[Glug-nith-discuss] Fwd: [Asiasource2-participants] The results of the ISO voting: Office Open XML is Disapproved

[vivek shah]

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sayamindu Dasgupta <address@hidden>
Date: Sep 5, 2007 12:53 AM
Subject: [Ilug-cal-discuss] Fwd: [Asiasource2-participants] The
results of the ISO voting: Office Open XML is Disapproved
To: ILUG-Cal's principal mailing list <address@hidden>


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sunil Abraham <address@hidden>
Date: Sep 4, 2007 11:42 PM
Subject: [Asiasource2-participants] The results of the ISO voting:
Office Open XML is Disapproved
To: Asiasource2_participants <address@hidden>


Dear Friends,

Good news for FOSS and Open Standards advocates across the world.
However it is not over yet - there will be another attempt to force the
world to use this broken standard in February.

Please sign this petition:-
http://www.noooxml.org/petition

And please email, fax or call your respective national institution.
http://www.noooxml.org/delegations

Also please forward this to your friends.

Thanks,

Sunil

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070904082606181

The results of the ISO voting: Office Open XML is Disapproved - Updated:
It's Official   Tuesday, September 04 2007 @ 08:26 AM EDT
Here are the results of the voting on OOXML: Disapproved.

The official word is not yet released, but I have seen the results. UK
disapproved, as did Ireland. So did Canada. So did the Czech Republic
and Korea. Malaysia abstained (which is unexplained, since it was
reported the technical committee voted No with Comments). Oddly, I don't
see Hungary on the list.

The 11 new P signups, Cote d'Ivoire, Cyprus, Ecuador, Jamaica, Lebanon,
Malta, Pakistan, Trinidad and Tobago, Turkey, Uruguay and Venezuela, all
voted to approve or approve with comments, except for Ecuador, which
disapproved, and Trinidad and Tobago which abstained. What about the O
members? Almost to a man, they voted to approve. What an amazing
coincidence.

Microsoft is telling it in their press release that 74% of all qualified
votes approved: "The results show that 51 ISO members, representing 74
percent of all qualified votes, stated their support for ratification of
Open XML."

That is downright silly. If that were true, it would have been approved,
not disapproved. All you need for approval is any number greater than
66.6% and not too many no votes. This press release is a masterpiece, no
doubt about it. I'll show you the real figures.

Update as of 11:54 AM: Here's official word in a press release from ISO.
Here's the opening paragraph:

        A ballot on whether to publish the draft standard ISO/IEC DIS
        29500, Information technology – Office Open XML file formats, as
        an International Standard by ISO (International Organization for
        Standardization) and IEC (International Electrotechnical
        Commission) has not achieved the required number of votes for
        approval.

Microsoft says they expect to win approval after the February meeting,
and you can see why they would think that, looking at the O members'
votes. They are on the committee that handles the comments. Here's the
story in PC World from Peter Sayer:

        Microsoft Corp. has failed in its attempt to have its Office
        Open XML document format fast-tracked straight to the status of
        an international standard by the International Organization for
        Standardization.

        The proposal must now be revised to take into account the
        negative comments made during the voting process. Microsoft
        expects that a second vote early next year will result in
        approval, it said Tuesday.


Not to interfere with the positive spin or anything, but I thought they
expected they'd win the first vote too. Here's Andy Updegrove:

        Last night, I projected that the OOXML vote in ISO/IEC JTC1
        would fail. I now have confirmation from someone who has seen
        the official results that indeed the vote has failed.

        By way of indirect confirmation, Microsoft has issued a press
        release on the OOXML vote. The release is titled Strong Global
        Support for Open XML as It Enters Final Phase of ISO Standards
        Process, and subtitled, "Significant participation by National
        Bodies in ISO/IEC ratification process for Open XML; final
        decision expected in March 2008 at close of ballot resolution
        period."


Microsoft is, of course, counting P and O members in one bunch. The
actual percentages go like this:

        P-Members voting: 17 in favor out of 32 = 53.12% (requirement >=
        66.66%)

        Member bodies voting: 18 negative votes out of 69 = 26.08%

        Disapproved


Abstentions are not counted. So. There you are. Microsoft's truthiness.
A loss is a win in their PR universe. By the way, despite what they say
about ODF, there were no negative votes when ODF was voted on and
approved as a standard.

So what does it mean? Money can't buy you love, despite my fears shared
by some. Not tech love, anyway. If you try to fast track an unbaked
format, tech folks will notice it's not done yet.

The Microsoft press release isn't fooling most professional journalists
either. Here's the Wall St. Journal's coverage, for example. And here's
Times Online's headline: "Microsoft suffers set back in key standards
battle". A few are repeating the press release spin, however. That one
is funny, because the writer actually thinks the vote was yes. He ends
the article, "The NoOOXML campaign, which had predicted a "no" vote, has
yet to respond." Duh, it was a No vote. I wonder how he will feel the
next time he gets a Microsoft press release. I guess I'll put the press
release here too, so you can compare it to the press coverage. This is
one time when CompTIA is more forthright than Microsoft. The at least
said they were disappointed "but not disheartened."

