OOXML passes with minimal approval

By Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 01 April 2008 17:45

Opinion and Analysis

The Microsoft Office Open XML document format has been accepted as a standard by the International Standards Organisation with minimal approval.


Twenty-four of the participating members voted in favour of the standard; this meant a 75 percent vote in favour. There are a total of 32 participating countries. The requirement is that the percentage voting in favour should be greater than or equal to 66.66 percent. (Full final voting list available as a zip file here.)

Including the other countries, who have observer (O) status, there were only 10 negative votes out of a total of 71. This meant a percentage of 14, well below the required figure of 25 percent.

First all P (votes of participating countries) votes are cast are counted and if at least half have not voted, then the resolution fails. If at least half have voted, all abstentions are subtracted. It is then seen whether two-thirds of the remaining P votes have voted for approval. If this is not the case, the resolution fails.

If two-thirds have voted yes, then it has to be determined whether a quarter of more of total votes cast by both P and O members are no votes. If this condition is satisfied, the resolution fails. If this is not the case, then the resolution passes.

The first vote on whether to make OOXML an ISO standard was held on September 2 last year after lengthy specifications had been provided to the industry standards body ECMA by Microsoft. Round one was a pass with 19 "difficulties" - which resulted in a vote on OOXML being fast-tracked to the level of a standard. Round two produced a "no" vote. CONTINUED