OOXML: ISO Meeting Causes Controversy
The ISO standardization organization meeting convened to discuss OOXML has now come to an end and contradictory reports on the proceedings have caused some concern. So much so, that ISO has now issued a statement.
At the end of February, member organizations from 33 countries met in Geneva to discuss the extensive comments submitted to the authority after the first round of voting went against the Microsoft format. The participants were asked to discuss more than 6000 pages of suggested changes; according to wear a statement by some delegates, this was absolutely possible. In order to find some kind of result, a vote was held, but there is some doubt about the legality of the proceedings, as Rob Weir from IBM stated in his blog.
All the most of the participants abstained, and some of them completely boycotted the vote, the final result was a four-four tie. After roping in further delegates, the final result of the vote was 6 for and 4 against. Of course, only the final vote counts, and Microsoft’s Jason Matusow was quick to claim that “The Open XML Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) Was An Unqualified Success”. Matusow also points to positive comments by the Danish and Norwegian delegations.
The standardization authority has now spoken up and the tone of the statement seems more than slightly disgruntled: The BRM was a technical meeting open to delegates that were duly nominated by the ISO and IEC national member bodies and registered for the meeting. The BRM was not intended to be a public event but followed the orderly and inclusive process of ISO and IEC."
ISO also makes it quite clear that the meeting did not bring about a decision on the proposal, but simply reached an agreement on the amendments proposed in the comments following the first vote. Commenting on the unusual proceedings, ISO writes: "When it was apparent that it would not be possible for all comments to be reviewed individually, the meeting discussed and agreed on a voting procedure to decide on the remaining proposed modifications." According to ISO most of the resolutions were unanimous, some accepted by consensus, four by a simple majority and four were refused. ISO refuses to accept criticism concerning the experience of the committee, stating that: “The BRM was organized by subcommittee SC 34, Document description and processing languages, of ISO/IEC JTC 1. ISO/IEC JTC 1 is one of the most experienced and productive of ISO and IEC technical committees, having developed some 2 150 widely and globally used international standards and related documents."
In contrast to this, the legal commentary page Groklaw refers to documents on the proceedings and to audio recordings that would allow a contrary interpretation of the meeting. And representatives from various countries have also indicated that the voting procedure was inadequate. For example, Malaysia criticizes the fact that technical questions were not sufficiently covered during the meeting.
Independently of the controversy, the 30-day count down in which the 87 national member bodies can review their decisions of September 2 is now running. Members have until March 29 to withdraw their negative votes or abstentions. If this does not happen, it will mean the end of the “short track” for OOXML, and the Microsoft standard will have failed, at least for the time being. ISO writes: "With the BRM review completed, it is now up to national bodies to determine whether approval of ISO/IEC DIS 29500 is warranted."
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
Linux Kernel 6.17 is Available
Linus Torvalds has announced that the latest kernel has been released with plenty of core improvements and even more hardware support.
-
Kali Linux 2025.3 Released with New Hacking Tools
If you're a Kali Linux fan, you'll be glad to know that the third release of this famous pen-testing distribution is now available with updates for key components.
-
Zorin OS 18 Beta Available for Testing
The latest release from the team behind Zorin OS is ready for public testing, and it includes plenty of improvements to make it more powerful, user-friendly, and productive.
-
Fedora Linux 43 Beta Now Available for Testing
Fedora Linux 43 Beta ships with Gnome 49 and KDE Plasma 6.4 (and other goodies).
-
USB4 Maintainer Leaves Intel
Michael Jamet, one of the primary maintainers of USB4 and Thunderbolt drivers, has left Intel, leaving a gaping hole for the Linux community to deal with.
-
Budgie 10.9.3 Now Available
The latest version of this elegant and configurable Linux desktop aligns with changes in Gnome 49.
-
KDE Linux Alpha Available for Daring Users
It's official, KDE Linux has arrived, but it's not quite ready for prime time.
-
AMD Initiates Graphics Driver Updates for Linux Kernel 6.18
This new AMD update focuses on power management, display handling, and hardware support for Radeon GPUs.
-
AerynOS Alpha Release Available
With a choice of several desktop environments, AerynOS 2025.08 is almost ready to be your next operating system.
-
AUR Repository Still Under DDoS Attack
Arch User Repository continues to be under a DDoS attack that has been going on for more than two weeks.