Here are the real results country by country, again with the proviso
that this is an advance peek, not yet the official announcement from
ISO:

****************************************

Country Member Participation Voted

Argentina - IRAM - O Member - Abstention
Armenia - SARM - O Member - Approval
Australia - SA - P Member - Abstention
Austria - ON - O Member - Approval with comments
Azerbaijan - AZSTAND - P Member - Approval
Bangladesh - BSTI - - Approval
Barbados - BNSI - - Approval
Belarus - BELST - O Member - Approval
Belgium - NBN - P Member - Abstention
Bosnia and Herzegovina - BAS - - Approval
Brazil - ABNT - O Member - Disapproval
Bulgaria - BDS - O Member - Approval with comments
Canada - SCC - P Member - Disapproval
Chile - INN - O Member - Abstention
China - SAC - P Member - Disapproval
Colombia - ICONTEC - O Member - Approval with comments
Congo, The Democratic Republic of OCC - - Approval
Costa Rica - INTECO - O Member - Approval
Cte-d'Ivoire - CODINORM - P Member - Approval
Croatia - HZN - O Member - Approval
Cuba - NC - O Member - Approval
Cyprus - CYS - P Member - Approval
Czech Republic - CNI - P Member - Disapproval
Denmark - DS - P Member - Disapproval
Ecuador - INEN - P Member - Disapproval
Egypt - EOS - O Member - Approval
Fiji - FTSQCO - - Approval
Finland - SFS - P Member - Abstention
France - AFNOR - P Member - Disapproval
Germany - DIN - P Member - Approval with comments
Ghana - GSB - - Approval with comments
Greece - ELOT - O Member - Approval with comments
India - BIS - P Member - Disapproval
Iran, Islamic Republic of - ISIRI - P Member - Disapproval
Ireland - NSAI - P Member - Disapproval
Israel - SII - O Member - Abstention
Italy - UNI - P Member - Abstention
Jamaica - JBS - P Member - Approval
Japan - JISC - P Member - Disapproval
Jordan - JISM - - Approval with comments
Kazakhstan - KAZMEMST - P Member - Approval
Kenya - KEBS - P Member - Approval with comments
Korea, Republic of - KATS - P Member - Disapproval
Kuwait - KOWSMD - - Approval
Lebanon - LIBNOR - P Member - Approval
Luxembourg - SEE - O Member - Abstention
Malaysia - DSM - P Member - Abstention
Malta - MSA - P Member - Approval with comments
Mauritius - MSB - - Abstention
Mexico - DGN - O Member - Abstention
Morocco - SNIMA - O Member - Approval
Netherlands - NEN - P Member - Abstention
New Zealand - SNZ - P Member - Disapproval
Nigeria - SON - - Approval
Norway - SN - P Member - Disapproval
Pakistan - PSQCA - P Member -Approval
Panama - COPANIT - - Approval
Peru - INDECOPI - O Member - Abstention
Philippines - BPS - O Member - Disapproval
Poland - PKN - O Member - Approval with comments
Portugal - IPQ - O Member - Approval with comments
Qatar - QS - - Approval
Romania - ASRO - O Member - Approval
Russian Federation - GOST R - O Member - Approval
Saudi Arabia - SASO - P Member - Approval
Serbia - ISS - O Member - Approval
Singapore - SPRING SG - P Member - Approval with comments
Slovenia - SIST - P Member - Abstention
South Africa - SABS - P Member - Disapproval
Spain - AENOR - P Member - Abstention
Sri Lanka - SLSI - O Member - Approval
Switzerland - SNV - P Member - Approval with comments
Syrian Arab Republic - SASMO - - Approval
Tanzania, United Rep. of - TBS - - Approval
Thailand - TISI - O Member - Disapproval
Trinidad and Tobago - TTBS - P Member - Abstention
Tunisia - INNORPI - O Member - Approval with comments
Turkey - TSE - P Member - Approval with comments
Ukraine - DSSU - O Member - Approval
United Arab Emirates - ESMA - - Approval
United Kingdom - BSI - P Member - Disapproval
Uruguay - UNIT - P Member - Approval with comments
USA - ANSI - Secretariat - Approval with comments
Uzbekistan - UZSTANDARD - - Approval
Venezuela - FONDONORMA - P Member - Approval with comments
Viet Nam - TCVN - O Member - Abstention
Zimbabwe - SAZ - - Abstention
Ecma International - - Comment Only

--
Sunil Abraham, address@hidden http://www.mahiti.org
Director - International Relations
Mahiti Infotech Pvt. Ltd.
"Vijay Kiran" IInd Floor, 314/1, 7th Cross, Domlur
Bangalore - 560 071 Karnataka, INDIA
Ph/Fax: +91 80 51150580. Mob: (91) 9342201521
http://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilaabraham


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--
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Sayamindu Dasgupta
[http://sayamindu.randomink.org/ramblings]

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Regards,
Vivek
-- 
Put a rogue in the limelight and he will act like an honest man.
                -- Napoleon Bonaparte, "Maxims"