When I saw the timestamp on the tech press articles I hoped against hope. April 1st 9:43am. Draft International Standard DIS 29500, more commonly known by the wonderfully double-speak name of Office Open XML (it’s neither Open, nor XML), is about to became IS 29500.
It would seem that Microsoft have been successful in fast-tracking their OOXML “spec” through the International Standards Organisation, somehow managing to side-step the fact that their proposal is overblown, has no reference implementation, is not based on user need, and is full of bug-for-bug compatibility flaws with existing proprietary Microsoft Office products.
How they managed to get their provincial proposal past a committee containing 47 coutries that aren’t even able to use their own alphabets in OOXML URLs is anyone’s guess. And all this despite the fact that an ISO standard for office documents already exists – Open Document Format.
One barrier to adoption still remains however, and it’s a big one. The global market. A market containing large constituencies who are are less inclined to bow down to Microsoft. China, India, Brazil. After the posturing of the Committee processes, this is where the real battle will be fought.
