Try Harder!

I think my trip to Geneva is going to be exciting. Exciting and interesting at the same time. There will be surprizes, laughters, and laments. But mind you, Geneva does not matter. It never mattered. The OOXML camp is trying to lure you into thinking that anything bad that could happen in Geneva during the BRM sessions will be caused by the likes of IBM (including my company; I’m rolling on the floor laughing.) What they hold to be much more important takes place after the BRM, during the month of March, when every national standardization board will have to cast a ballot, once again (this time will be the final ballot) on the proprietary OOXML. Expect pressures and moves behind curtains of all sorts coming from the OOXML camp. They have the might, they have the money, and they have the clout. But will it be enough?

What is wanted out of that quite concerted campaign involving a former chairman of Ecma International is the banning of any form of communication between the delegates and the conference on open standards. I understand that the JTC-1 delegates need quiet, reflective seclusion, but as Rob Weir pointed out himself, why didn’t the JTC-1 react in the light of so much contacts between the national standards bodies and Microsoft (the original author of the contentious Ecma specification) during the ballot period? Why did the ISO’s JTC-1 never react when insistant rumours -not to say evidences- of collusion and corruption started to appear? The past cannot be undone. But each of us can learn from our mistakes, including the ISO.

Oh, and there will be the dirty tactics and the cunning rethorics, too. There will be attempts to slip VML back into OOXML because it is difficult at this stage to have the problematic specification register as an ISO technical specification (ISO T-S, which is not an ISO standard). There will be attempts to confuse delegates, refusals to answer some good questions, just like the Afnor’s proposal for convergence was bluntly refused by the Ecma. Nonetheless, the Afnor should and will carry on, despite the procedural arguments that will be thrown against it:  The Ecma wants to keep its record of being the sole industrial standardization agency that has never refused the standardization of any specification it was in charge of. Nevermind the money.

Last but not least, some measures have to be taken in order to ease the standardization of the controversial OOXML itself.  There seems to be a need for its supporters to balance their lack of popularity. After all, it’s pretty hard to gather more than  eighty thousands people signing against a controversial candidate for standardization. At the very least, it’s a pretty impressive score for a not so mainstream topic. So instead of amending their ways, (for some it’s too late) the OOXML proponents have devised this new -and probably impressiveto their own eyes- strategy of making the ODF camp look evil. I’m laughing once again, because it’s just pathetic. This monopoly is trying hard to make others look bad, using deceptive tactics and will fail to do so because it still has not understood that people always prefer the victims and not their torturer.

So here’s my message to the employees of Microsoft Corporation and the employees of all their Gold Partners who will attend the Geneva BRM: Try harder, you still ain’t there.