France change OOXML vote on eve of deadline
April 1, 2008 7:51 am GeneralIn what I fear may be the start of a stream of bad news today, France have made public their decision to abstain in the OOXML standardisation vote. This comes the day after it was reported in the media that France planned to vote against standardisation.
Like others, I’m disappointed to see these announcements made on the eve of the deadline, since it gives no time to either side to argue their case for a change in vote. One French commentator has commented “it now looks like OOXML will become an ISO standard”. He has more information than me on the subject, but if many more countries change their abstentions to positive votes, or their no votes to abstentions, then the chances are he’s right.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:55 am
Yes, it looks like it’s going to get through…
JTC1 Directives 3.1.1 say ” ‘Abstention’ is an appropriate response (with or without comment) if an NB is not confident that their technical review is sufficient to cast an ‘approve’ or ‘disapprove’ vote.”
The French did one of the most thorough technical reviews of any National Body. Like most, I’m taking abstain to mean “we’re honest enough to -almost- say it’s awful, but this is a concession to Microsoft”.
When this gets through the ISOs name will be mud. It’s sad that they don’t have the technical expertise and the confidence to stand up for good quality standards.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:42 am
Er, just to clarify. I was involved in the Standards NZ process which was very robust and fair. My criticism of the international process is not a criticism of those countries who did this correctly, but of those that didn’t and a Fast Track for a standard so big and so flawed. It’s not the NBs fault that they couldn’t name everything wrong with this in the given time.
April 1st, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Looking at the votes, two changes would be enough to deny the ISO standard label to OOXML at this stage – one country voting in favour, and another country abstaining or voting in favour, would have to change their votes to “Disapprove”. In practice, that means that the last-minute vote changes of my home country and my adoptive home (Ireland and France) have put Microsoft over the top.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:06 pm
Is it an april fool’s joke or… ? ^^
April 1st, 2008 at 8:16 pm
cat_loic: I wish. Some supporting documentation:
Le Monde Informatique: http://www.lemondeinformatique.fr/actualites/lire-openxml-devient-un-standard-iso-25739.html
Microsoft: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/apr08/04-01OpenXMLVotePR.mspx