ISO to take on ODF

 

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By Barry Collins

Posted on 7 Oct 2008 at 09:13

The International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO) has offered to take care of the ODF format, following concerns that it's not being properly maintained.

The ISO SC 34 committee for document standards has written to ODF's creator, Oasis, stating concerns about its tardy response to bug reports.

SC 34 now plans to include ODF maintenance among its duties, which also include the management of Microsoft's controversy-dogged rival format, OOXML.

The move has sparked inevitable criticism that Microsoft is trying to influence the development of ODF - a suggestion that has been firmly denied by ISO.

Yet, ISO is facing intense scrutiny over its relationship with the software giant. Last month, IBM issued a thinly-veiled threat to leave ISO as a result of the controversy surrounding OOXML's fast-track approval.

Earlier this week, 13 members of Norway's standards body resigned in protest at the OOXML voting process, claiming that the format was given the country's seal of approval despite only two of the 23 members voting in its favour.

Microsoft has yet to implement the ratified OOXML standard into its products, which isn't expected to happen until the launch of the new version of Microsoft Office next year.