Standardization of Office Open XML
Encyclopedia
The Office Open XML file formats were standardised between December 2006 and November 2008, first by the Ecma International
consortium (where they became ECMA-376), and subsequently, after a contentious standardization process, by the ISO
/IEC
's Joint Technical Committee 1 (where they became ISO/IEC 29500:2008).
to standardize their Office 2003 XML formats
, Microsoft submitted 2,000 pages of documentation for a new file format to the Ecma International
consortium for it to be made into an open standard
. Ecma formed a technical committee (TC45) in order to produce and maintain a "formal standard for office productivity applications that is fully compatible with the Office Open XML Formats, submitted by Microsoft”. The technical committee was chaired by two Microsoft employees and included members drawn from Apple, Canon
, Intel, NextPage, Novell
, Pioneer
, Statoil ASA
, Toshiba
, The United States Library of Congress
, The British Library
and the Gnome Foundation
.
During standardisation within Ecma the specification grew to approximately 6,000 pages. It was approved as an Ecma standard (ECMA-376) on December 7, 2006. This standard (now referred to as the "1st edition" of ECMA-376) can be downloaded from them free of charge.
they submitted the documents "Explanatory report on Office Open XML Standard (Ecma-376) submitted to JTC 1 for fast-track" and "Licensing conditions that Microsoft offers for Office Open XML". ISO and IEC classified the specification as DIS 29500 (Draft International Standard 29500) Information technology – Office Open XML file formats.
The fast track process consists of a contradictions phase, a ballot phase, and a ballot resolution phase.
During the contradictions phase, ISO and IEC members submitted perceived contradictions to JTC 1. During the ballot phase the members voted on the specification as it was submitted by Ecma and submitted editorial and technical comments with their vote. In the ballot resolution phase the submitted comments were addressed and members invited to reconsider their vote.
member countries had responded to the ballot. There were 51 votes of "approval", 18 votes of "disapproval" and 18 abstentions. "P-members", who were required to vote, had to approve by 66.67% for the text to be approved. The P-members voted 17 in favour out of 32, below the required threshold for approval. Also, no more than 25% of the total member votes may be negative for the text to be approved, and this requirement was also not met since 26% of the total votes were negative. The standardization process then entered its ballot resolution phase, described below.
At the BRM, 873 proposed changes to the specification were submitted by Ecma (of their 1,027 responses, 154 proposed no change). Of these only 20% were discussed and modified in meeting sessions, given the 5 day time limit of the meeting. The remaining 80% were not discussed and were subject to a voting mechanism approved by the meeting (see Resolution 37 of the meeting resolutions cited below). Using this voting mechanism NBs could approve, disapprove or abstain on each and every one of these proposed changes. This allowed a set of approved changes to be decided upon without discussion.
With the original submitted draft used as the base, all the agreed-upon changes were applied by the Project Editor to create a new set of documents incorporating the changes agreed during the BRM. In parallel with this, NBs had 30 days after the BRM in which to decide whether to amend their votes of September 2, 2007.
.
Since the appeals system is designed to find a solution by consensus, it was unlikely that the process would have resulted in ISO/IEC abandoning progress of DIS 29500. The CEOs of ISO and IEC advised the management board that these appeals should no longer be processed any further: the Secretary General of ISO is reported as stating: "[t]he processing of the ISO/IEC DIS 29500 project has been conducted in conformity with the ISO/IEC JTC 1 Directives, with decisions determined by the votes expressed by the relevant ISO and IEC national bodies under their own responsibility, and consequently, for the reasons mentioned above, the appeals should not be processed further".
The main issue in the appeals was the BRM procedures. The 3 appealing countries did not appeal during the BRM and even all voted approval on the resolution that allowed for voting on each of the resolutions that had not been discussed in the plenary meeting through means of a form. The three countries appealing used that form vote for a disapproval vote of most of the responses (in total only 4 countries did that) but failed to have a significant number of responses disapproved.
The appeals did not get sufficient support of the National Bodies voting on the ISO and IEC management boards, and consequently the go-ahead was given to publish ISO/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology – Office Open XML formats, as an ISO/IEC International Standard.
, as the designated maintenance group for the standard, established two ad hoc groups for deciding how the Standard would be maintained: a group to collect comments on the newly approved standard, and a group to decide what structures should be used for long-term maintenance. The resulting recommendation was that ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34
should assume full control of the maintenance work on ISO/IEC 29500. This decision was duly ratified at SC 34's September 2008 meeting on Jeju Island, Korea. Ecma were invited as a liaison to provide individual experts to contribute to the maintenance activity. This decision superseded an earlier proposal from Ecma, in which Ecma itself proposed it was responsible for maintenance.
On May 21, 2008, Microsoft announced that it would be "an active participant in the future evolution of ODF
, Open XML, XPS and PDF standards”.
ISO/IEC 29500 is maintained within Working Group 4 ("WG 4”) of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34
under the convenorship of MURATA Makoto
of Japan.
Under this maintenance regime the JTC 1 Directives apply, and these stipulate that:
WG 4 has a web site and open document register. Defect logs and statistics from WG 4 are available online.
At the WG4 meeting in Copenhagen, June 22–24, 2009, there were 16 people listed as present; 5 of these were employed by Microsoft, 4 by universities.
There have been allegations that the ISO ballot process for Office Open XML was marred with voting irregularities and heavy-handed tactics by some stakeholders.
vendor association
although no appeal has been filed directly by Dansk Standard itself.
In September 2008, a joint letter known as the Consegi declaration
was issued and signed by 3 representatives for free software of the countries that issued appeals (South Africa, Brazil and Venezuela) as well as Ecuador
, Cuba
and Paraguay
.
After the specification was officially accepted as an ISO standard, Red Hat
and IBM
claimed the ISO is losing credibility, and
Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth
commented "We're not going to invest in trying to implement a standard that is poorly defined.” IBM issued a press release stating: "IBM will continue to be an active supporter of ODF. We look forward to being part of the community that works to harmonize ODF and OOXML for the sake of consumers, companies and governments, when OOXML control and maintenance is fully transferred to JTC1.”
