OOXML voting process and controversy

By the end of this month, the ITC 1/SC 34 Technical Committee (ISO) will be voting on whether to accept or not OOXML as an ISO standard.

The voting countries (Participating countries) are

  Brazil (ABNT)
Bulgaria (BDS)
China (SAC)
Colombia (ICONTEC)
Cyprus (CYS)
Czech Republic (CNI)
Côte-d’Ivoire (CODINORM)
Denmark (DS)
Finland (SFS)
France (AFNOR)
Germany (DIN)
India (BIS)
Italy (UNI)
Japan (JISC)
Kazakhstan (KAZMEMST)
Kenya (KEBS)
Korea, Republic of (KATS)
Netherlands (NEN)
Norway (SN)
Sweden (SIS)
Switzerland (SNV)
Thailand (TISI)
Trinidad and Tobago (TTBS)
Turkey (TSE)
USA (ANSI)
United Kingdom (BSI)

In addition, the following countries have observer status (Observer countries),

Australia (SA)
Chile (INN)
Greece (ELOT)
Hong Kong, China (ITCHKSAR)
Hungary (MSZT)
Ireland (NSAI)
Israel (SII)
Lithuania (LST)
Mexico (DGN)
Romania (ASRO)
Spain (AENOR)
Sri Lanka (SLSI)
Ukraine (DSSU)

The observer countries, though the cannot vote, they can submit comments.

The current stage that OOXML is at, is 40.20, which means is the period that leads to the voting whether to accept or not as an ISO standard.

This proposed document format is controversial because an existing document format exists, the OpenDocument document format, ISO/IEC 26300, Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0, since 2006.

OOXML is a controversial document format. Read more on this regarding OOXML.

In addition, see the Technical White Paper on OpenDocument and OOXML by the ODF Alliance UK Action Group. Another whitepaper, ODF/OOXML technical white paper by Edward Macnaghten.

Open Malaysia is also valuable resource (includes blog contributions relating to open standards). For example, in spreadsheets in OOXML one cannot write dates before the 1st March 1900!

Finally, Achieving Openness: A Closer Look at ODF and OOXML by Sam Hiser.

Update #1: Microsoft is Outmuscling OOXML Opposition in Spain

Update #2: It is important to vote NO rather than abstain. It is sad that Spain decided to abstain rather than voting NO. UPDATE: Spain is an observer, thus cannot cast a vote. Somewhat lost en la traduccion.

Update #3: Czech comments on OOXML.

Permanent link to this article: https://blog.simos.info/ooxml-voting-process-and-controversy/

2 comments

2 pings

  1. Hello,

    Despite the fact that it seems Romania will vote “YES” for Microsoft at ISO, there are *many* Romanian businesses and individuals opposing to this.

    For Romanian speakers, please see:

    http://rsandu.myblog.ro
    http://www.openoffice.ro

    Regards,
    Răzvan

  2. Thanks Răzvan for the update.
    It is sad that this standardisation ISO is influenced in such a way.

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