Standards Australia has cast a vote to abstain from the ISO/IEC JTC1 ballot to adopt the DIS 29500 Office Open XML format draft standard as an International Standard. The decision to cast an abstain vote from the current ballot follows months of consultation and a clear lack of consensus in Australia on this issue by stakeholders.

"France has voted against adoption of Microsoft Corp.'s document format Office Open XML as an international standard, while Australia has decided to abstain..."

With the countdown on to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) ballot on OOXML, Australia and New Zealand's representatives are keeping their cards close to their chests on which way they will vote.

The Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) has called on African governments and standards bodies to abstain in the balloting, due to close Saturday, on whether a file format based on Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) should be an international standard.

The apparent International Organization for Standardization vote to approve Microsoft's Office Open XML document format as an international standard is just the start of a likely lengthy adoption and implementation process, according to critics and supporters of the specifications.

The Office Open XML (OOXML) file format is probably destined to be an international standard under International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). And Andy Updegrove, for one, is not happy about it.

Following a Computerworld report on the appointment of a Microsoft consultant as part of Standard Australia's (SA) delegation for this month's Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) in Geneva, the organization's CEO has defended the objectivity of the decision.

A European standards expert has defended the move to fast-track the International Organization for Standardization approval process for Microsoft's Office Open XML document standard, dismissing criticisms that the decision to do so is flawed and unfair.

The Open Source Industry of Australia (OSIA) has formally contacted Standards Australia, requesting that Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) format not be endorsed by the body as an ISO standard.