(DIN, Germany) voted "yes" on DIS 29500, and stated that DIN as a whole "recognised that there has been no serious breach of JTC 1 and ISO rules”, but that, "the conclusion has been reached that the rules for the fast-track procedure need to be amended”.
At the plenary meeting of JTC 1 in Nara
, Japan that took place in November 2008, a resolution was passed which related to concerns express during the standardisation of ISO/IEC 29500. Resolution 49 was entitled "Clarification on Consistency of Standards vs Competing Specifications” and contained the following text:
At a companion meeting of the Special Working Group on Directives (SWG-Directives) in Osaka
a recommendation was made describing series of "concepts" that would in future be applied to the Ballot Resolution process of future Fast Tracked standards. These mirrored the process that had taken place for ISO/IEC 29500:
Standards lawyer Andy Updegrove (whose firm represents OASIS) commented that he was "startled and dismayed” at these concepts, since they "basically add up to a ratification of the conduct of the Geneva BRM."
, described as "a coalition of Microsoft's largest competitors". Anonymous source(s) of the Wall Street Journal claim that this investigation also includes an investigation into whether Microsoft violated antitrust laws in the course of the standardization process. The Financial Times reports that European ISO members have confirmed receipt of a letter by the European Commission "asking how they prepared for votes […] on acceptance of Microsoft's OOXML document format as a worldwide standard.”
's opposition to the Office Open XML standardization process, saying
Nicos Tsilas, Microsoft's senior director of interoperability and intellectual property policy, downplaying Microsoft's American and EU conviction as abusers of monopoly power, expressed concern that IBM and the Free Software Foundation
have been lobbying governments to mandate the use of the rival OpenDocument format
(ODF) to the exclusion of other formats. In his opinion, they are "using government intervention as a way to compete" as they "couldn't compete technically."
Sun Microsystems
initially voted against approval of DIS 29500 in the INCITS
V1 committee, but stated on the committee mailing list "We wish to make it completely clear that we support DIS 29500 becoming an ISO Standard and are in complete agreement with its stated purposes of enabling interoperability among different implementations and providing interoperable access to the legacy of Microsoft Office documents.” and that "We voted in the expectation that […] changes will be made and that a version of DIS 29500 capable of achieving its objectives would be approved as an ISO Standard.”.
ODF Alliance India published an extensive technical report in 2007 containing concrete issues by members of the association, as well as replies from Microsoft.
In December 2007 Ecma International
announced that many of reported issues will be taken into account in next edition of the standardisation proposal to ISO.
formats such as doc, ppt and xls. However, OOXML is a new format which is not backwards or forwards compatible with any of the old Microsoft Office formats.
A study comparing IS 29500:2008 and IS 26300:2006 (ODF 1.0) by the German Fraunhofer Institute found
Google
stated that "the ODF standard, which achieves the same goal, is only 867 pages" and that
Opposers include FFII
, the ODF Alliance IBM
, South Africa, and other nations that voiced strong opposition during standardization.
The ODF Alliance UK Action Group has stated that with OpenDocument an ISO standard for Office files already exists.
Further, they argue that the Office Open XML file-format is heavily based on Microsoft's own Office applications
and is thus not vendor-neutral, and that it has inconsistencies with existing ISO standards such as time
and date formats and color code
s.
Summit in Boston
in June 2008 Microsoft's national technology officer Stuart McKee said that "ODF has clearly won". He made also a following statement:
On June 25, 2008, Gray Knowlton, a Group Product Manager for the Microsoft Office system made the following statements regarding the future of Open XML:
In an interview Richard Stallman
, head of the Free Software Foundation
, said:
On March 31, 2010, Dr Alex Brown, who had been the Convener of the February 2008 Ballot Resolution Meeting, posted an entry on his personal blog in which he complained of Microsoft's lack of progress in adapting current and future versions of Microsoft Office to produce files in the Strict (as opposed to the Transitional) ISO 29500 format:
Microsoft have responded that the next release of Microsoft Office
(version 15) will fully support ISO/IEC 29500 Strict.
Ecma International
Ecma International is an international, private non-profit standards organization for information and communication systems. It acquired its name in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association changed its name to reflect the organization's global reach and activities...
consortium (where they became ECMA-376), and subsequently, after a contentious standardization process, by the ISO
International Organization for Standardization
The International Organization for Standardization , widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial...
/IEC
International Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
's Joint Technical Committee 1 (where they became ISO/IEC 29500:2008).
Standardization within Ecma International
More than a year after being asked by the European UnionEuropean Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...
to standardize their Office 2003 XML formats
Microsoft Office XML formats
The Microsoft Office XML formats are XML-based document formats introduced in versions of Microsoft Office prior to Office 2007...
, Microsoft submitted 2,000 pages of documentation for a new file format to the Ecma International
Ecma International
Ecma International is an international, private non-profit standards organization for information and communication systems. It acquired its name in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association changed its name to reflect the organization's global reach and activities...
consortium for it to be made into an open standard
Open standard
An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed . There is no single definition and interpretations vary with usage....
. Ecma formed a technical committee (TC45) in order to produce and maintain a "formal standard for office productivity applications that is fully compatible with the Office Open XML Formats, submitted by Microsoft”. The technical committee was chaired by two Microsoft employees and included members drawn from Apple, Canon
Canon Inc.
is a Japanese multinational corporation that specialises in the manufacture of imaging and optical products, including cameras, camcorders, photocopiers, steppers and computer printers. Its headquarters are located in Ōta, Tokyo, Japan.-Origins:...
, Intel, NextPage, Novell
Novell
Novell, Inc. is a multinational software and services company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of The Attachmate Group. It specializes in network operating systems, such as Novell NetWare; systems management solutions, such as Novell ZENworks; and collaboration solutions, such as Novell Groupwise...
, Pioneer
Pioneer Corporation
is a multinational corporation that specializes in digital entertainment products, based in Kawasaki, Kanagawa, Japan. The company was founded in 1938 in Tokyo as a radio and speaker repair shop...
