The technical debate around whether OOXML (ECMA 376) should be approved as an ISO standard (fast track or otherwise) has been raging for a while. Numerous organizations and individuals have expressed technical and legal concerns. The latest summary of the objections I noticed is from the New Zealand Open Source Society. Vikram weighed in with his objections to an Indian approval of OOXML.

The last two months however have seen reports from various countries questioning the basis on which their votes are being decided. The constitution of the committees and the manner in which the national position is decided seem to me to be flawed.

The chair-person of the sub-committee deciding on the Swiss vote ruled that objections raised by participants were not enough to justify a Disapprove with comments option, presenting the body with only Approve with Comments or Abstain with Comments choices. The Swiss Internet User Group has outlined its objections to OOXML as an ISO standard, added that the majority wanted to vote Disapprove with Comments and alleges conflict of interest in the choice of chair-person (nominated by the committee chairman who is the Secretary General of ECMA).

In the Netherlands, a No with Comments got near unanimous support, but that was insufficient : since the local Microsoft entity was against it, the decision was that Netherlands would abstain.

In Portugal, the committee was presided over by a Microsoft representative who apparently denied entry to Sun and IBM because, hold your breath, there weren't enough chairs in the room. In a subsequent meeting, the committee has decided to vote Yes with Comments, by the narrowest of margins.

Italy will abstain following the narrow failure of the Approval choice when it was put to vote in a committee that began with only 5 members but ended up with 83 in an astonishing rush to join. The US committee deciding on the issue also seems subject to a spike in organizations joining as members.

Spain will abstain, after the Approval vote did not obtain the required majority. But the disquieting allegation from there is that Microsoft distributed a document selectively quoting from a Government of Andalusia letter to distort the latter's support for ODF as support for OOXML.

Roy Schestowitz summarizes attempts in South Africa and Ghana to influence the votes of those countries.

The Bureau of Indian Standards will have to decide soon which way India will vote (Update : India has voted). The constitution of the committee deciding on the Indian position and minutes of its meetings are available at the website of the Indian ODF Alliance chapter (of which Sun is a member). The debate in India has begun to feature in mainstream newspapers.

Meanwhile the Sun OpenOffice.org development team has begun work on Open Office import filters for OOXML documents as explained by Michael Brauer.

Tags : OOXML ODF India