THE South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) has initiated an international appeal that pitches it against software giant Microsoft and the International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO). <\/p>\n
The SABS is objecting to the approval of Microsoft’s Office Open XML technology as an acceptable global standard for digital documents. <\/p>\n
Its protest is being backed by the Shuttleworth Foundation, an organisation founded by internet billionaire Mark Shuttleworth, who avidly supports free-to-use, nonproprietary software. <\/p>\n
Few other people may care about the technical complexities and three-letter acronyms at the heart of the battle, but they should, says Andrew Rens, an intellectual property expert with the Shuttleworth Foundation. <\/p>\n
Digital standards become crucial when your computer cannot open an important document, and the SABS is working to ensure that documents are usable because different software programs can co-operate. <\/p>\n
The new standard comes on top of an existing open document format, and the foundation believes the additional complexity is unnecessary and threatens access to information. <\/p>\n
An ISO committee fast tracked the approval of Microsoft’s digital document format in April, but the SABS says that vital procedures were bypassed. Microsoft’s work was submitted to the ISO as a relatively immature standard, Rens says. <\/p>\n
That prompted many international bodies to express concern and lodge contradictions to it. A total of 1027 responses were lodged, but instead of being handled individually, a block vote took place and ultimately all the issues were ignored, Rens says. <\/p>\n
That ignored the ISO process designed to allow software developers to make any necessary changes before a standard is approved. <\/p>\n
The proper steps were ignored because the standard was fast-tracked, but Microsoft’s standard is not suitable for fast-tracking because it is immature, Rens says. <\/p>\n
“The standard had not been fully developed and there were many concerns raised internationally,” he says. <\/p>\n
The South African standards body is the first to protest and call for the new standard to be rejected, and it expects other international standards bodies to join its campaign. <\/p>\n
Although the standard could be resubmitted, the Shuttleworth Foundation said that would result in two document formats instead of one and may create a lack of interoperability. <\/p>\n
Geoff Visser, an executive with the SABS, says there is an increasing tendency for organisations to circumvent the consensus-building that is vital for international standards to succeed. <\/p>\n
The ability of large companies to influence standards bodies into ignoring legitimate issues raised by other countries ia also a concern, he says.<\/p>\n