[Fsfe-uk] Today: send a letter to stop MS's OOXML being fast-tracked in ISO

[Ciaran O'Riordan]

MS have applied to have their OOXML specification approved as an ISO
standard by a fast-track procedure.  Today is the last day to submit your
objections.

There are plenty of valid things to object to, and they're well documented:
http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/EOOXML_objections
but I'm told that MS have significant sway in ISO and the various national
"mirror committees" - so we have to make it clear to ISO that members of the
public are informed and watching, so we need to send a letter or two.

Below is some text from a draft of the letter IFSO will soon send.  It's not
perfect, but it's good enough and time is short.

The BSI fax number is 0208 996 7001 - that goes to customer services and
they say they'll pass it on to the relevant committee.

It could be sent by AFFS, by your company, or by you as a concerned citizen.
Can someone fax a this letter or something similar to the BSI today?


============
To whom it may concern,

On behalf of the members of the Irish Free Software Organisation, I am
writing to you to express a number of concerns regarding the
fast-track processing of the ECMA-376 specification at the ISO JTC-1
committee. The unusual size of the specification, and the limited time
to review the document precludes an exhaustive examination, however we
present a number of specimen ob jections to the current proposal:

   1. The specification, by virtue of its size, cannot be meaningfully
      reviewed within the 30 days permitted by the fast-track
      procedure.

   2. The specification contradicts, duplicates and conflicts with a
      number of existing ISO standards, including: ISO8601
      (Representation of dates and times), ISO 639 (Codes for the
      Representation of Names and Languages), ISO/IEC 8632 (Com- puter
      Graphics Metafile), ISO/IEC 26300:2006 (OpenDocument Format for
      Office Applications).

   3. The standard as proposed is internally inconsistent in many
      places, including using inconsistent units of measurement and
      inconsistent naming conventions.

   4. The standard relies on a number of undisclosed proprietary
      specifications, including the use of the undocumented "Windows
      Metafile" format, and references to the behaviour of proprietary
      applications without any description of what this behaviour consists
      of. As a result of this lack of specification, ECMA-376 cannot
      reasonably be implemented by vendors other than the Microsoft
      corporation, the providers of the referenced proprietary
      applications.

For these reasons, and others, we believe it is inappropriate to admit
this standard to the fast-track process, and we urge that it be
remanded to Ecma International for: (i) harmonization with ISO/IEC
26300:2006, the OpenDocument standard; and numerous other standards
that it contradicts; (ii) development of more suitable patent
non-assertion pledges that actually grant all rights necessary to
implement the specification.  Further analysis of the document can be
found online at: http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/EOOXML_objections
============

Another example text is here:
http://mail.fsfeurope.org/pipermail/fsfe-ie/2007-January/002655.html

-- 
Ciarán O'Riordan __________________ \ http://fsfeurope.org/projects/gplv3
http://ciaran.compsoc.com/ _________ \  GPLv3 and other work supported by
http://fsfe.org/fellows/ciaran/weblog \   Fellowship: http://www.fsfe.org