Malaysia's Department of Standards (Standards Malaysia) said the majority of technical issues it raised regarding Microsoft's efforts to get its Office Open XML (OOXML) ISO-certified, had not been addressed satisfactorily at last week's crucial ISO meeting in Geneva.
Standards Malaysia sent a delegation to the Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) held from Feb. 25 to 29, where the team joined other ISO members in deliberating the fate of Microsoft's document format.
"Malaysia had submitted 23 comments and more than 70 percent of them were not addressed satisfactorily by Ecma's proposed dispositions," Fadilah Baharin, director general at Standards Malaysia, said in a statement. "We intended to resolve these technical issues at the BRM, but we could only raise two concerns due to the time constraints."
"After three days, it was apparent that there would be no time to review all the items within the remaining two days on all substantial concerns against the Ecma [OOXML] standard," Fadilah said.
She added that the 32 national bodies, including Malaysia, were then requested to submit a vote on all items not discussed at the BRM and on Ecma's remaining dispositions to "Approve", "Disapprove" or "Abstain".
"Malaysia decided to vote 'Disapprove' [on] the issues not discussed," Fadilah confirmed. However, Malaysia approved certain resolutions that it found appropriate and that were discussed during the BRM, but this was "by far in the minority", she said.
Microsoft last September failed to gain ISO approval for OOXML. Malaysia then chose to abstain while other Asian countries including India, Iran, Japan and Korea, voted "no". Singapore gave its support for the OOXML.
Fadilah said Standards Malaysia would convene a SIRIM Technical Committee meeting soon to decide Malaysia's final vote on the quality of OOXML as an ISO/IEC standard. "Malaysia will review these changes [to the draft standard] before making a decision on its final vote by end-March 2008," she said.
Lee Min Keong is a freelance IT writer based in Malaysia.
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The BRM Process
I noted with interest your OOXML story on ZDNet Asia at (web link)
on Malaysia's vote last week in Geneva on the DIS29500 (ooxml) issue and that Standards Malaysia has issued a release. As a major IT industry group, I would like to share with you our comments on the issue and your points in particular.
I am also an Observer to the ISO from Hong Kong, specifically for JTC-1 and SC-34, amongst other SCs, that have been focused on this issue since its submission by Ecma International My understanding is that any Ballot Resolution Meeting is convened to build consensus around the technical and editorial changes that need to be made to improve any specification; this was no different for the meeting held in Geneva. My understanding is that the vote that was cast was simply to approve or disapprove suggested editorial changes. Malaysia submitted a blanket disapprove to all 1027 edits that were suggested at the meeting and as such disapproved not only improvements that were suggested to address Malaysia's 23 submitted comments, but also disapproved edits that were not relevant to Malaysian requirements and were very important to other countries. The "NO" vote by Malaysia given on 2nd September 2007 to Ecma's proposed standard DIS29500, is the normal vote in the Fast-Track procedure if a NB has technical reasons that make approval not possible. Now Malaysia has 29 days to determine after the BRM whether they want to change their original position, either into a YES or into ABSTAIN. A crucial role in that decision should be played by the outcome of the BRM. If the Malaysian delegation has got satisfactory results from issues debated at the BRM, and for the issues they consider were not debated in depth are addressed, they can go for a change of their original NO vote.
Much of the press release from Standards Malaysia focuses on the process at the BRM. The process followed at the Ballot Resolution meeting was within ISO guidelines, and standards organizations in countries like Norway and Denmark have issued press releases praising the process.
The Ballot Resolution Meeting in Geneva was convened with the sole purpose of improving the specification in line with global requirements, all available evidence suggests that this goal was met during the week and the final resulting specification is significantly improved as a result of the work that was collectively done by the countries present at the meeting. The BRM had, as input, two things: the original DIS text, and the proposal from the International Project Editor (who happens to be also the editor in Ecma) how the 1127 comments could be resolved. The document from the Editor could ONLY be a Proposal, because the BRM had the ultimate say about the final disposition of each comment. At the end of the BRM only 16 comments had not been resolved by the BRM: all other dispositions have been given as editing instructions to the Editor to make the final text of the standard. That is his homework, but the JTC 1 Directives very clearly state that he only has to do that homework, after acceptance of the standard. This means that he only has to start that work after 29th of MARCH when all NB's must have given their final voting position to ITTF, Mr. Keith Brannon.
If DIS29500 is not accepted, then a huge opportunity will have been lost: none of the six benefits will then materialize. Even the ODF Editor has made it very clear that DIS 29500 has followed a due, very open process, and that nothing would be better than to bring both groups together in JTC 1/SC 34 for the co-evolution of both standards Approval of the standard within ISO ensures that the specification is fully published and available to the world. At the same time future maintenance for the specification will take place within the ISO system, ensuring that the world has a strong voice in the way that this document format evolves. Office OpenXML will however almost certainly be a widely used office automation document format in our industry.
When Malaysia casts its final vote for DIS29500 (ooxml), it should consider the ramifications. Should a disapprove vote be globally carried it will reduce opportunities for Malaysian software vendors who want to build software that makes use of this document format, potentially closing access to domestic - lucrative international export markets. Malaysia vote is equally as important as any other member and a yes vote will move ownership of ooxml from its originator to the ISO, a move that we believe is very positive for all stakeholders in our industry.
Many thanks for the opportunity to comment on this important issue.
Sincerely,
Michael R K Mudd
Director of Public Policy, Asia-Pacific
Mmudd@comptia.org
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Posted by Michael Mudd on Saturday, March 15 2008 01:07 AM