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Open XML suffers setback on road to ISO ratification
Jul. 18, 2007

Microsoft has suffered a setback in the quest to have its Open XML document format approved as an ISO standard.

A vote on July 13 by the committee established to formulate the United States' position on whether or not to support the application for ISO approval failed to achieve the two-thirds majority necessary to approve the move.
Tom Robertson, Microsoft's general manager of interoperability and standards, confirmed that the V1 subcommittee of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards, or INCITS, fell shy of the majority needed to pass the motion.

While Robertson acknowledged the importance of last week's V1 vote and the requirement for a super-majority, he was upbeat about the fact that "a clear majority of the participants in the V1 process thought this was the right path to take and voted to recommend ISO ratification of Ecma Open XML."

Robertson also noted that this was the first stage of the process. "You have the technical review, the recommendation is then made to the executive board, which then issues the draft position, which is subject to a 30-day voting period. There may also be another period of review for the final decision in advance of the Sept. 2 deadline," he said.

But the news on this front has not all been bad for Microsoft. Earlier in July the commonwealth of Massachusetts did a 180-degree turn and decided to support the Open XML format in addition to the OASIS ODF (Open Document Format for Office Applications).

Microsoft believes the matter is about choice; Robertson said the Redmond, Wash.-based company continues to hear from customers and others in the industry that they want to be able to choose the format that best meets their needs.

"Open XML is an exciting choice for them. That's not to say it will be the choice in every case—not at all—but it is going to be an important available choice and they want that recognized by the ISO ratification process," Robertson said in an interview.


To continue reading this article by Peter Galli at eWEEK.com, go here.



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