, Statoil ASA
Statoil
Statoil ASA is a Norwegian petroleum company established in 1972. It merged with Norsk Hydro in 2007 and was known as StatoilHydro until 2009, when the name was changed back to Statoil ASA. The brand Statoil was retained as a chain of fuel stations owned by StatoilHydro...
, Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
, The United States Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
, The British Library
British Library
The British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
and the Gnome Foundation
GNOME Foundation
The GNOME Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, coordinating the efforts in the GNOME project.-Purpose:...
.
During standardisation within Ecma the specification grew to approximately 6,000 pages. It was approved as an Ecma standard (ECMA-376) on December 7, 2006. This standard (now referred to as the "1st edition" of ECMA-376) can be downloaded from them free of charge.
International standardization
Using their entitlement as an ISO/IEC JTC 1 external Category A liaison, Ecma International submitted ECMA-376 to the JTC 1 fast track standardization process. To meet the requirements of this process,they submitted the documents "Explanatory report on Office Open XML Standard (Ecma-376) submitted to JTC 1 for fast-track" and "Licensing conditions that Microsoft offers for Office Open XML". ISO and IEC classified the specification as DIS 29500 (Draft International Standard 29500) Information technology – Office Open XML file formats.
The fast track process consists of a contradictions phase, a ballot phase, and a ballot resolution phase.
During the contradictions phase, ISO and IEC members submitted perceived contradictions to JTC 1. During the ballot phase the members voted on the specification as it was submitted by Ecma and submitted editorial and technical comments with their vote. In the ballot resolution phase the submitted comments were addressed and members invited to reconsider their vote.
Interim ballot result
In September 2007 eighty-seven ISO and IECInternational Electrotechnical Commission
The International Electrotechnical Commission is a non-profit, non-governmental international standards organization that prepares and publishes International Standards for all electrical, electronic and related technologies – collectively known as "electrotechnology"...
member countries had responded to the ballot. There were 51 votes of "approval", 18 votes of "disapproval" and 18 abstentions. "P-members", who were required to vote, had to approve by 66.67% for the text to be approved. The P-members voted 17 in favour out of 32, below the required threshold for approval. Also, no more than 25% of the total member votes may be negative for the text to be approved, and this requirement was also not met since 26% of the total votes were negative. The standardization process then entered its ballot resolution phase, described below.
Response to ballot comments
Ecma produced a draft "Disposition of Comments" document that addresses the 1,027 distinct "NB comments" (that is, comments by national bodies) that had been submitted in the letter ballot phase. This document comprised 1,600 pages of commentary and proposed changes. The ISO and IEC members had 6 weeks to review this draft, and had an opportunity to participate in several informal conference call sessions with the Ecma TC45 to discuss it before the BRM.Ballot resolution process
A Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) is an integral part of the ballot resolution phase. The outcome of, and period following, this meeting decided whether DIS 29500 succeeded or failed in its bid to become an International Standard. The DIS 29500 BRM took place in late February 2008.At the BRM, 873 proposed changes to the specification were submitted by Ecma (of their 1,027 responses, 154 proposed no change). Of these only 20% were discussed and modified in meeting sessions, given the 5 day time limit of the meeting. The remaining 80% were not discussed and were subject to a voting mechanism approved by the meeting (see Resolution 37 of the meeting resolutions cited below). Using this voting mechanism NBs could approve, disapprove or abstain on each and every one of these proposed changes. This allowed a set of approved changes to be decided upon without discussion.
With the original submitted draft used as the base, all the agreed-upon changes were applied by the Project Editor to create a new set of documents incorporating the changes agreed during the BRM. In parallel with this, NBs had 30 days after the BRM in which to decide whether to amend their votes of September 2, 2007.
Ballot result
A number of JTC 1 members took the opportunity to amend their votes, predominantly in favour of approval of DIS 29500. Thus, on April 2, 2008, ISO and IEC officially stated that the DIS 29500 had been approved for acceptance as an ISO/IEC Standard, pending any appeals. They stated that "75% of the JTC 1 participating member votes cast positive and 14% of the total of national member body votes cast negative" In accordance with the JTC 1 directives the Project Editor had created a new version of the final text within a month of the BRM. After review, corrections and the resolution of appeals, this text was distributed to the members of SC34.Appeals
Four JTC 1 members appealed the standardisation: the bodies of South Africa, Brazil, India and VenezuelaVenezuela
Venezuela , officially called the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela , is a tropical country on the northern coast of South America. It borders Colombia to the west, Guyana to the east, and Brazil to the south...
.
Since the appeals system is designed to find a solution by consensus, it was unlikely that the process would have resulted in ISO/IEC abandoning progress of DIS 29500. The CEOs of ISO and IEC advised the management board that these appeals should no longer be processed any further: the Secretary General of ISO is reported as stating: "[t]he processing of the ISO/IEC DIS 29500 project has been conducted in conformity with the ISO/IEC JTC 1 Directives, with decisions determined by the votes expressed by the relevant ISO and IEC national bodies under their own responsibility, and consequently, for the reasons mentioned above, the appeals should not be processed further".
The main issue in the appeals was the BRM procedures. The 3 appealing countries did not appeal during the BRM and even all voted approval on the resolution that allowed for voting on each of the resolutions that had not been discussed in the plenary meeting through means of a form. The three countries appealing used that form vote for a disapproval vote of most of the responses (in total only 4 countries did that) but failed to have a significant number of responses disapproved.
The appeals did not get sufficient support of the National Bodies voting on the ISO and IEC management boards, and consequently the go-ahead was given to publish ISO/IEC DIS 29500, Information technology – Office Open XML formats, as an ISO/IEC International Standard.
Maintenance regime
Following the standardization of ISO/IEC 29500, ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 titled as Document description and processing languages is a subcommittee of the ISO/IEC JTC1 joint technical committee, which is a collaborative effort of both the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission.-Scope and Terms...
