No OOXML!

Y'all are aware of the current frenzied push by Microsoft to whip their OOXML file format (used for MS Office 2007, described on some 8.000 printed A4 pages) through the ISO 'fast track' standardization process to make it a 'standard'.

You may not be aware of the 'No-OOXML' website though, which collects information and articles around the issue that focus on why OOXML (like it is proposed right now) is not a good idea.

Microsoft did a lot of work in the last few weeks to influence votes, stuff the ballots and manipulate participants in the various country ISO committees to enforce favorable decisions for themselves:

• "Microsoft Memo to Partners in Sweden Surfaces: Vote Yes for OOXML"
• "More Irregularities in the OOXML ISO Process Surface"
• "OOXML in Norway: The haywire process"

So the cartoon shown in this post, directly from the No-OOXML website, summarizes MS's efforts rather nicely (and may be not so funnily)...

Disclaimer: I'm currently not aware that Novell and/or Apple representatives did indeed (as depicted in the cartoon) vote in favor of OOXML, but I may have missed that if it so happened. If you know something about this, leave a comment. In any case, the main characters of this cartoon are not represented in a simple ASCII subset anyway....