catman's Journal: Norway's standards organisation does something right

On September 1, 2007, Standard Norge released their vote on the proposed OOXML standard - no, with comments. I must agree with some commentators that if ECMA corrects all the mistakes, and fixes the faults pointed out in the comments, it could actually become a pretty good standard. I believe the chances that the company behind the proposal will actually fix it are slim to none. (I heard Slim has left town, btw.) For those that do not read Norwegian, here's a translation of the announcement, as posted on Groklaw (I'm too lazy to make my own translation, just doing some small fixes):

Standard Norge gives a conditional Yes to OOXML ISO/DIS 29500

Standard Norge is in principle for a standard which gives the users the best possible access to their old documents. However, we find that there are too many weaknesses in OOXML to be able to approve the existing document as a proposal for an ISO standard in its present form.

Many of these weaknesses are founded in the attempt to unite the consideration of the old documents with the consideration to the documents of the future. This leads to a complexity that is not expedient with regards to openness and interoperability. Norway's comments and suggestions imply solutions that makes it possible to serve both of these needs. The comments reflect the input we have received during the hearing period.

Founded on this, and in correspondence with ISO's directives of how a conditional yes should be expressed, Norway has to give the vote "No with comments and suggestions of changes".

A "ballot resolution" meeting in ISO in February will look at the comments that arrive and suggest solutions which accommodate the comments from the different member countries. After this meeting, Norway may change its vote to an unconditional yes, if we are of the opinion that our comments have been accommodated. If the final result of the treatment of the "ballot resolution" meeting leads to a majority in favor of the standard, then ISO will send out a revised version for final voting ("Final Draft International Standard - FDIS").