, as the designated maintenance group for the standard, established two ad hoc groups for deciding how the Standard would be maintained: a group to collect comments on the newly approved standard, and a group to decide what structures should be used for long-term maintenance. The resulting recommendation was that ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 titled as Document description and processing languages is a subcommittee of the ISO/IEC JTC1 joint technical committee, which is a collaborative effort of both the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission.-Scope and Terms...
should assume full control of the maintenance work on ISO/IEC 29500. This decision was duly ratified at SC 34's September 2008 meeting on Jeju Island, Korea. Ecma were invited as a liaison to provide individual experts to contribute to the maintenance activity. This decision superseded an earlier proposal from Ecma, in which Ecma itself proposed it was responsible for maintenance.
On May 21, 2008, Microsoft announced that it would be "an active participant in the future evolution of ODF
ODF
ODF may be an acronym for:* OpenDocument format, a standard for electronic office documents** OpenDocument Fellowship, a volunteer organisation with members around the world to promote the use and development of the OpenDocument format....
, Open XML, XPS and PDF standards”.
ISO/IEC 29500 is maintained within Working Group 4 ("WG 4”) of ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34
ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34
ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 34 titled as Document description and processing languages is a subcommittee of the ISO/IEC JTC1 joint technical committee, which is a collaborative effort of both the International Organization for Standardization and the International Electrotechnical Commission.-Scope and Terms...
under the convenorship of MURATA Makoto
Murata Makoto
is a Japanese computer scientist.He participated in the W3C XML Working Group.The Working Group designed XML1.0, a markup language specification.Murata and James Clark designed RELAX NG, an XML schema language....
of Japan.
Under this maintenance regime the JTC 1 Directives apply, and these stipulate that:
- Proposals to amend the text, and acceptance of any such amendments, are subject to normal JTC 1 voting processes (JTC 1 Directives clause 15.5)
- The standard cannot be "stabilised” (no longer subject to periodic maintenance) except through approval in a JTC 1 ballot (JTC 1 Directives, clause 15.6.2).
- For the standard to be stabilised it must have passed through one review cycle (JTC 1 Directives, clause 15.6.1). In this review cycle, the text would have to have been re-written to comply with ISO's formatting and verbal requirements (JTC 1 Directives, clause 13.4).
WG 4 has a web site and open document register. Defect logs and statistics from WG 4 are available online.
At the WG4 meeting in Copenhagen, June 22–24, 2009, there were 16 people listed as present; 5 of these were employed by Microsoft, 4 by universities.
Complaints about the national bodies process
- An Ars TechnicaArs TechnicaArs Technica is a technology news and information website created by Ken Fisher and Jon Stokes in 1998. It publishes news, reviews and guides on issues such as computer hardware and software, science, technology policy, and video games. Ars Technica is known for its features, long articles that go...
article sources GroklawGroklawGroklaw is an award-winning website covering legal news of interest to the free and open source software community. Started as a law blog on May 16, 2003 by paralegal Pamela Jones at Radio UserLand, it has covered issues such as the SCO-Linux lawsuits, the EU anti-trust case against Microsoft, and...
stating that at Portugal's national body TC meeting, "representatives from MicrosoftMicrosoftMicrosoft Corporation is an American public multinational corporation headquartered in Redmond, Washington, USA that develops, manufactures, licenses, and supports a wide range of products and services predominantly related to computing through its various product divisions...
attempted to argue that Sun MicrosystemsSun MicrosystemsSun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
, the creators and supporters of the competing OpenDocumentOpenDocumentThe Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
format (ODF), could not be given a seat at the conference table because there was a lack of chairs." - In Sweden, Microsoft notified the Swedish Standards InstituteSwedish Standards InstituteSIS, Swedish Standards Institute, is an independent organization, founded in 1922, with members from the private and public sector.-Activities:...
(SIS) that an employee sent a memo to two of its partners, requesting them to join the SIS committee and vote in favor of Office Open XML in return for "marketing contributions". Jason Matusow, a Director in the Corporate Standards Strategy Team at Microsoft, stated that the memo was the action of an individual employee acting outside company policy, and that the memo was retracted as soon as it was discovered. SIS have since changed its voting procedure so that a member has to actually participate before he is allowed to vote. - Sweden invalidated its vote (80% was for approval) as one company cast more than one vote, which is against SIS policy.
- Finnish IT journalists described that meeting as raising strong differences in opinions.
- In Switzerland, SNV registered a vote of "approval with comments," and there was some criticism about a "conflict of interest" regarding the chairman of the UK 14 sub-committee, who did not allow discussion of licensing, economic and political arguments. In addition, the chairman of the relevant SNV parent committee is also the secretary general of Ecma InternationalEcma InternationalEcma International is an international, private non-profit standards organization for information and communication systems. It acquired its name in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association changed its name to reflect the organization's global reach and activities...
, which approved OOXML as a standard. Further complaints regarded "committee stuffing", which is however allowed by present SNV rules, and non-adherence to SNV rules by the UK 14 chairman, which resulted in a re-vote with the same result. - Australia's national standards body, Standards AustraliaStandards AustraliaStandards Australia was established in 1922 and is recognised through a Memorandum of Understanding with the Australian government as the peak non-government standards development body in Australia. It is a company limited by guarantee, with 72 members representing groups interested in the...
, was criticized for its handling of the OOXML process by the New Zealand Open Source SocietyNew Zealand Open Source SocietyThe New Zealand Open Source Society is an incorporated society supporting the advocacy and promotion of open source software in New Zealand.-Formation:...
, the open source advisory firm Waugh Partners, Australian National UniversityAustralian National UniversityThe Australian National University is a teaching and research university located in the Australian capital, Canberra.As of 2009, the ANU employs 3,945 administrative staff who teach approximately 10,000 undergraduates, and 7,500 postgraduate students...
