Microsoft awarded for being its own enemy

SOFTWARE giant Microsoft did more to get its Office Open XML (OOXML) standards proposal axed than anyone in the Open Sauce community.

The Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure has awarded Microsoft its Kayak prize for 2007 for all its efforts in getting the OOXML standards proposal rejected.

On September 3, ISO announced that the Microsoft proposal had not gathered enough support to be accepted as it is. ISO will now review the comments made on the proposal, and make a final decision in February 2008.

FFII president Pieter Hintjens said that it was great victory for the anti-Vole camp, but it could not have been done without the efforts of Microsoft.

He said that by pushing so hard to get OOXML endorsed, even to the point of loading the standards boards in Sweden, Denmark, Switzerland, Portugal, and Italy, Vole showed to the world how poor its format was.

"Good standards just don't need that kind of pressure. All together, countries made over ten thousands technical comments, a new world record for an ISO vote. Microsoft made a heroic, and costly, effort to discredit their own proposal, and we're sincerely grateful to them," he said.

Microsoft wins 2,500 Euros, minus the cost of registering the noooxml.org domain, 12 euros.

If Vole does not send someone to the award ceremony, the cash will be sent to the Peruvian earthquake fund.

More here. µ