ISO delays Open XML announcement

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 1 Apr 2008 at 08:30

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) will reveal on Wednesday whether Microsoft has won the support needed to have its document format made into a global industry standard.

"Because ISO needs first to inform its worldwide membership of national standards bodies of these results, a press release on this subject will be issued on 2 April, 2008," ISO spokesman Roger Frost says in a statement.

Microsoft has pushed hard for international certification of Open Office XML (OOXML), the default file-saving format of Microsoft Office 2007.

The company sees the certification as a way of improving its chances of winning government contracts and encouraging developers to use the technology for new software applications and content.

"We respect ISO's desire to first inform its National Body members and all the people who have worked so hard during this process," Microsoft responds.

"This has been a remarkable process, involving literally thousands of technical experts, technology consumers and governments in 87 countries. Out of respect for the standards process, we will not comment before the final results are known."

Opponents of the Microsoft certification have argued that introducing a rival to the ISO-approved Open Document Format (ODF) defeats the purpose of having standards. ODF already allows users to save documents in different formats, including Microsoft's.

Microsoft failed to gain the two-thirds majority needed to clinch the OOXML standard in an original vote in September.

As a result, the ISO hosted a ballot resolution meeting last month to give delegations a chance to run through concerns raised in September and reconsider their positions. They had until midnight 29 March to change their votes.