Driving from country to country, we just assume that when we stop to refill the car, then petrol is much the same everywhere (even if people call it something different, such as “gas”). We assume that some experts somewhere have got together and decided what the standard formula for petrol should be - for the good of us all.

If I run a multinational oil company, wouldn’t it be wonderful if I could somehow get my company’s special formula adopted as the standard for petrol - especially if I made it really hard for other oil companies to use my recipe. It would be well worth hijacking the organisation that defines the standard - if I thought I could get away with it.

Well, that’s what appears to be going on in the international standards world just now. The process used by ISO, the International Organisation for Standardisation, was created with a vision that academics, professional bodies, and recognised technical authorities could be expected to research, investigate, and deliberate in an open and transparent process for the common good of mankind.

What happens when this process threatens a de-facto monopoly owned by one of the world’s richest corporations? I am grateful to an email from Andy Updegrove for this explanation of unusual goings-on in the standards world, where Microsoft is trying to have its own OOXML standard set up in opposition to the current open ODF standard:

September 2 marks the end of the voting period for OOXML in ISO/IEC JTC1. How the vote is determined is very technical, and involves a multi-test formula that is quite complex. It also awards far greater influence to P (Participating) than O (Observer) members of ISO. As I have reported this week, there has been a sudden surge of ISO members upgrading their status to Participating from Observer status, with the P membership rising from 30 to 41. As no doubt intended, these additions will have a pronounced impact on the outcome of the vote.

It is important to note that the process does not end once these votes are counted, regardless of how the vote turns out. The next step will once again give more influence to a certain group - the members of SC 34. The membership in that subcommittee has also increased dramatically - more than doubling since April. As no doubt intended, these additions will have the capability of having a pronounced impact on the outcome of any final vote.

Microsoft have already been caught red-handed attempting to buy votes. It will be interesting to see what is behind this sudden surge of membership - and which way these new recuits will vote.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 1st, 2007 at 8:57 am and is filed under OpenDocument. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.