The Inside Story on Norway's Yes to OOXML 254
Steve Pepper writes "The former Chairman of the Norwegian ISO committee, who resigned two weeks ago in protest against his country's vote of Yes to OOXML, tells the inside story of how the decision was reached: how a single bureaucrat from Standards Norway sidelined the overwhelming majority of Norwegian technical experts and changed Norway's vote from No to Yes. The story is so surreal it's hard to believe." It's as depressing as it is brief.
What can be done now? (Score:5, Interesting)
- demonstrations? This is what happened in Norway. Sure it would be good to have them elsewhere.
- Virgils? this is what happened in India and almost on the same level.
- moving on a building teams to stifle OOXML adoption by national governments as their standard
- ???
Re:ISO corruption (Score:5, Interesting)
In most other situations we would call for a 'do over' or call it a false start or some other phrase that describe how wrong and generally unfair it was.
Time for a do-over rule.
Irrefutably Scandalous Organization (Score:1, Interesting)
As a recent graduate,a strong proponent of open source and above all a decent citizen, how am I supposed to react to news like this and not boycott Microsoft.
The only things that are standard about them are their dirty tactics. Throw me a goddamn chair Mr. Ballmer !
Standards Norway's own words (Score:5, Interesting)
http://www.standard.no/pronorm-3/data/f/0/18/67/6_2401_0/2008-04-01_Standards_Norway_handling_of_the_OOXML_voting_in_ISO__3.pdf [standard.no]
At the same time in a galaxy far, far away.... (Score:2, Interesting)
[Senate fills with enormous applause]
Padmé: [to Bail Organa] So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause.
Re:This is what is meant by "Democracy" these days (Score:3, Interesting)
So what's new? (Score:5, Interesting)
Many (if not most) similar committees and associations are made up not of the right people for the job, but instead those that were corralled into the positions or couldn't find anything better.
On the other hand, Microsoft's primary goal is to maintain their privileged monopoly wherever and however possible. I actually had an eerie conversation with a Microsoft paralegal, who described her job as "palm-greasing officials in the Asian market". She also described how the executive were no longer concerned with making money, "they're in a position to change the world". I asked her what level of government they planned to get elected, and she replied, "why would they run for office? That would be a demotion!" And that was almost 10 years ago.
Assuming she was giving a truthful account, and her office was directly below Bill Gates, so I imagine she does know what goes on, the Microsoft executive believe that since power is available to them, they are entitled to use their influence wherever and however possible, and that their ability to do so justifies itself.
So show me a group of vigilante multi-billionaires and I'll show you dozens of half-witted committees that bend to their will, despite overwhelming reasoning to do otherwise.
alternatives.. (Score:5, Interesting)
The best idea I came up with was a standard body for GPL standards based around something like sourceforge.
If people are familier with wide band delphi estimation then this next bit might sound familiar.
Everybody on sourgeforge has a rating determined by amount of code submitted, and any peer review ratings on their code - this then gives them a weighting value for voting. The more technical they are, the more code they submit the higher their rating is. Everybody can then vote on their amendments or proposals for standards and a moderation scheme would run to promote or demote comments based on their ratings. Changes can then be voted in or removed democratically and the best ideas would naturally float up.
The advantages are:-
1. very large audience peer review of any standard
2. best ideas automatically promoted (even if you are a newbie reviewer if you have a good idea then it should gather momemtum of its own and be promoted)
3. system automatically handles voting, promotion, weighting scale and is therefore impartial arbiter.
4. transparency accross the board, everybody can see how the system works
5. if anybody wants to become more influential then they have to donate more source code to be a prolific reviewer. Everybody benefits.
Ok that is an isolated example, and I chose sourceforge as a well known example.
For standards instead of source there would need to be some changes obviously.
But in this day and age, agreeing on a technical international standard seems an excellent candidate for a web based system. In reviewing this kind of thing I have always thought the more the merrier.
