OOXML passes with minimal approval

Sam Varghese
Tuesday, 01 April 2008 17:45

Opinion and Analysis

The ISO then scheduled a ballot resolution meeting (BRM) in Geneva last month, which was attended by 32 national standards bodies. All 87 national bodies which had voted in September last year were eligible to participate in the final vote.

In a post to the mailing list for all OpenDoc Society members, Michiel Leenaars of the NLnet Foundation commented: "The BRM convinced some yet unconvinced others, and counter votes from large countries like China, India, Brazil, Canada, South Africa and Iran speak volumes. This must be one of the worst results ever for a standard to pass within ISO/JTC1 in years."

He added: "Apparently the chair from the Norwegian committee has filed a protest against the national outcome. Although one vote would not make much difference, others may follow."

The protest lodged by the Norwegian standards committee chairman Steve Peppper says, in part: "You will have been notified that Norway voted to approve OOXML in this ballot. This decision does not reflect the view of the vast majority of the Norwegian committee, 80% of which was against changing Norway’s vote from No with comments to Yes.

"Because of this irregularity, a call has been made for an investigation by the Norwegian Ministry of Trade and Industry with a view to changing the vote. I hereby request that the Norwegian decision be suspended pending the results of this investigation."