IBM sits out Office document standards effort

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IBM are talking RUBBISH

I have chaired a Technical Committee in ECMA where IBM,
Microsoft, Lucent, Nortel, Alcatel, PTT Telecom, Siemens and
many others participated - all trying to bias a standard to favor
their company. In the end we all compromised and published
several revisions of the standard.

The ECMA Standardization Organization operates by consensus
which means that even if Microsoft put 50 people on the
Technical Committee there will only be one vote to count where
issues are under discussion. There is also only one vote from MS
at the General Assembly so MS will need to lobby to ensure a
smooth ride.

ECMA has plenty of large 'blue chip' members who can side with
Microsoft or whomsoever they choose.
The key to getting something other than a de-facto MS standard
is to participate, if companies choose not to participate then
clearly they will get what they deserve - and presumably want.

I know of several highly experienced standards negotiators who
are exceptionally technically qualified to both draft standards
and understand how the process works and what the words of a
document mean. Many of them grew up with XML from its pre-
nacent days.
Anyone out there who needs one of these folk - let me know -
I'm easy to find [with my name!] and I can put you in touch.

Posted by: Roger Huffadine   Posted on: 12/21/05 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use

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