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In the latest twist in the OOXML - ODF document format story, ISO and IEC, two of the most venerable standards organizations in the world, have been dealt a slap by government IT agencies in six countries. In a public statement, the agencies deplore the refusal of ISO and IEC to give full attention to appeals against the OOXML process earlier lodged by Brazil, India, South Africa, and Venezuela, and suggest that if the two global standards organizations are not interested in listening to member concerns, then these members may no longer be interested in adopting ISO/IEC standards.

The statement is titled the “COMSEGI 2008 Declaration,” named for the South and Latin American government open source conference held in Brasilia, Brazil, at which the Declaration was signed. Those that attended included senior government officials, such as Brazil’s Minister of Science and Technology, as well as representatives of the six nations that signed the declaration: Brazil, Cuba, Paraguay, South Africa and Venezuela.

It has become clear that we are witnessing a watershed event that transcends the significance of the standards war between OOXML and ODF. What we are seeing is an awakening that will reshape the way that governments and citizens think about important standards, and changes in the ways that they will allow such standards to be developed and approved.

The full story is here

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Comments

• Andy Updegrove

  

  Andy Updegrove is a partner and founder of Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a Boston-based technology law firm, and has represented and helped structure more than 80 worldwide standard setting, open source, promotional and advocacy consortia over the past 20 years. He has also represented hundreds of both emerging as well as established technology companies, and is the founder and editor of both the popular website http://www.consortiuminfo.org and the widely-read Standards Blog

• Karen Copenhaver

  

  Karen Copenhaver is a partner in Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP ‘s Business & Technology practice focusing on technology transfer and licensing of intellectual property with a specific emphasis on open source business models. Most recently, Copenhaver was executive vice president and general counsel at Black Duck Software, Inc.