Sorting to untruth to justify a bad decision
April 1, 2008 11:36 pm StandardizationOn the OOXML standardization process in Standard Norge (SN; the Norwegian Standards Institute):
2007-08-22: Ivar Jachwitz (Deputy General Manager of SN):
“This will be a process based on consensus to determine the standard on its technical merits. There will be no voting, so no, the 37 form letters initiated by Microsoft supporting OOXM will not count.”
Source: Me, I was at the meeting.
2008-04-01: After Mr. Jachwitz overturned his technical committee and decided to vote “Yes” to OOXML on behalf of Norway:
“We had an initial vote back in 2007 of nearly 50 people and the vast majority were in favor,” Jachwitz said. He did acknowledge that 21 members of the group last week submitted a letter asking for Norway to oppose Ooxml. “Our vote reflected the majority opinion,” Jachwitz said. “I do not see that it was improper.”
Source: The International Herald Tribune
He is now counting votes all of a sudden - and the 37 form letters are the basis for his justification to change Norway’s vote to “Yes”. Sorting to untruth to justify an irregular decision only adds to the irregularity.
The EU commission has already inquired about possible irregularities in the Norwegian process. This too will be reported.
April 2nd, 2008 at 09:35
Thanks for your updates, they are much appreciated!
April 3rd, 2008 at 12:10
I think the following article should be useful to you as you file your complaint
From the Redmond Channel Partner
Of course, we’re sure that Microsoft, uh, strongly encouraged a few delegates from a few nations to change their votes — which lots of delegates did. And, really, OOXML’s acceptance isn’t all that big of a deal for partners and users, practically speaking; after all, Microsoft document formats are also de facto standards.
But now, all of those government agencies charged with implementing standards-based computing are free to turn away from open source and run back to sweet mama Microsoft if they so choose. And whatever momentum open source had gained by taking the standards route in IT departments has certainly slowed — if not come to a screeching halt.
Something tells me that someone is going to regret this one in the morning.
http://rcpmag.com/blogs/weblog.aspx?blog=2075
April 3rd, 2008 at 18:28
Thank you for openly sharing your invaluable, first hand perspective.
April 8th, 2008 at 01:28
“He did acknowledge that 21 members of the group last week submitted a letter asking for Norway to oppose Ooxml.”
Dette er vel verken press eller kampanje? Press og kampanje er det vel bare “de andre” som driver med og det skal kaller irregularity. At du og dine gjlr det samme er helt ok? Kan du forklare forskjellen?
April 8th, 2008 at 06:59
In Norwegian, as the previous comment: Etter at prosessen ble endret underveis, så vi oss nødt til å si klart ifra. Jeg har ikke noe imot at det sendes 37 brev til SN (dersom Microsoft ikke har øvet press på de som sendte dem). Det som er problemet er at vi ble klart fortalt at brevene ikke skulle telle dat det ikke kom på tale med noen avstemming. Dette viste seg i ettertid å være usant.
April 10th, 2008 at 03:57
[…] also has a good article called “Sorting to untruth to justify a bad decision”:” After Mr. Jachwitz overturned his technical committee and decided to vote “Yes” to […]