Professor Roger Clarke, OASIS lawyer Andrew Updegrove, IBM and Google. Standards Australia sent ISO SC 34 expert and XML and Schematron specialist Rick JelliffeRick JelliffeRichard Alan Jelliffe is an Australian programmer and standards activist , particularly associated with web standards, markup languages, internationalization and schema languages. He is the founder and Chief Technical Officer of Topologi Pty. Ltd, an XML tools vendor in Sydney...
to the BRM, despite critics alleging that Jelliffe would not represent the views of those opposing the standardization. Jelliffe had previously been in the news after being offered payment by Microsoft to improve incorrect Wikipedia articles about Office Open XML. Microsoft had bought a schema conversion tool from his company and he had performed the initial conversion of the Office Open XML schemas from XML Schemas to RELAX NG, both schema languages he had been involved in standardizing. It was alleged that Standards Australia had broken a previous public pledge to send two internal employees to the BRM. However Standards Australia issued a press release denying this and stating that the Computerworld article was "was riddled with inaccuracies and misrepresentations.” - Norway's vote was decided by Standard NorgeStandards NorwayStandards Norway is the main standards organization of Norway. It claims responsibility for all standardization areas except for electrotechnical and telecommunication issues. Standards Norway represents the country of Norway in CEN and ISO. Its headquarters are located at Lysaker....
; the mostly opposing viewpoints of the technical committee were ignored after members were unable to reach consensus. Membership in the technical committee had risen from 6–7 to 30 members; all of the pre-OOXML members argued in favour of a "no" vote. In October 2008, 13 of the 23 members, 12 of which are associated with the open-source movement, resigned after OOXML was ratified by ISO and all appeals were rejected.
- The IDABC community programme (which is managed by the European CommissionEuropean CommissionThe European Commission is the executive body of the European Union. The body is responsible for proposing legislation, implementing decisions, upholding the Union's treaties and the general day-to-day running of the Union....
) runs the "Open Source Observatory" which is "dedicated to Free/Libre/Open Source Software." Via its "Open Source News", it has reported on reports which criticize the standardization process.- It states that the German IT news site Heise reports that in Germany, two opponents of Office Open XML, Deutsche TelekomDeutsche TelekomDeutsche Telekom AG is a telecommunications company headquartered in Bonn, Germany. It is the largest telecommunications company in Europe....
and GoogleGoogleGoogle Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
, were not allowed to vote because they tried to join the committee last-minute. Open Source News says, "Participants described the process as ludicrous." - It relays a report from Michiel Leenaars (director of the Internet Society Netherlands) that in the Netherlands, "the chair of the national standardization committee deciding on OOXML, protested that the almost unanimous conditional approval was blocked by Microsoft."
- It reports on a report from Borys Musielak, a member of Poland's Linux community, who wrote on the PolishLinux website that Poland's technical committee KT 171 rejected Office Open XML. The vote was invalidated and assigned to KT 182. A member of Poland's LinuxLinuxLinux is a Unix-like computer operating system assembled under the model of free and open source software development and distribution. The defining component of any Linux system is the Linux kernel, an operating system kernel first released October 5, 1991 by Linus Torvalds...
community believes this was due to "reorganisation in the Polish standardisation body." KT 182 voted to approve Office Open XML. - It reports that in AndalucíaAndalusiaAndalusia is the most populous and the second largest in area of the autonomous communities of Spain. The Andalusian autonomous community is officially recognised as a nationality of Spain. The territory is divided into eight provinces: Huelva, Seville, Cádiz, Córdoba, Málaga, Jaén, Granada and...
, the director of Andalucía's Department for Innovation complained that Microsoft submitted misinformation to the Spanish National Body stating that it (Andalucía) supported the company's Office Open XML-proposal. - It reports that in Portugal, eleven companies (including IBMIBMInternational Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
) and open source advocacy groups requested that Portugal's Ministry of Economy and Innovation investigate Portugal's vote on Office Open XML.
- It states that the German IT news site Heise reports that in Germany, two opponents of Office Open XML, Deutsche Telekom
- In June 2008, the High Court of JusticeHigh Court of JusticeThe High Court of Justice is, together with the Court of Appeal and the Crown Court, one of the Senior Courts of England and Wales...
in the United Kingdom rejected a complaint by the UK Unix and Open Systems User GroupUKUUGUKUUG is the UK's Unix and Open Systems User Group a non-profit organization and technical forum for the advocacy of open systems, particularly Unix and Unix-like operating systems, the promotion of Free and Open Source Software , and the advancement of open programming standards and networking...
(UKUUG), requesting a review of the British Standard InstitutionBSI GroupBSI Group, also known in its home market as the British Standards Institution , is a multinational business services provider whose principal activity is the production of standards and the supply of standards-related services.- History :...
's decision to vote in favour of DIS 29500. The judge commented that "this application does not disclose any arguable breach of the procedures of BSI or of rules of procedural fairness".
Other complaints
A further letter of protest was filed by Open Source Leverandørforeningen, a Danish open sourceOpen source
The term open source describes practices in production and development that promote access to the end product's source materials. Some consider open source a philosophy, others consider it a pragmatic methodology...
vendor association
although no appeal has been filed directly by Dansk Standard itself.
In September 2008, a joint letter known as the Consegi declaration
Consegi declaration
The Consegi declaration is a joint letter issued in September 2008 at a free and open technology convention, in which a number of government open source software representatives for the developing world state disappointment in the appeals by several of their ISO/IEC national bodies being dismissed...
was issued and signed by 3 representatives for free software of the countries that issued appeals (South Africa, Brazil and Venezuela) as well as Ecuador
Ecuador
Ecuador , officially the Republic of Ecuador is a representative democratic republic in South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and by the Pacific Ocean to the west. It is one of only two countries in South America, along with Chile, that do not have a border...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
and Paraguay
Paraguay
Paraguay , officially the Republic of Paraguay , is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to the east and northeast, and Bolivia to the northwest. Paraguay lies on both banks of the Paraguay River, which runs through the center of the...
.
After the specification was officially accepted as an ISO standard, Red Hat
Red Hat
Red Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
and IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
claimed the ISO is losing credibility, and
Ubuntu founder Mark Shuttleworth
Mark Shuttleworth
Mark Richard Shuttleworth is a South African entrepreneur who was the second self-funded space tourist. Shuttleworth founded Canonical Ltd. and as of 2010, provides leadership for the Ubuntu operating system...
commented "We're not going to invest in trying to implement a standard that is poorly defined.” IBM issued a press release stating: "IBM will continue to be an active supporter of ODF. We look forward to being part of the community that works to harmonize ODF and OOXML for the sake of consumers, companies and governments, when OOXML control and maintenance is fully transferred to JTC1.”
