New Zealand has rejected Microsoft's proposal to fast track its Office Open XML document format as an ISO standard, but it may change its vote if certain concerns are addressed.
Grant Thomas, chief operating officer for Standards New Zealand, said that a large number of key New Zealand stakeholders opposed publication of the document as an ISO standard in its current format.
"Stakeholders raised several philosophical concerns, and identified technical omissions, errors and inconsistencies within the draft standard. We believe that voting 'no' with comments allows these issues to be addressed," said Thomas.
A spokesperson for Standards New Zealand declined to clarify exactly what these concerns are, but said New Zealand will be submitting 16 technical comments and recommendations--which will then allow Microsoft a chance to address these concerns--to the ISO today.
"If the comments are resolved we will have an opportunity to change New Zealand's vote to 'yes' at a ballot resolution meeting in February 2008," said Thomas.
Play video
There are currently no comments for this post.