ISO rejects Microsoft OOXML but the battle is far from over

While Microsoft lost round one in its campaign to gain ISO approval of its OOXML [Office Open XML]file format, it is best to remember this is still early in the game, especially when it comes to battles over standards.

What the ISO membership really did when it rejected fast track status for OOXML as a standard was say to Microsoft wait in line like everybody else. We don’t care if you are a celebrity this will go through normal, not expedited, channels.

Now, Microsoft will have to respond to the objections or comments from the members on the OOXML specifications.

Despite the fact that some of the objections to OOXML sound serious– the Brazilian contingent alone raised 60 objections– for Microsoft that may be in the famous words of Ralph Kramden, “a mere bag of shells.” [For you youngsters out there that means it is trivial.]

If you recall, I wrote about the fight to gain approval for IEEE 802.11n in which the standard process fielded 12,000 comments, 6,000 alone from AT&T Labs, each of which had to be responded to.

In fact, IEEE 802.11n is still not officially approved but it is now close enough to approval that manufacturers are building products off the current specifications.

Final approval won’t come until 2008.

The real question is what will this delay mean to Microsoft and OOXML?

My personal feeling is Microsoft has time. ODF [Open Document Format], its open source rival, is still in its nascent stage. Given even a year’s head start over OOXML, ODF will have an uphill struggle, to understate the size of the battle, before it is ever able to seriously challenge the huge Microsoft Office installed base.