Vole's smoking gun ISO OOXML memo surfaces

A SMOKING GUN memo has leaked proving that Microsoft pressed its affiliates in Sweden to attend the Swedish ISO committee meeting to vote in favour of its proposed OOXML "standard", ComputerSweden reports (in Swedish). As the INQUIRER reported at the time, 22 Swedish business partners of the Vole showed up to pack the meeting for Microsoft, thereby changing the outcome from the expected No vote to Yes.

ComputerSweden reported that Microsoft representative Klas Hammar admitted that the memo is genuine, but said that it should not have been sent.

A Groklaw member translated the story into English, the most interesting paragraph of which reads:

"In an informational email that, according to Microsoft, went 'to a few' partner companies, they write among other things that their partners are 'expected' to join the standards institute and 'participate on the meeting the 27/8, to vote yes to Open XML'."

Microsoft has been caught, red-handed as it were, literally purchasing the ISO standards process for OOXML. Pamela Jones at Groklaw has written an excellent article about this event and more related to ISO and OOXML, and that's here. µ

L'INQ
ComputerSweden (in Swedish)
Groklaw

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