MSOOXML Vote
Slashdot discusses the status of the MSOOXML ballot, and, unfortunately, the proposal may actually pass. Votes are to be revealed today, so we cannot be wholly sure of the outcome, but it looks bad. Irregularities, questionable tricks and strong-arm tactics have been alleged in a number of countries (hence Slashdot’s title for the story, “OOXML Will Pass Amid Massive Irregularities”).
The longterm damage to the ISO is hard to gauge–will it come to be seen as a mouthpiece for the company with the most cash and the least scruples?
The harm to companies that try to use MSOOXML, and to the marketplace in general, is sure to be large and tangled. MSOOXML could represent a decade of cleanup work, if its adoption becomes common in the software market (though I still have some hope that, even as a rubber-stamped ISO “standard,” it won’t be popular among users).
We await further news…
Update: Groklaw is keeping track of the controversy and countries with voting irregularities including: