Here's something IBM's Rob Weir said about what ECMA is doing now:
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
The practical difficulty here is that of timing. While I have no doubt
that Jody was instrumental in getting additional technical disclosures
from Microsoft back in 2006, Ecma TC45 is not in that mode of operation
right now. The OOXML standard Ecma 376 has already been approved by
Ecma. It is now before JTC1 as DIS 29500 and the text is essentially
frozen since December 2006. The only changes that can be made to it
must be in response to specific JTC1 national body ballot comments.
Jody can no longer go to a TC45 meeting and say, "Gee, I'd like more
information added on X, Y and Z". JTC1 rules forbid changes to the
standard that are not traceable to a national body comment.
Certainly, Jody or any other Ecma TC45 member so inclined can help
Microsoft address the thousands of ISO comments that were received, and
help prep OOXML for approval by JTC1. There is certainly a lot of grunt
work to be done there. But let's not call that anything but what it is
-- helping Microsoft gain ISO approval.
If this is accurate, then it is impossible for participation in ECMA
_today_ to serve the goal which has been presented here as the motive
for GNOME's membership.
Rob continues:
Of course, when then next MS Office version comes around (Office 2009 ?)
and Microsoft wants to revise OOXML to account for new features, then
I'm sure Ecma TC45 will reactivate for new work and Jody can continue
his good work getting more detail from Microsoft. But right now TC45 is
entirely focused (and limited by the process to focus) on JTC1 member
comments. We now have dozens of JTC1 member states who voted against
OOXML to "keep the bastards honest".
This means it might be useful to keep the GNOME Foundation ECMA
membership open for future work. But Jody should not help with the
current activity, because that activity can only do harm.
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