[ossig] Department of Standards Malaysia press release on OOXML BRM meeting in Geneva

[Ditesh Kumar]

apparently this has made it to groklaw front page:

http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20080304063417316

fucking aye!

ditesh

On Wed, 2008-03-05 at 10:53 +0800, Ditesh Kumar wrote:
> >From the ODF-SIG mailing list:
> 
> Originally found at http://www.standardsmalaysia.gov.my/press%20release%
> 204%20March%202008.pdf, Malaysia's Department of Standards (Standards
> Malaysia) issued the following statement about last week's  Ballot
> Resolution Meeting (BRM) in Geneva. 
> 
> ------------
> 
> 
>                                                             4 MARCH 2008
>                              PRESS RELEASE
> 
> Malaysian delegation at the ISO meeting in Geneva (25 – 29 Feb ’08)
> finds the technical issues in the draft standard OOXML unresolved
> satisfactorily 
> 
> Cyberjaya, 4 March 2008 - Malaysia's Department of Standards (STANDARDS
> MALAYSIA) recently found the Draft ISO standard, ISO/IEC DIS 29500:
> Office Open XML (OOXML) specification for electronic document formats,
> had the majority of its technical issues still not addressed
> satisfactorily. 
> 
> Puann_fadilah_baharin
> 
> STANDARDS MALAYSIA sent a delegation to attend the "Ballot Resolution
> Meeting" (BRM) in Geneva, Switzerland where they deliberated on OOXML
> submitted by Ecma International, a standards setting organization. 
> 
> Malaysia voted to 'Disapprove' by default on Ecma's dispositions due to
> the quality of their technical responses during the week. Malaysia
> approved on certain resolutions, which were found appropriate and
> discussed during the BRM, but this was by far in the minority. There
> have been structural changes and important contributions to the Draft by
> other National Bodies which alter the Draft significantly. Malaysia will
> review these changes before making a decision on its final vote by end
> March 2008. 
> 
> Puan Fadilah Baharin, Director General of STANDARDS MALAYSIA who was in
> Geneva to oversee the Malaysian delegates said, "The Malaysian
> delegation actively participated in the BRM, including making good
> technical suggestions on how to improve the proposed standard. We were
> impressed with the commitment and professionalism shown by all the
> technical experts represented by the various National Bodies." 
> 
> The original specification had more than 6,000 pages, an unprecedented
> volume in ISO for the Fast Track process. 
> 
> At a previous stage of the process, after a 5-month ballot period ending
> on 2 September 2007, the drafted ISO standard failed to get the required
> vote from participating countries, failing 2 of the 3 criteria for
> approval. This process also resulted in more than 1,000 unique comments
> from the countries. 
> 
> On 14 January 2008, Ecma International provided proposed dispositions to
> these comments which were discussed at the BRM. 
> 
> The meeting was scheduled for 5 days from 25 to 29 February in
> accordance to ISO/IEC "Fast Track" rules. The time of deliberation is
> fixed and will not be adjusted according to the volume of comments. This
> is the limitation imposed due to the Fast Track process. 
> 
> "Malaysia had submitted 23 comments and more than 70% of them were not
> addressed satisfactorily by Ecma's proposed dispositions. We intended to
> resolve these technical issues at the BRM, but we could only raise 2
> concerns due to the time constraints imposed," Fadilah said. 
> 
> After 3 days, it was apparent that there would be no time to review all
> the items within the remaining 2 days on all substantial concerns
> against the Ecma standard. The 32 National Bodies, including Malaysia,
> were then requested to submit a vote on all the items which were not
> discussed at the BRM and told to vote on Ecma's remaining dispositions
> to 'Approve,' 'Disapprove' or 'Abstain.' 
> 
> "Malaysia decided to vote 'Disapprove' to these undiscussed issues,"
> Fadilah elaborated, "The limitation of the BRM process clearly showed
> that such a task of approving this draft standard does not fit in the
> Fast Track process employed by Ecma International. Malaysia and other
> country delegations worked very hard which extended into evenings after
> the BRM sessions. All the technical experts from diverse backgrounds,
> including from Microsoft, the original proposer of the Draft, put their
> heads together to fix the specification. Malaysia approved the counter
> proposals by many National Bodies which were discussed during the BRM.
> Unfortunately there were just far too many to fix within the given
> time." 
> 
> Last year, many countries raised concerns against the appropriateness of
> the voluminous OOXML draft standard submitted by the Ecma International
> to ISO for a Fast Track process. To date, our observation to these
> concerns have yet to be addressed better after the BRM. Malaysia’s
> concern is currently being shared greatly by many other National Bodies
> from Asia including India, China and Korea; as well as from the US and
> Canada. 
> 
> The process now entails discussion within the 87 'P' and 'O' countries
> who first voted on 2 September 2007, for them to evaluate the
> instructions from the BRM and return to ISO a final vote whether to
> approve OOXML as an ISO standard, by 30 March 2008. 
> 
> STANDARDS MALAYSIA will convene a SIRIM Technical Committee meeting soon
> to decide Malaysia's final vote on the quality of OOXML as an ISO/IEC
> standard. 
> 
> ------------
> 
> 
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-- 
  May your signals all trap                     Ditesh Kumar
May your references be bounded                ditesh at gathani.org
      All memory aligned                http://ditesh.gathani.org/blog
    Floats to ints rounded              http://www.openmalaysiablog.com