “.docx, .xlsx and .pptx” file formats used in the Office 2007 version of Microsoft’s Primary PC Productivity...
View ArticleSamba guru Jeremy Allison reflects on Open XML standardisation
Jeremy Allison at LCA2010 "One of the worst things that happened out of that, [is that the ISO] which was previously respected by people that didn't know it so well, became absolutely despised," he...
View ArticleAlex Brown: Microsoft Fails the Standards Test
Alex Brown, the convener of the 2008 Ballot Resolution Meeting, on the status of the MS-OOXML standard (ISO/IEC 29500) and how Microsoft has lived up to its commitments. I guess no-one here is...
View ArticleAlan Bryden in Brussels
Wednesday morning, 23 June 2010 Alan Bryden, the former ISO general secretary who let it happen and made European standard setting organisations a laughing stock of an US corporation, would speak...
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Reform or not reform?
ISO and other standards bodies did not learn from the OOXML debate. Reform of ISO is pending to allow more fast tracked standards from ECMA. I doubt reform is possible. Others might have a different...
View ArticleMandatory Use of State Document Format ODF in Indonesia
"After all of the computers in government agencies will be migrated to Open Source in late 2011, the government also plans to migrate all the important documents of the country using open document...
View ArticleBinary Format Plugfest in October
The Open XML slugfest at ISO is over, governments around the world select ODF for document interoperability. But the proprietary binary office productivity file formats are still widespread. Former...
View ArticleMoney makes the Wikipedia go round
The Open XML process is a great case study why Wikipedia is not always reliable, when money comes into play. Even before the heated phases of the Open XML discussions at ISO a scandal rocked the...
View ArticleEurope wants an open document exchange format
Today the European Parliament plenary adopted a report on completing the internal market for e-commerce prepared by Spanish rapporteur Pablo Arias Echeverría (EPP). The reports highlights the...
View ArticleECMA standard to be supported in Australia
Australia is looking into OOXML adoption while other nations move forward with ODF. What's special about the Australian move is that they want to support the ECMA format. It is hard to understand how...
View ArticleEmbarrassing details from South America
A few days ago we were made aware of recent mass leaks of US embassy cables to the media but were reluctant to spread the story. You often get forwarded leaked documents in Brussels and it makes you...
View ArticleThe preferred document exchange among European Institutions is OOXML
"The preferred document exchange among European Institutions is OOXML", this is the summary of an awful document produced by the "Inter-Institutional Committee for Informatics" of the European...
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