[ossig] Microsoft accused of rigging OOXML votes

[NP Lee]

http://www.zdnetasia.com/news/business/0,39044229,62031663,00.htm?scid=nl_z_ntnd

*Microsoft accused of rigging OOXML votes*
By Tom Espiner 
<mailto:zdnews-asia at cnet.com&Subject=Feedback%20on%20%27Microsoft%20accused%20of%20rigging%20OOXML%20votes%27>, 
ZDNet UK
Friday, August 31 2007 09:54 AM

*The Free Software Foundation Europe has accused Microsoft of "stuffing 
the ballot boxes" in a vote designed to establish Office Open XML as a 
recognised industry standard.*

Speaking to ZDNet.co.uk on Wednesday, Free Software Foundation Europe 
(FSFE) president Georg Greve said unprecedented numbers of Microsoft 
partner companies from several countries have joined standards 
organisations and have voted to approve the Office Open XML 
(OOXML) document format as an International Organization for 
Standardization (ISO) standard.

ISO certification would result in governments accepting OOXML as a 
recognised document format, encouraging its use to the exclusion of 
others. The FSFE argues this could lock governments into perpetual 
licensing relationships with Microsoft, as documents need to be kept in 
perpetuity.

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Votes on ISO certification by national bodies in Switzerland, Sweden, 
Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands, and the US have all been influenced 
by Microsoft, according to Greve.

"Membership of the Swiss body saw a surprising growth before the vote, 
while in Sweden a very similar thing happened--suddenly the room was 
overcrowded with Microsoft partners," Greve told ZDNet UK "Microsoft 
stuffed the ballot boxes in Sweden--the room was crammed with Microsoft 
'yes' men. Special interest groups were formed in Germany to speed up 
the process."

"In the United States, the national body has seen surprising growth, and 
[as in previous votes] there has been a clear pattern of people joining 
later, voting for Microsoft, being Microsoft-certified Gold Partners," 
said Greve.

The attempt to influence the Swedish vote was publicized by the 
open-source community when a leaked memo emerged that gave the 
impression that not only had Microsoft asked partners to influence the 
vote but had also offered to pay them to do so. According to Groklaw 
<http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070829070630660>, the memo 
from Microsoft offered partners "marketing support" and "additional 
support in the form of Microsoft resources" in return for joining the 
Swedish national body, the SSI.

In an e-mail to ZDNet UK, Microsoft admitted that it had sought to 
influence the vote around the world and in Sweden.

"Open XML is becoming one of the most widely utilized document format 
standards. A broad variety of customers, technology providers, and 
governments around the globe have a stake in its standardization and 
ongoing evolution, and should have a seat at the table when these 
decisions are being made," said Tom Robertson, general manager for 
interoperability and standards at Microsoft. "Government agencies and 
national standards bodies have exercised their right to participate in 
this process, as have a number of companies, including those opposed to 
and those in favor of Open XML. Therefore, Microsoft has openly 
encouraged its partners to participate where they have an interest."

*Swedish fiasco*
Microsoft also admitted that one of its employees had sent an e-mail 
that could be construed as Microsoft offering to recompense partners 
voting in Sweden.

"Microsoft corporate policy expressly forbids financial support, of any 
kind, to third parties for their participation as a member of a national 
body voting on the ISO/IEC standardization of Open XML. This policy is 
widely communicated throughout the company and will be reiterated going 
forward," said Robertson.

"Unfortunately, it has come to our attention that a Microsoft employee 
in Sweden communicated with two partner companies about their 
participation in the Open XML vote in a way that was inconsistent with 
corporate policy and guidance. In the e-mail communication, the employee 
correctly stated that Microsoft cannot pay the partners' fee for joining 
the Swedish working group. However, the employee also referenced joint 
marketing activities in the same e-mail, thus creating potential 
confusion in the communication. The employee recognized and sought to 
correct this potential confusion immediately with both partner companies."

Robertson added that, when Microsoft Sweden learned of the situation, it 
contacted the Swedish national standards body, and informed the 
organization of the employee's e-mail.

"Microsoft Sweden confirmed to the Swedish national standards body that 
this was an isolated incident limited to one piece of communication sent 
to only two partner companies. This incident in no way affected the 
outcome of the Swedish national standards body vote," claimed Robertson.

Greve said that Microsoft partners encouraged to join at the last minute 
would not have enough time to read the 6,000-page specification in depth.

"Microsoft has filed a proprietary format of over 6,000 pages, and 80 
percent of the stuff is unreviewed. Microsoft has been running round the 
world telling its partners to rubber-stamp the standard. It's impossible 
that every single organization that has said 'yes' to OOXML has read the 
specification. Seriously, this is ridiculous--it's making a mockery of 
the ISO specification. If OOXML gets ISO certification, governments will 
have to review whether ISO means anything," said Greve.

Microsoft denied that seeking to influence partners to vote made a 
mockery of the ISO specification.

"Absolutely not. Open XML is becoming one of the most widely utilized 
document format standards. We reject the assertion that the 
document-standards process should be closed to new voices," said Robertson.

Greve claimed that the OOXML format was both proprietary, potentially 
binding governments and other users to Microsoft in perpetuity, and 
contained serious imperfections.

"We've found plenty of proprietary material in OOXML so far. Governments 
could get locked into formats where they don't have control over the 
data. OOXML is dependent on implementations by Microsoft, so to use 
OOXML is essentially betting on the continued existence of Microsoft. 
Governments would also be dependent on Microsoft in a political sense," 
he said.

Greve added that OOXML, although purporting to be an open standard, in 
fact contained proprietary components, while an example of the 
specification not being up to scratch was that it gave rounding errors 
when translating documents.

"As a technical specification, OOXML is extremely bad. Rounding errors 
are not normal in modern applications. If I was a financial 
organization, or a governmental organization that deals with finances, 
I'd be concerned about rounding errors," said Greve.


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