The Linux Foundation on OOXML

Posted Aug 29, 2007 20:15 UTC (Wed) by jmorris42 (subscriber, #2203) [Link]

I really hope that whoever is in charge of looking at the big picture at ISO isn't asleep at the switch here. Because this fiasco has the potential to have far ranging consequences. While I'm sure this isn't the first time a vendor has gamed an ISO standard to their advantage this case is different.

1. The economic consequences are literally tens of billions of dollars over the next decade of so.

2. Microsoft appears poised to buy their way to a standard for a measly couple of million. This brings back memories of the Cold War where idiots were selling out their country for a few thousand dollars. If you have a vote on this, at least sell out your industry for enough that people won't think you are an idiot.

If Microsoft succeeds in this in this way, by outright fraud and bribery, with the whole software industry watching and taking note you can bet serious coin it will become the new BIG THING. The possibilities for a few sleazy operators to hold whole industries hostage are second only to the damage we currently suffer from patent trolls.

Think about it, buy a ISO Standard number for something and monitize it. So many governments and industries mandate use of anything that ISO puts their stamp on. Imagine the fun when the patent trolls start buying standards mandating use of their stuff, thus preventing working around their patents.

Up until now ISO worked because everyone believed in it. They might make mistakes but it never shook people's belief that they were a stodgy, conservative, boring but essential organization that put out standards 'designed by committee.'