Microsoft falls one vote short in document standard bid

 

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By Simon Aughton

Posted on 13 Aug 2007 at 11:26

A US standards body has narrowly voted not to approve Office Open XML as an ISO standard. However the outcome may not prevent acceptance of the Microsoft file format.

Executive board members of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS) voted eight-seven in favour of approving OOMXL for ISO standardisation, but with one abstention Microsoft failed to get the nine votes it required.

INCITS joins several other national standards bodies in opposing Microsoft's attempt to fast-track approval of OOXML as a standard. Though with its adoption picking up pace it may be a de facto standard before it is formally recognised.

That should mean that eventually ISO will approve it, though possibly in a modified format that addresses concerns over security, backwards compatibility and, most significantly, the use of proprietary file formats within the open standard that according to INCITS "appear to cause potential intellectual property ownership concerns".

To find evidence that OOXML will be widely adopted regardless of the ISO, look at the list of companies among the eight INCITS members who voted in its favour: Microsoft, of course but also Apple, HP, Intel and Sony, as well as the US Government's Department of Homeland Security.

And of those that voted against, Oracle, the US Department of Defense and National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) all indicated that they would be prepared to back OOXML as a standard once their concerns are addressed.

Meanwhile the NoOOXML petition now has more than 31,000 signatures.