Microsoft's OOXML: The Yes Vote

ISO/IEC, ECMA and the standards process

At the recent UNSW Cyberspace Law and Policy Centre's symposium on the proposed OOXML standard, Jeff Waugh from Open Source Industry Australia voiced his concerns over the relatively short length of time the complex standard has been under review.

"It has been said that Open XML has not followed a similar review process to other standards, which could have an adverse impact on Australian businesses and governments. However, Open XML has followed the same fast track and review process as many hundreds of other fast track standards over the last twenty years," Bond said.

The association for standardising information and communication systems, ECMA, has sent more than 250 standards through the fast track process for ISO standardisation, and Microsoft believes that Open XML will follow suit.

Waugh also cautioned against the risk of a potential 'lock-in' to Microsoft's format should the ongoing administration of the standard be conducted within ECMA.

But Microsoft points to ODF following a similar path when its administration was conducted within OASIS before being submitted for ISO approval, and insists this path will strengthen Open XML's ability to address the various comments from national bodies taking part in the process.

"We look forward to working within the ECMA's Open XML technical committee to address the comments from national bodies on the current Open XML specification. We believe that the specification will emerge stronger and get the support for ratification from the global community," Bond said.

Representatives from IBM also questioned the merit of OOXML's consideration for standardisation, suggesting it failed to meet the requirements of an ISO standard, a claim Microsoft says is without merit.

"Concerns that Open XML does not even meet the minimum requirements for an ISO standard are misguided. The process to approve Open XML as an ISO standard is progressing inside ISO, and we have no indication from them as a managing authority that this statement has any basis in fact."