ODF supporters march against OOXML
Protest 'scandalous' ISO approval
HALF THE POPULATION of Norway turned out as 60 software experts marched in a street demonstration in downtown Oslo on Wednesday protesting Norway's ISO committee vote favouring fast-track adoption of the Microsoft Office Open XML (OOXML) document formats proposal as an international standard.
Opponents allege that OOXML is technically flawed, opaque and incomplete, will prevent development of OOXML implementations other than Microsoft's and block interoperability with competing document formats, and is designed to perpetuate Microsoft domination of the office applications software market.
ISO already has approved Open Document Format (ODF) as an international standard for office document formats. ODF enables full interoperability and has been implemented by multiple software vendors.
Protestors demanded that ISO revise its procedures to eliminate political and vendor influence and achieve "standardisation of standardisation." Marchers carried banners such as "Micro$oft: Support ODF" as they walked through downtown streets in good spirits and a light rain.
The noisy but peaceful demonstration was led by Steve Pepper, who resigned as the chairman of Standards Norway's ISO JTC/IEC committee on OOXML to protest the committee's vote in favour of approval.
Pepper said the committee ignored the position of most of Norway's technical software experts opposing fast-track approval of OOXML as an ISO standard.
He claimed that the committee succumbed to lobbying pressures by Microsoft and its minions, and that it exhibited "scandalous behaviour" in its procedures leading to approval of OOXML.
Pepper said, "People shouldn't have to pay money to Microsoft to be able to read my documents."
It is not reported if the protest made the local news.
An Associated Press account of the protest is here. µ
Comments
Those crazy, whacky Danes
Here's a thought for them...STOP COMPLAINING - JUST DON'T USE IT !!
AT adds: Err, Denmark?
Pot meet Kettle
To Fred Snark: STOP COMPLAINING, JUST IGNORE THEM !!Now, to be serious: If It is ISO certified, how do you expect them not to use it? It will be everywhere (like the lame word documents) and people will be FORCED to use it.
And we just cannot ignore all the lobbying (for our american friends, we call it corruption in the rest of the world) that went on.
OOXML did not win because it was a good format; it won because people were "pushed" (to put it mildly) to vote in favor of Microsoft.
it's not that easy
it's not that easy to just not use a file format. If the government decides to publish official documents in this format you have very little choice in the matter.one purpose of having a standard office file format is so that official documents can be read by everyone, not just now, but in the future. when the OOXML definitions say things like 'be bug compatible with software package X version Y" but doesn't say what that actually means, it's not a standard that can be implemented
Solution to the problem
It seems like the only way that we can make a change with this sort of thing is if everyone abandoned MS office and started using Open Office.org or something like it. It supports all MS's file formats as well so i dont see why more people arent using it.Better than nothing
Microsoft is the market leader, by a huge margin, in office applications.lobbying and protests did force MS to open up their new format, that's a start, expecting odf at the same time is expecting too much really.
I give it as my opinion that if open office was actually as good as ms office, that it would topple ms office. But the reality is, it's not as good, the open office versions are slower, have way less features (and it only takes the 1 feature you need to be a deal breaker), and don't have the same automation and integration. If it was as good, people could install it beside ms office, just like everybody does with firefox and ie, I have both, I use both, because both are better at some things. Unfortunately I don't think any version of open office is as good or better than office 2003 or office 2007, and obviously I'm not the only person.
Don't use - riiight...
Don't use? That'll solve the problem - instead of one bad standard we'll have dozens of incompatible standards.The solution is to fix the problem before it becomes a problem - choose the correct solution not the most convenient nor the one with the most kickbacks.
Ignorance is Bliss
I love the part where the head guy of this movement makes the passionate statement "you have to pay to read my documents" when there are free OOXML readers out there that read documents quite well... They just don't produce them. What a turd. And he's leading a group of "educated" people at that... but in all seriousness, really, we (or more precisely, the inq) should come up with a good name for these people who are vole-o-phobic.OOXML! I'm Just Thrilled
To read that Sgt. Pepper has got the band back together again! So what if it's not Abbey Road or Penny Lane? I still wouldn't NOK it; something to krone about!Forgive me ABBA. For I have burned.
I don't understand
why the industry must go at this new OOXML wich is allready born with problems ??why can't use the allready ODF wich is allready tested and working very well ?
more than that, for ODF I have a superior trust in finding free tools and free suport, and free interesting comunity.