Examination of fast track process
Deutsches Institut für NormungDeutsches Institut für Normung
is the German national organization for standardization and is that country's ISO member body. DIN is a Registered German Association headquartered in Berlin...
(DIN, Germany) voted "yes" on DIS 29500, and stated that DIN as a whole "recognised that there has been no serious breach of JTC 1 and ISO rules”, but that, "the conclusion has been reached that the rules for the fast-track procedure need to be amended”.
At the plenary meeting of JTC 1 in Nara
Nara, Nara
is the capital city of Nara Prefecture in the Kansai region of Japan. The city occupies the northern part of Nara Prefecture, directly bordering Kyoto Prefecture...
, Japan that took place in November 2008, a resolution was passed which related to concerns express during the standardisation of ISO/IEC 29500. Resolution 49 was entitled "Clarification on Consistency of Standards vs Competing Specifications” and contained the following text:
JTC 1 recognizes its commitment to ISO's and IEC's "one standard" principle; however, it recognizes that neither it nor its SCs are in a position to mandate either the creation or the use of a single standard, and that there are times when multiple standards make the most sense in order to respond to the needs of the marketplace and of society at large. It is not practical to define, a priori, criteria for making these decisions. Therefore each standard must be judged by the National Bodies, based on their markets, on its own merits.
At a companion meeting of the Special Working Group on Directives (SWG-Directives) in Osaka
Osaka
is a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
a recommendation was made describing series of "concepts" that would in future be applied to the Ballot Resolution process of future Fast Tracked standards. These mirrored the process that had taken place for ISO/IEC 29500:
- The purpose is to review and address ballot comments
- The meeting must have a separate agenda and be convened as a separate meeting even if it is in conjunction with/co-located with an SC/WG meeting
- The comments must be discussed within a single meeting and NOT distributed over a series of meetings
- The meeting is open to the Fast track Submitter and to all National Bodies regardless of whether or not the National Body has voted on the document under review – no limitation on which National Body can participate
- The meeting participants represent their National Body and their National Body positions
- All National Bodies have an equal say in any decisions made during the meeting
- The Project Editor must prepare an Editor’s proposed disposition of ballot comments in sufficient time prior to the BRM to allow consideration by National Bodies. This editor’s proposed disposition of comments document will be reviewed during the ballot resolution meeting
- A disposition of ballot comments approved during the meeting must be circulated following the meeting for the information of all National Bodies
- When all comments have been addressed and a disposition of comments has been approved by the meeting, the BRM meeting criteria have been met
Standards lawyer Andy Updegrove (whose firm represents OASIS) commented that he was "startled and dismayed” at these concepts, since they "basically add up to a ratification of the conduct of the Geneva BRM."
Investigation of Microsoft by the European Commission
The European Commission has started an antitrust investigation into the interoperability of the Office Open XML format on the request of European Committee for Interoperable SystemsEuropean Committee for Interoperable Systems
The European Committee for Interoperable Systems is an international non-profit association founded in 1989 in order to promote interoperability and market conditions in the Information and Communications Technology sector allowing vigorous competition on the merits and a diversity of consumer...
, described as "a coalition of Microsoft's largest competitors". Anonymous source(s) of the Wall Street Journal claim that this investigation also includes an investigation into whether Microsoft violated antitrust laws in the course of the standardization process. The Financial Times reports that European ISO members have confirmed receipt of a letter by the European Commission "asking how they prepared for votes […] on acceptance of Microsoft's OOXML document format as a worldwide standard.”
Microsoft complaints about competitors
In an open letter, Microsoft attacked IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
's opposition to the Office Open XML standardization process, saying
On December 7, Ecma approved the adoption of Open XML as an international open standard. The vote was nearly unanimous; of the 21 members, IBM’s was the sole dissenting vote. IBM again was the lone dissenter when Ecma also agreed to submit Open XML as a standard for ratification by ISO/IEC JTC1.
IBM led a global campaign urging national bodies to demand that ISO/IEC JTC1 not even consider Open XML, because ODF had made it through ISO/IEC JTC1 first.
Nicos Tsilas, Microsoft's senior director of interoperability and intellectual property policy, downplaying Microsoft's American and EU conviction as abusers of monopoly power, expressed concern that IBM and the Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
have been lobbying governments to mandate the use of the rival OpenDocument format
OpenDocument
The Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
(ODF) to the exclusion of other formats. In his opinion, they are "using government intervention as a way to compete" as they "couldn't compete technically."
IBM have asked governments to have an open-source, exclusive purchasing policy.
Arguments in support and criticism of Office Open XML standard
Support
Microsoft believes its own format should be adopted. It has presented this argument on its "community web site", a site owned and operated by Microsoft.Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems
Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold :computers, computer components, :computer software, and :information technology services. Sun was founded on February 24, 1982...
initially voted against approval of DIS 29500 in the INCITS
INCITS
The InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards, or INCITS , is an ANSI-accredited forum of IT developers. It was formerly known as the X3 and NCITS....
V1 committee, but stated on the committee mailing list "We wish to make it completely clear that we support DIS 29500 becoming an ISO Standard and are in complete agreement with its stated purposes of enabling interoperability among different implementations and providing interoperable access to the legacy of Microsoft Office documents.” and that "We voted in the expectation that […] changes will be made and that a version of DIS 29500 capable of achieving its objectives would be approved as an ISO Standard.”.
ODF Alliance India published an extensive technical report in 2007 containing concrete issues by members of the association, as well as replies from Microsoft.
In December 2007 Ecma International
Ecma International
Ecma International is an international, private non-profit standards organization for information and communication systems. It acquired its name in 1994, when the European Computer Manufacturers Association changed its name to reflect the organization's global reach and activities...
announced that many of reported issues will be taken into account in next edition of the standardisation proposal to ISO.
- The British LibraryBritish LibraryThe British Library is the national library of the United Kingdom, and is the world's largest library in terms of total number of items. The library is a major research library, holding over 150 million items from every country in the world, in virtually all known languages and in many formats,...
and the United States Library of CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
have participated in the work of Ecma TC45 and support the Office Open XML standard.
