Hi all,

Sorry for the OT post but I guess some of you might be interested in supporting Open Standards for document formats...

As most of you will probably be aware by now, the ISO Ballot Resolution Meeting for Microsoft's appalling document specification (OOXML, ECMA-376 or DIS29500) is happening at the end of this month.

We are actively involved in helping the National Bodies (NBs), that will decide if it should become an ISO standard or not, to dissect and analyse the thousands of comments (3522) and the 2000+ pages of Dispositions which ECMA have produced in response.

The site for this work is http://www.dis29500.org

I would appreciate it if you could forward this to all interested parties. Especially those of a technical nature who would be able to comprehend and make sense of the dispositions which ECMA have produced.

There are 3522 comments (many of which are duplicates). The responses from ECMA (dispositions) are now also present on this site and can be examined and commented on. The objective is to "tag" the dispositions so that the NBs can focus on those areas of the proposed specification that are real problems or are simply unworkable as part of an International Standard.

We already have ODF and do not really need another one. It is in everyone's interest to help the NBs to come to the right conclusion after the forthcoming BRM...

Thanks

Alan