[...]approving a standard normally is a positive process, ie the initiator of the standard has to come out with arguments of why their product is worthy of being a standard. I fail to find any such official Microsoft documents regarding why is OOXML good. Let us demand such documents from Microsoft. In failing to do so they will prove their toy standard has little advantage over the ODF which it tries to cripple.
So far we have endlessly pointed technical errors in the specification, legal terms it is released under, interoperability claims, that a draft standard documented in 6000 pages should not be fast tracked. All this has been either ignored so far by Microsoft, or has mixed results.
However we seem to fail to remember that Microsoft and ECMA as initiators of the standardization process have the obligation and the responsibilty to point out the advantages of OOXML in a short, official press release or at the voting process itself. The default vote for a standard should be against, and they have to prove it is worthy of our attention. It should not be considered adopted by default and we have to point flaws in it, before the deadline, it's exactly the other way back.
A similar positive process is the trial of a murder suspect (juridical process of charging someone for killing another) . By default the suspect is consider innocent until further notice. That is until the accusing attorney (prosecutor), as initiator of the trial, brings up enough evidence to prove that the suspect is indeed the murderer. The defending party only has to take down the prosecutor claims as false arguments/proofs.
Positive process tend to have finite destinations, while negative ones hang indefinitely.
We should ask for Microsoft to come out of defending themself and present a clear case as why should we support the process of standardization of the OOXML file format in it's current "fast track" format. This is something they have failed to provide to the public so far and we failed to ask for it.
Similarly the NoOOXML party should make such a final pledge (final essay/ oratory held to the judging party). To be readable, by most people who don't even know what a file format or a standard are, we should try to avoid the technical details other than pointing to other documents presenting those technical flaws we find. This should be an essay presenting in 2-3-4 pages why OOXML is bad as a standard.
After hearing the pledge from each side everyone could understand the positions of both sides and could judge for themselve who is right and who is not.
Ubuntu87
16 years 30 weeks 6 days 17 hours ago
Why is OOXML good...??
Oh, come on people. :)
It's very obvious why is OOXML very good.
I mean what's better than the fact that it makes Bill Gates richer?? :D
bogdanbiv
16 years 30 weeks 5 days 11 hours ago
That many votes?
The idea is that we should stop looking for holes in OOXML, an endless operation anyway, and start asking to be shown it's advantages.
And being answered with silence or off topic arguments we show that it should not be adopted, at least not now.
I wasn't trying to make a joke.
Oh my, I never realistically thought this idea will be so popular so fast (but I hoped it will).