Ed Brill

In case you haven't seen the comments on my prior entry on the topic of OOXML, here's CIO.com's summary:

Microsoft admitted Wednesday that an employee at its Swedish subsidiary offered monetary compensation to partners for voting in favor of the Office Open XML document format's approval as an ISO standard. ...

[Microsoft's Tom] Robertson dismissed the criticism. Most standards bodies are filled with "an old guard" membership that needs rejuvenation, he said. He also likened Microsoft's recruitment efforts to a voter registration drive.

Old guard?  How quaint.  I think MS was a member of all of these standards bodies...

The result?  Computer Sweden reports (via Computerworld UK):

The Swedish Standards Institute has declared its recent vote in favour of Microsoft's Office Open XML format invalid.

It means that Sweden will probably abstain from an important upcoming international vote on whether to make the format a standard.

The reason given by SIS was not the controversial circumstances surrounding the vote, in which Microsoft was found to have offered companies "incentives" if they voted in favour of OOXML. Instead, SIS cited a technicality, saying proper procedures had not been followed.

The final votes to ISO are due on September 2.  What an interesting date that is lining up to be. :-)