Re: OOXML [was Re: GNOME Foundation Board Meeting Minutes :: 7/6/07]

[Richard Stallman <rms gnu org>]

    > I think that The GNOME participating in OOXML lends it a credibility
    > it does not deserve. Joining ECMA TC45 would be like joining of the
    > political party you dislike the most to improve their politics.

    It's like starting a competing political party and going to the same
    law library.

Is joining ECMA TC45 really like using a library?  According to your
own words, it is engaged in modifying the OOXML spec:

    That is inaccurate.  Whom do you think will be responding to
    national body issues ?  ECMA, and by proxy TC45, have the ability to
    propose changes in the spec to resolve issues, and to raise their
    own issues preemptively for resolution.

I gather that such modification intended to bring about the acceptance
of OOXML as an ISO standard.  (Please correct me if I'm wrong.)

If that is the case, anyone who is represented on the ECMA committee
is helping to promote the ISO acceptance of OOXML -- which would hurt
our community substantially.  If the GNOME Foundation is to be
represented in on the ECMA committee, it should explicitly counteract
that backfire effect by doing something else.

One way to do so is by publishing a statement, addressed to all
countries that vote in ISO, asking them to vote against any and all
versions of OOXML as a standard.