20090701 Microsoft's Newham Department to Face Challenge Over Proprietary OOXML
From s5h.net
Help Me Go Mano a Mano with Microsoft
Next week, I'm taking part in a debate with a Microsoft representative about the passage of the OOXML file format through the ISO process last year. Since said Microsoftie can draw on the not inconsiderable resources of his organisation to provide him with a little back-up, I thought I'd try to even the odds by putting out a call for help to the unmatched resource that is the Linux Journal community. Here's the background to the meeting, and the kind of info I hope people might be able to provide. Not surprisingly, the meeting is neither for my nor Microsoft's benefit, but for that of Richard Steel, who is CIO of the London Borough of Newham. Those with good memories may recall that back in 2003 it looked like Newham was going to switch to open source, in what could have been a real breakthrough for free software in the UK, but that it then changed its mind and signed a long-term - and secret - deal with Microsoft. Winning Newham was so important to Microsoft that it helped set up a competitive trial...
http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/help-me-go-mano-mano-microsoft OOXML is evidently a fraud, likewise those who support it.
Related: Microsoft influencing partner NGOs to support OOXML in India
Microsoft is encouraging its business partners to promote its Office Open XML specification (OOXML) to the Indian Bureau of Standards (BIS) and Ministry of IT. This move has incensed supporters of the rival OpenDocument Format (ODF) who fear that the "soft" Indian state may not be able to stand up to Microsoft pressure tactics.
http://www.linux.com/feature/128528
Microsoft "persuades" NGOs to support OOXML
Our friends at Linux Delhi have put up a copy of the form letters that Microsoft has been sending NGOs on the OOXML issue. Apparently, these NGOs have been sending copies of these letters to the Ministry of IT and Bureau of Indian standards.
http://osindia.blogspot.com/2008/02/microsoft-persuades-ngos-to-support.html
Developers around the world, unite!
Monopoly and proprietary software have an advantage in influencing state and governmental institutions because of their large market base and ready capital. Unscrupulous ways of influencing state governments have persisted in India, for example, where executives of proprietary software cajole government heads to promote their brands in lieu of some form of charity given. FLOSS activists must overcome this huge challenge in order to get their philosophy accepted and model implemented for the good of people who are still on the barren side of the digital divide.
http://thepost.com.pk/OpinionNews.aspx?dtlid=147277&catid=11
Using NGOs to Push Agendas
The extent to which Microsoft can go in its efforts to get OOXML is interesting. Microsoft has "persuaded" several non-profit organizations to bombard the Indian IT Secretary and the Additional Director General of the Bureau of Indian Standards with letters supporting its OOXML proposal. A copy of the form letter they have been circulating to NGOs is given below. Somebody should interview these NGOs to see how much they really know about OOXML and open standards. The sequence of events leading up to the spamming of GoI? is: Letter from an NGO thanking Microsoft (name changed to protect their identity)
http://wiki.linux-delhi.org/cgi-bin/twiki/view/OpenStandards/MsNgoLobby
Microsoft Looks for the Big Guns in OOXML In-Fighting
Bill Gates has reportedly been making phone calls to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of Commerce to push the American National Standards Institute to ignore the votes of its advisory committees and vote "yes" on ISO standardizing Microsoft's Open Office XML (OOXML) format, the one in competition with the OpenDocument Format (ODF) pushed by IBM and Sun. Gates reportedly picked up the phone when the last INCITS ballot failed by one vote to support Microsoft.
http://xml.sys-con.com/read/419573_p.htm
Fighting Megatron: five steps to freedom
The free software world is being attacked by a large, wealthy, brutal monopolist, who I’ll call “Megatron” for today. As I wrote last month, Megatron is driving its OOXML tank through the village church of open standards, doing unspeakable things to the ISO process, with the intention of locking in a generation of computer users to its stack of patented, restricted, and undocumented formats. It’s about freedom, some of us want it, others want to take it away from us.
http://www.freesoftwaremagazine.com/blogs/fighting_megatron_five_steps_to_freedom
Swiss Cheese [for OOXML]
The present spin doctors of Microsoft and ECMA managed to convince Mr. Thomann to reject every serious technical and general concern we had regarding OOMXL by pointing to compatibility reasons. At the end we had a majority against Microsoft but which (giving the unfair rules) results in a Swiss vote for Microsoft. Mr. Thomann was fretting and fuming at the end of the meeting how it can be that successful international companies (we had representatives from IBM, Google, ...) vote against the best interest of their customers and theirself! Yes, this is how the democratic system at SNV / ISO works. After the meeting I could not eat as much as I wanted to puke...
http://www.noooxml.org/forum/t-15521/swiss-cheese
Interview with Ecma’s Secretarie General
The following is an interview of Jan van den Beld, the Secretarie General of Ecma International. [...] (ramble on multiple and proprietary 'standards') DB: But don’t you think that encourages patent wars? JvdB: I have never thought so deeply about it (how the pemission of multiple standards encourages patent wars). In a way yes, of course, there are hardly any subjects in hi-tech where no patents are involved. That is one of the big worries about bodies being concerned with patents So, we stay out of it. If you have a patent, you get an unconditional right and what you do with your patent is your business. You can ask "is that good?" Well that’s an interesting question.
http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?page_id=2259
No is no, to OOXML
I’ve heard several reports of supporters of OOXML trying to get national standards bodies to change their votes from “NO with comments” to “YES with comments” because “it’s the same thing.” The logic, which I’ll explain in a later post, is that any comments will trigger a ballot resolution meeting, so there is no need to be so negative and vote NO.
http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=1762
IBM is still locked out of the Portuguese OOXML meeting
In spite of various communications, we [IBM] are still locked out and will not be allowed to participate. Microsoft will be there, as well as a special Microsoft guest, as will various Microsoft business partners, and others.
http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/?p=1755
OOXML does not buy its way in Italy
Particularly noteworthy is the fact that among those favouring the adoption of the standard without reservation a large majority is made of business partners of the proposing entity [Microsoft], a law firm retained by the latter, the official certified business partners association of the proposing entity.
http://www.piana.eu/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=52&Itemid=1#0
Packing The Court At The ISO?
...P member countries ('participating member' countries) sending representatives, and I am interested to note the majority of their representatives are, as individuals, also Microsoft employees. [...] How can they not see that OOXML (ECMA 376) is unwanted by anyone outside of Microsoft? How about it Brian Jones? Are you really so desperate that you have to resort to that?
http://lnxwalt.wordpress.com/2007/03/23/packing-the-court-at-the-iso/
Guest Commentary: The converter hoax
Microsoft maintains that while it would have been easy to support the Open Document Format (ODF) natively, it had to move to MS-OOXML because this was the only way for them to offer the full features of its office suite. But if Microsoft itself is not able to represent its internal data structures in the Open Document Format (ODF) in its Microsoft Office suite, how could an external conversion program from MS-OOXML accomplish this task? The answer to both questions is that it is not possible because two things cannot be the same and different at the same time.
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