Gates goes to Washington as US OOXML decision nears

Ammo for the opposition?

This softball exchange in the US capitol may give ammunition to OOXML foes, who argue that Microsoft is playing hardball and more in the US and internationally in order to secure OOXML's passage.

For instance, a site called NO OOXML alleged that the that the 17-4 vote by INCITS' V1 technical committee last week in favor of OOXML was tainted because of the numerous Microsoft allies that joined a year ago.

Microsoft technical evangelist Doug Mahugh and V1 member readily admits to contacting Microsoft's partners and customers about joining the committee.

"These people have hands-on experience with XML. My view is that they are exactly the right people for V1," he said by phone. Mahugh denied pressuring or offering incentives to them.

This was corroborated by Adam Jansen, former digital archivist for the US State of Washington, who joined V1 last year and was, until leaving the State, a member.

"There was absolutely no coercion" by Microsoft," Jansen said via phone. "This was a crusade I felt passionate about."

Jansen, who worked closely with Microsoft to start up the state's digital archive project, calls his stance on standards a "pragmatic one. I don't care whether it's ODF or OOXML, as long as they are open."

Big dog isn't barking

IBM, Microsoft's main nemesis, has not filed a formal complaint in INCITS, though its V1 member, Rob Weir, has blogged about it.

It may not matter. Despite V1's failure last year to come to agreement over OOXML, the INCITS Executive Board still ended up voting 12-3 (with 1 abstention) in favor of it.

"The EB definitely has its own mind," said one board member who declined to be named.

And no one has accused the 19-member EB of being packed with allies from either Microsoft or IBM. Packing the EB would be more difficult, in part because of the higher annual membership fee (US$35,000 for companies making more than US$100 million a year, versus US$1,200 for any size company in V1).

Besides AIM Global, other new members to the EB include Adobe Systems -- which, with its ISO-approved PDF format, is pitted against Microsoft -- and mobile phone equipment maker, Qualcomm, which has partnered closely with Microsoft on Windows Mobile and other initiatives.

In the unlikely event that the EB reaches a unanimous position on the first ballot, it will forward that result to ISO, which plans to tally votes worldwide on March 29th. The more likely scenario is that the EB members will next week start proposing resolutions approving, abstaining from, or disapproving OOXML. Those resolutions can be decided by a two-thirds majority (see p. 33 of this INCITS' PDF, or p. 39 in the Acrobat Reader).