Vidar Hokstad

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2008-03-28 19:18 UTC The OOXML circus is making ISO increasingly irrelevant

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One of the Brazilian delegates to the BRM for OOXML has posted a lot of details of the charad.

How anyone can seriously think that the OOXML fast track process hasn't been full of undue influence and massive abuse of the ISO process, and quite possibly outright corruption is beyond me.

Groklaw is as usual on top of it, with a number of posts.

Most noteworthy in my mind, though is this post, which describes the process in Poland and notes that the EU Commission is apparently investigating the process.

It's sad that ISO is prepared to let itself be used this way. How can anyone take a standards organization seriously when it can be manipulated for one vendors purposes this easily?



Comments - Newest first

2008-03-29 01:11 UTC
John Stracke
<dig, dig>...OK, you're right, TBL did set it up earlier than I thought. However, as I recall (I worked at Netscape), it wasn't actually active until Microsoft joined and started promoting it.

On reflection, though, I didn't have Web access when it was founded, so I didn't read nearly as much tech news. I might just be repeating something somebody told me at Netscape, where we were always willing to believe the worst of Microsoft.

2008-03-28 23:50 UTC
Vidar Hokstad
Whats the basis for your assertion that Microsoft set up the W3C pretty much unilaterally? It was founded by Tim Berners Lee, and the founding members included Netscape, who at the time was far ahead on Microsoft, dominating the browser market completely.

2008-03-28 22:46 UTC
John Stracke
"How can anyone take a standards organization seriously when it can be manipulated for one vendors purposes this easily?"—It's hardly the first time. Think of the W3C, which Microsoft set up pretty much unilaterally when they found they couldn't buy off the IETF.

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I was born April 21st, 1975, in Oslo, Norway. Since 2000 I've been living in London, UK. I'm married and we just had our first child, Tristan Ikemefuna Hokstad.

I'm working for Aardvark Media as Director of Technology. I'm also currently on the board of SpatialQ, a startup in the GIS space, and an advisor to Skoach, a startup doing a time management app for people with ADD.

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