OOXML loses US vote for fast-track ISO approvalThe Vole has a setbackBy Egan Orion: Sunday 12 August 2007, 14:15THE EXECUTIVE BOARD of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) has rejected Microsoft's request for fast-track approval of its Office Open XML (OOXML) specification as an ISO standard.INCITS represents the United States in ISO standards policy deliberations relative to Information and Communications Technologies.The vote was eight Yes and seven No with one abstention, falling one vote short of the nine votes needed for approval. The INCITS members that voted Yes were Apple, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Electronic Industry Alliance, EMC, HP, Intel, Sony and of course Microsoft itself. The members that voted No were Farance, GS1, IBM, Lexmark, the U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), Oracle and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). The U.S. Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) includes among its membership organizations that voted on both sides, so it abstained "due to the divergent viewpoints of key IEEE members and stakeholders."Some of the organisations that voted against approval of OOXML for fast-track adoption as an ISO standard are not necessarily opposed to OOXML per se. The NIST, Oracle and DoD voted No because they want adoption of OOXML to be contingent on completion of the full ISO standards setting process instead of fast-track adoption of OOXML as an ISO standard as-is.Worldwide, other countries that are ISO members have also rejected approval of OOXML for fast-track adoption as an ISO standard, at times in somewhat contentious meetings.The full ISO standardisation process will include a lengthy evaluation of all member comments and criticisms, likely followed by some negotiations between ISO committees and Microsoft that might require Microsoft to make changes to OOXML before it will be adopted as an ISO standard.Comments logged by the U.S. DoD in casting its No vote list the following problems DoD sees in Microsoft's OOXML specification as it presently exists:"1) Binary information in the standard that would lead to security concerns.2) The referencing of unexplained backward compatibility modes that might pose a problem for third party implementers.3) The use of proprietary file formats within the open standard appear to cause potential intellectual property ownership concerns."These are appropriate concerns about OOXML, because it isn't hard to imagine how these features of OOXML might enable the Vole to leverage its proprietary software to disadvantage competitors who implement such a so-called "open" standard that has so many loopholes in its favour.INCITS is to be congratulated for having made the right decision here, even though the vote was a bit too close for comfort due to presence of heavily influenced Microsoft shills allies on the board.OOXML isn't out of the running to become an ISO standard eventually, but it's going to be subject to the full, protracted ISO standardisation process of examinations, discussions, negotiations and adjustments before it finally gets accepted.Let's hope so, because that can only be good for Microsoft's competitors, public policy and users everywhere.