- Former Gnome FoundationGNOME FoundationThe GNOME Foundation is a non-profit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, coordinating the efforts in the GNOME project.-Purpose:...
board member Miguel de IcazaMiguel de IcazaMiguel de Icaza is a Mexican free software programmer, best known for starting the GNOME and Mono projects.-Early years:Miguel de Icaza was born in Mexico City and studied at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de México but never received a degree. He came from a family of scientists in which his...
, who started the GNOMEGNOMEGNOME is a desktop environment and graphical user interface that runs on top of a computer operating system. It is composed entirely of free and open source software...
and MonoMono (software)Mono, pronounced , is a free and open source project led by Xamarin to create an Ecma standard compliant .NET-compatible set of tools including, among others, a C# compiler and a Common Language Runtime....
projects, showed support for the Office Open XML document format, stating "OOXML is a superb standard and yet, it has been FUDed so badly by its competitors that serious people believe that there is something fundamentally wrong with it.”
- Patrick Durusau, the editor of the OpenDocumentOpenDocumentThe Open Document Format for Office Applications is an XML-based file format for representing electronic documents such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations and word processing documents....
standard, has characterized OOXML as a "poster child for the open standards development process”
User base
The most widely used office productivity packages currently rely on various proprietary and reverse engineered binary fileBinary file
A binary file is a computer file which may contain any type of data, encoded in binary form for computer storage and processing purposes; for example, computer document files containing formatted text...
formats such as doc, ppt and xls. However, OOXML is a new format which is not backwards or forwards compatible with any of the old Microsoft Office formats.
Policy arguments
With regards to the alleged overlap in scope with the OpenDocument format, Ecma has provided the following policy arguments in favor of standardization: overlap in scope of ISO/IEC standards is common and can serve a practical purpose; Office Open XML addresses distinct user requirements; The OpenDocument format and Office Open XML are structured to meet different user requirements; and Office Open XML and Opendocument can serve as duo-standards.Technical arguments
The foundation technical argument for Office Open XML by its proponents is not based on quality or ease-of-use but on its being an XML version of the proprietary binary Microsoft formats:OpenXML was designed from the start to be capable of faithfully representing the pre-existing corpus of word-processing documents, presentations, and spreadsheets that are encoded in binary formats defined by Microsoft Corporation. The standardization process consisted of mirroring in XML the capabilities required to represent the existing corpus, extending them, providing detailed documentation, and enabling interoperability.
A study comparing IS 29500:2008 and IS 26300:2006 (ODF 1.0) by the German Fraunhofer Institute found
It may be concluded that many of the functionalities, especially those found in simpler documents, can be translated between the standards, while the translation of other functionalities can prove complex or even impossible.
- The use of the Open Packaging ConventionOpen Packaging ConventionThe Open Packaging Conventions is a container-file technology initially created by Microsoft to store a combination of XML and non-XML files that together form a single entity such as an Open XML Paper Specification document...
which allows for IndirectionIndirectionIn computer programming, indirection is the ability to reference something using a name, reference, or container instead of the value itself. The most common form of indirection is the act of manipulating a value through its memory address. For example, accessing a variable through the use of a...
, ChunkingChunking (computing)-In memory management:Typical modern software systems allocate memory dynamically from structures known as heaps. Calls are made to heap-management routines to allocate and free memory. Heap management involves some computation time and can be a performance issue...
and Relative indirection. - Uses the ZIP format, making ZIP part of the standard. Due to compression, files are smaller than current binary formats.
- It supports custom data elements for integration of data specific to an application or an organisation that wants to use the format.
- It defines spreadsheet formulas.
- Office Open XML contains alternate representations for the XML schemas and extensibility mechanisms using RELAX NG (ISO/IEC 19757-2) and NVDL (ISO/IEC 19757-4.)
- No restriction on image, audio or video types, Book 1 §14.2.12.
- Embedded controls can be of any type, such as JavaJava (programming language)Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...
or ActiveXActiveXActiveX is a framework for defining reusable software components in a programming language-independent way. Software applications can then be composed from one or more of these components in order to provide their functionality....
, Book 1 §15.2.8. - WordprocessingML font specifications can include font metrics and PANOSEPANOSEThe PANOSE System is a method for classifying typefaces solely on their visual characteristics, developed by Benjamin Bauermeister. It can be used to identify an unknown font from a sample image or to match a known font to its closest visual neighbor from a font pool...
information to assist in finding a substitution font if the original is not available, Book 3 §2.10.5. - In the situation where a consuming application might not be capable of interpreting what a producing application wrote, Office Open XML defines an Alternate Content Block which can represent said data in an alternate format, such as an image. Book 3 §2.18.4.
- Internationalization support. For example date representation: In WordprocessingML (Book 4 §2.18.7) and SpreadsheetML (Book 4 §3.18.5), calendar dates after 1900 CECommon EraCommon Era ,abbreviated as CE, is an alternative designation for the calendar era originally introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in the 6th century, traditionally identified with Anno Domini .Dates before the year 1 CE are indicated by the usage of BCE, short for Before the Common Era Common Era...
can be written using GregorianGregorian calendarThe Gregorian calendar, also known as the Western calendar, or Christian calendar, is the internationally accepted civil calendar. It was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII, after whom the calendar was named, by a decree signed on 24 February 1582, a papal bull known by its opening words Inter...
(three variants), HebrewHebrew calendarThe Hebrew calendar , or Jewish calendar, is a lunisolar calendar used today predominantly for Jewish religious observances. It determines the dates for Jewish holidays and the appropriate public reading of Torah portions, yahrzeits , and daily Psalm reading, among many ceremonial uses...
, HijriIslamic calendarThe Hijri calendar , also known as the Muslim calendar or Islamic calendar , is a lunar calendar consisting of 12 lunar months in a year of 354 or 355 days. It is used to date events in many Muslim countries , and used by Muslims everywhere to determine the proper day on which to celebrate Islamic...
, Japanese (Emperor Era)Japanese calendarOn January 1, 1873, Japan adopted the Gregorian calendar. Before 1873, the Chinese style lunisolar calendar had been in use since 7th century. Japanese eras are still in use.-System:...