Anyhow, only an idea, a pipe dream really.
I now await the
(I also wondered on how the voting would of turned out if the current provess was peer reviewed - i.e. filmed and distributed for all to see on the standards websites.)
Another direction (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:What can be done now? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Nothing needs to be done (Score:4, Interesting)
But if, in the end, there's no real need for their documents to be stored in open formats then the only people who really care that the are stored in these formats are shills.
Re:ISO corruption (Score:2, Interesting)
"John Sculley ruined Apple and he ruined it by bringing a set of values to the top of Apple which were corrupt and corrupted some of the top people who were there, drove out some of the ones who were not corruptible, and brought in more corrupt ones and paid themselves collectively tens of millions of dollars and cared more about their own glory and wealth than they did about what built Apple in the first place - which was making great computers for people to use."
What do you think if a do-over was held tomorrow? Who would have voices now?
Same happened in Sri Lanka (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:So what's new? (Score:2, Interesting)
Many (if not most) similar committees and associations are made up not of the right people for the job, but instead those that were corralled into the positions or couldn't find anything better.
On the other hand, Microsoft's primary goal is to maintain their privileged monopoly wherever and however possible. I actually had an eerie conversation with a Microsoft paralegal, who described her job as "palm-greasing officials in the Asian market". She also described how the executive were no longer concerned with making money, "they're in a position to change the world". I asked her what level of government they planned to get elected, and she replied, "why would they run for office? That would be a demotion!" And that was almost 10 years ago.
Assuming she was giving a truthful account, and her office was directly below Bill Gates, so I imagine she does know what goes on, the Microsoft executive believe that since power is available to them, they are entitled to use their influence wherever and however possible, and that their ability to do so justifies itself.
So show me a group of vigilante multi-billionaires and I'll show you dozens of half-witted committees that bend to their will, despite overwhelming reasoning to do otherwise.
Because I really don't feel like we (the US) have a final trump card (nukes don't count) we could use if we absolutely needed to, should it no longer be in China's best interests to keep the USA in their back pocket. Say, when their economy no longer needs ours to keep theirs employed. I don't think our politicians will have the guts to sanction China before it's too late. So at this time, when they no longer need us, I imagine they will call in our debt, and scoff as we fall off our mighty economic pedestal.
It would be mutually assured destruction for them to try this...now. But there will come a day when the destruction would no longer be mutual.
Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I don't see how we can continue to import like crazy without exporting something they want besides cash. Either that, or stay so far ahead of them on the efficiency curve (with the help of better technology) that we can continue to fund all this importing we do. Except, it's much harder to improve our GDP than it is for them (because we're the innovators of tech and they simply adopt it...may times without paying for it first...to improve their GDP).
We need to come up with things they want to buy, because they have a fricking lot more people that we could sell to.
Thanks OOXML, You have given us hope. (Score:4, Interesting)
This was never the case people!!
This kind of manipulation is as old as the voting system itself. It is possible, it works, and there are some who are extremely good at it. And until yesterday, they could easily get away with it as long as the press didn't side against them. Now, we don't even need the press. We no longer depend on journalists to tell us the story. Whistleblowers no longer wish to remain anonymous, and when an insider demonstrates wrong doing, we listen, we act, and we revolt.
It is only a matter of time before bloggers reach critical mass in politics and everywhere else.
I cannot wait for the day our president is a blogger.
Re:What can be done now? (Score:3, Interesting)
Well, even more specifically, he was from the village of Andes, near the city of Mantua. Is someone going to come up with the name of the street next? His family tree?
The point is that he was a Roman, rather than a Greek... or a Thunderbirds character.
Re:What can be done now? (Score:2, Interesting)
We just had one minister leave office because of what could be defined as fraud in some circumstances, and there might be another one leaving office because of the same reasons soon.
So, all in all, for most Norwegians this might not be a big thing, but together with all the other reports, it might be noticed!