UKUG is not happy with BSI approving OOXML
from UKUG (UK Unix User Group) Press Release -- Tuesday 8 April 2008 Last week the BSI (The British Standards Institution) decided to approve the fast tracking of the Microsoft sponsored OOXML format (DIS29500). UKUUG is concerned that this decision is against the public interest for several reasons: * The current draft attracted over 1000 unique comments (i.e. corrections), of which the largest list (635) was from the BSI itself. How does the BSI then approve fast-tracking, in the absence of a revised draft? * Accepting an unfinished draft into the fast track standards route can only serve to harm the sector to which the standard will apply, as well as undermining wider faith in the standards bodies who are allowing this to happen. * Given the absence of a single implementation of the standard (Not even Microsoft are willing to state when they'll implement it) it seems hard to justify the fast tracking on the basis of urgent market need. * Rejection of the Fast-t...