ISO confirms OOXML victory - now for the recriminations

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 2 Apr 2008 at 09:25

ISO has confirmed that Microsoft has been successful in its bid to have OOXML fastracked as an ISO standard.

Click here to read why Barry Collins thinks nobody emerges with credit from the OOXML vote

Microsoft broke ranks last night and all but confirmed victory, when it declared that it "appeared" to have won the vote.

Microsoft had originally stated that it would "respect ISO's desire to first inform its National Body members and all the people who have worked so hard during this process," before officially announcing the result today.

But after obviously being informed of the decision itself, Microsoft decided to go public with a victory statement.

Today, ISO confirmed the margin of victory. "Approval required at least two thirds of the votes cast by national bodies participating in the joint technical committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, Information technology, to be positive; and no more than a quarter of the total number of ISO/IEC national body votes cast to be negative.

"These criteria have now been met with 75% of the JTC 1 participating member votes cast positive and 14% of the total of national member body votes cast negative."

Vote controversy

Microsoft's victory remains surrounded in controversy, however. The chairman of the Norway body has reportedly filed an official protest, after claiming that 80% of its committee were against changing its vote from No to Yes.

There also appears to be a similar controversy surrounding the UK vote, after the British Standards Institute (BSI) also changed its stance on OOXML.

Microsoft faces further scrutiny from the EU, which recently stated it would be investigating the standardisation process.

Microsoft is due to hold a press conference later today to give its reaction to the victory. Last night, the company's general manager of interoperability and standards said: "With 86% of voting national bodies supporting ratification, there is overwhelming support for Open XML.

"This outcome is a clear win for the customers, technology providers and governments that want to choose the format that best meets their needs and have a voice in the evolution of this widely adopted standard."