"Open Source"-ization

[impar]

Greetings!

[url=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070904-iso-votes-against-fast-tracking-microsofts-office-open-xml.html]ISO votes against fast tracking Microsoft's Office Open XML
...
There were 17 "yes" votes, 15 "no" votes, and 9 abstentions. Without counting the abstentions, that works out to 53.12 percent approval, far short of the two-thirds majority needed. Of the 87 national standards bodies voting, 18 voted against OOXML, leaving OOXML just shy of the 75 percent threshold for that vote. [/url]

PS:
Why Microsoft deserved to lose the OOXML standards vote

[MiniMax]

Read this blog entry about how ISO Norway decided how to vote: http://blogs.freecode.no/isene/2007/08/24/3/

[MiniMax]

Numbers can tell so much - and so little:

http://www.effi.org/blog/kai-2007-09-05.en.html

[impar]

Greetings!

[url=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070907-iso-reforms-proposed-in-response-to-ooxml-shenanigans.html]ISO reforms proposed in response to OOXML shenanigans

Late last month, evidence emerged indicating that Microsoft has used financial incentives to influence the outcome of Office Open XML (OOXML) fast-track approval in various national standards bodies. Although ISO ended up voting against fast-track approval for OOXML, the company's efforts have created doubts about the reliability of the standards process. In response to these revelations, Freecode CEO Geir Isene has proposed several ISO reforms and calls for an "investigation" to determine if OOXML "was unduly put on the ISO fast track." [/url]

[MiniMax]

Damn you impar! I ended up spending most of last afternoon reading about this sad affair

[impar]

Greetings!

Damn you impar! I ended up spending most of last afternoon reading about this sad affair

Good! The masterplan was successful!

[impar]

Greetings!

Somewhat related:
[url=http://www.betanews.com/article/Course_Change_for_OpenDocument_Developers_Seen_as_Emerging_Rift/1193761026]Course Change for OpenDocument Developers Seen as Emerging Rift

A presentation made two weeks ago by two members of OASIS' OpenDocument technical committee, and founding members of the OpenDocument Foundation, made it clear that the foundation would be turning its attention away from developing the ODF format and translators for it. Instead, in a course change instigated as far back as last May, the Foundation is steering back toward a project launched in 1995 by the World Wide Web Consortium, in hopes of recapturing the momentum toward document interoperability for all existing word processor users.[/url]

[impar]

Greetings!

[url=http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20071113-opendocument-foundation-closes-up-shop-after-slamming-opendocument-format.html]OpenDocument Foundation closes up shop after slamming OpenDocument Format

The OpenDocument Foundation, a little-known industry group that was originally created to promote the OpenDocument Format (ODF), has closed its doors after controversially dropping support for ODF in favor of an obscure W3C format.[/url]

[impar]

Greetings!

[url=http://www.betanews.com/article/Netherlands_war_against_Microsoft_advances_on_two_fronts/1197649502]Netherlands war against Microsoft advances on two fronts

A junior economics minister in the Dutch government has made significant inroads this week in his battle against Microsoft there, both in transitioning his government to ODF and in decoupling bundled software from PCs.

What Neelie Kroes is to the European Commission, Frank Heemskerk is fast becoming for the Netherlands Finance Ministry -- a rising star, especially for taking on popular causes. One such cause -- the battle against Microsoft's market dominance -- has won him support, and this week, the popular Economic Affairs State Secretary has cashed in some of his chips for political points.

Yesterday, a version of a plan proposed last September that would move Dutch government offices toward open-source office software that uses OpenDocument Format, received the necessary votes yesterday to be formally passed by the Dutch Parliament.

"Open source software has many advantages," reads a translation from Sec. Heemskerk's office yesterday, "which we've seen right in front of us for quite some time. Licensing costs are reduced, you're not so dependent on any one supplier, and innovation has a real chance."[/url]

[impar]

Greetings!

[URL=http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2007/12/20/norway-mandates-government-odf]Norway mandates government use of ODF

NORWAY'S GOVERNMENT has mandated that its websites must use Open Document Format (ODF) for files published for use by the Norwegian public.

A reader of Groklaw kindly translated the Norwegian government's press release for publication on Groklaw's News Picks sidebar. Since that's not a persistently linkable Groklaw article, we republish the English translation below as a public service:

"Everyone should have equal access to public information: Open standards become compulsory within the government.
...[/URL]