The Rebels Strike Back

06-12-2008 | 02:20 PM EST

A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the battle that was taking place on the international standardizations' stage related to Microsoft's OOXML (Office Open XML) data format. At that time, it was unclear whether Microsoft would be able to push their take on compliance and standardization through the IISO/IEC approval process or not. Well, sixteen days, four official appeals, and one letter of protest later and it still hasn't been approved.

It all started when SABS, the National Body member of ISO/IEC JTC1 for South Africa, filed a formal appeal with both ISO and IEC to challenge the Fast Track adoption of Microsoft's OOXML. Among other concerns, SABS explicitly stated that they had misgivings about the "JTC 1 processes to circumvent the consensus-building process that is the cornerstone to the success and international acceptance of ISO and IEC standards." They then went on to explain that "the ability of large multi-national organizations to influence many national bodies, with the resultant block-voting over-riding legitimate issues raised by other countries, is also of concern." And with that one appeal, the process had to be put on hold until the issues addressed by SABS were resolved, but the appeals didn't stop there.

Next up was Associação Brasileira de Normas Técnicas (ABNT), the National Body representing Brazil. In addition to concurring with many of South Africa's complaints, Andrew Upgrove of The ConsortiumInfo.org Standards Blog published this nine-item list exemplifying Brazil's own worries:

1. The fact that the Brazilian delegation was not permitted to present a proposal regarding legacy binary mapping
2. Repeated refusals to address requests and issues due to lack of time
3. Decisions were mandated by lack of time, lead, leading to decisions Brazil deems "to completely incompatible with the kind of decisions that should have be taken."
4. Decisions taken based upon an asserted "need to give answers to journalists"
5. Misuse of limited time for irrelevant purposes
6. Misapplication of the rules relating to who was entitled to vote in the BRM (a point also raised in the South African appeal)
7. Votes taken without prior discussion
8. Recourse to block voting not because it was an adequate approach, but only because it was "less bad"
9. An error relating to an objection in the official notes of the meeting

Consider this strike two for Microsoft.

Strikes three and four came from India and Venezuela, respectively, and fell in line with the concerns and problems first pointed out by South Africa and Brazil. If this were baseball, Microsoft and their OOXML format would be out. Fortunately for them, it's not and they're not.

At this point, the standard is in a limbo while another draft of the proposal is created to address the issues brought forth in the appeals. Upon re-submission, all of the problems expressed by South Africa, Brazil, India, and Venezuela may be resolved and OOXML will be awarded its ISO/IEC approval. Even that would still leave some people wondering why we need a second standard when ODF (OpenDocument Format) is already an approved international standard hard at work in the same space that Microsoft is hoping to occupy with OOXML. For the time being, though, you can at least rest assured that the fast-track award process has not been so quick that it's allowed any one company to pull a fast one on us all.

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