DIN e.V., the German standards institute, has now posted the results of the meeting August 21 by the technical committee. It's a "yes" (or "yes, comments") decision on Microsoft's submission of OOXML as a proposed standard. It's in German, naturally.

I have the information for those of you *who live in Australia* and who wish to send comments to Standards Australia. You can find a link to the template you need to use here. Or just download it. You fill it in and send it to Michael Langdon, Project Manager, Commerce at Standards Australia, michael.langdon at standards.org.au by the deadline, which is Tuesday

The normally boring world of international standards has turned into a bloody fist fight between the most brutal monopolist of modern times, and the Community. Just the name, “Office Open XML” makes my head spin, and when I start to read Microsoft’s so-sincere explanations that “users demand multiple standards”, my blood begins to boil. But before I turn green and rip off my shirt, let me take a deep breath and look calmly at how Microsoft is trying to do to ISO what Borat wanted to do to Pamela.

Microsoft's plans of having its OOXML document format accepted as a national standard were thwarted by the South African Bureau of Standards in a conclusive vote against the move in a meeting yesterday.

The campaign herein asks you to do 3 (three) actions :

1. sign the campaign herebelow for open standards by answering the IDABC request for comment before September 15, 2007
2. answer the request for comment of the European Commission request for comments on its websites, on CampaignECwebsites
3. ask your friends to do the same.

IBM today announced that it is granting universal and perpetual access to certain intellectual property that might be necessary to implement more than 150 standards designed to make software interoperable.

The Linux Phone Standards Forum (LiPS) today announced its plans to publish components of the LiPS 1.0 specification documents: the first content to emerge from the organization since it was founded last year by a number of mobile technology and telecommunications companies, including Palmsource, France Telecom, Orange, and Montavista Software.