, Korean (Tangun Era)Korean calendarThe traditional Korean calendar is a lunisolar calendar, like the traditional calendars of other East Asian countries. Dates are calculated from Korea's meridian, and observances and festivals are based in Korean culture....
, Saka, Taiwanese, and ThaiThai calendarThere are more than one Thai calendar:* Thai lunar calendar in use until 1888 CE , 2431 BE* Thai solar calendar in use since 1888 CE , 2431 BE...
formats. Also, there are several internationalization related spreadsheet conversion functions. - Custom XML schema extensibility allows the addition of features to the format. This can, for instance, facilitate conversion from other formats and future features that are not part of the official specification.
Technical
The standard has been the subject of debate within the software industry. At over 6,000 pages, the specification is difficult to evaluate quickly. Objectors also claim that there could be user confusion regarding the two standards because of the similarity of the "Office Open XML" name to both "OpenDocument" and "OpenOffice". Objectors also argued that an ISO standard for documents already exists and there is no need for a second standard.Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
stated that "the ODF standard, which achieves the same goal, is only 867 pages" and that
If ISO were to give OOXML with its 6546 pages the same level of review that other standards have seen, it would take 18 years (6576 days for 6546 pages) to achieve comparable levels of review to the existing ODF standard (871 days for 867 pages) which achieves the same purpose and is thus a good comparison.
Considering that OOXML has only received about 5.5% of the review that comparable standards have undergone, reports about inconsistencies, contradictions and missing information are hardly surprising.
Opposers include FFII
Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure
The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure or FFII is a non-profit organisation based in Munich, Germany, dedicated to establishing a free market in information technology, by the removal of barriers to competition...
, the ODF Alliance IBM
IBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
, South Africa, and other nations that voiced strong opposition during standardization.
The ODF Alliance UK Action Group has stated that with OpenDocument an ISO standard for Office files already exists.
Further, they argue that the Office Open XML file-format is heavily based on Microsoft's own Office applications
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
and is thus not vendor-neutral, and that it has inconsistencies with existing ISO standards such as time
Time standard
A time standard is a specification for measuring time: either the rate at which time passes; or points in time; or both. In modern times, several time specifications have been officially recognized as standards, where formerly they were matters of custom and practice. An example of a kind of time...
and date formats and color code
Color code
A color code is a system for displaying information by using different colors. Color codes are often difficult for color blind and blind people to interpret....
s.
Process manipulation
In addition, the standardization process itself has been questioned, including claims of balloting irregularities by some technical committees, Microsoft representatives and Microsoft partners in trying to get Office Open XML approved. "The editorial group who actually produce the spec is referred to as "ECMA”, but in fact the work is mostly done by Microsoft people."Post-adoption quotes
During a panel discussion on Red HatRed Hat
Red Hat, Inc. is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide....
Summit in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
in June 2008 Microsoft's national technology officer Stuart McKee said that "ODF has clearly won". He made also a following statement:
We found ourselves so far down the path of the standardisation process with no knowledge. We don't have a standards office. We didn't have a standards department in the company. I think the one thing that we would acknowledge and that we were frustrated with is that, by the time we realised what was going on and the competitive environment that was underway, we were late and there was a lot of catch-up. It was very difficult to enter into conversations around the world where the debate had already been framed.
On June 25, 2008, Gray Knowlton, a Group Product Manager for the Microsoft Office system made the following statements regarding the future of Open XML:
Microsoft will continue to support the development of the specification and the adoption of the Open XML formats, in addition to the other work we are driving around document formats in Office. […] In the end, Open XML is still the better choice for the compatibility and line-of-business interoperability scenarios we have discussed throughout its history. […] while we are working on ODF moving forward, we will remain committed to Open XML and believe that it will be the format of choice for large parts of the global community.
In an interview Richard Stallman
Richard Stallman
Richard Matthew Stallman , often shortened to rms,"'Richard Stallman' is just my mundane name; you can call me 'rms'"|last= Stallman|first= Richard|date= N.D.|work=Richard Stallman's homepage...
, head of the Free Software Foundation
Free Software Foundation
The Free Software Foundation is a non-profit corporation founded by Richard Stallman on 4 October 1985 to support the free software movement, a copyleft-based movement which aims to promote the universal freedom to create, distribute and modify computer software...
, said:
Microsoft corrupted many members of ISO in order to win approval for its phony 'open' document format, OOXML. This was so governments that keep their documents in a Microsoft-only format can pretend that they are using 'open standards.' The government of South Africa has filed an appeal against the decision, citing the irregularities in the process.
On March 31, 2010, Dr Alex Brown, who had been the Convener of the February 2008 Ballot Resolution Meeting, posted an entry on his personal blog in which he complained of Microsoft's lack of progress in adapting current and future versions of Microsoft Office to produce files in the Strict (as opposed to the Transitional) ISO 29500 format:
On this count Microsoft seems set for failure. In its pre-release form Office 2010 supports not the approved Strict variant of OOXML, but the very format the global community rejected in September 2007, and subsequently marked as not for use in new documents — the Transitional variant. Microsoft are behaving as if the JTC 1 standardisation process never happened…
Microsoft have responded that the next release of Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office
Microsoft Office is a non-free commercial office suite of inter-related desktop applications, servers and services for the Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X operating systems, introduced by Microsoft in August 1, 1989. Initially a marketing term for a bundled set of applications, the first version of...
(version 15) will fully support ISO/IEC 29500 Strict.
See also
- OpenDocument standardizationOpenDocument standardization- Process :The first official OASIS meeting to discuss the standard was December 16, 2002; OASIS approved OpenDocument as an OASIS standard on May 1, 2005....
- Comparison of Office Open XML and OpenDocumentComparison of Office Open XML and OpenDocumentThis is a comparison of the Office Open XML document file format with the OpenDocument file format.-Comparison:-See also:*Comparison of document markup languages*List of document markup languages*Lightweight markup language-External links:...
- Comparison of document markup languagesComparison of document markup languagesThe following tables compare general and technical information for a number of document markup languages. Please see the individual markup languages' articles for further information.-General information:...