Office XML Loses Initial ISO Vote

Office 2007 XML file formats failed to gain fast-track approval from a key international standards body in a vote in early Sept. 2007. The vote delays but does not yet end Microsoft’s effort to gain international standardization of the formats. Standardization would put Office 2007’s formats on par with the competing Open Document Format, already a standard, and would arm Microsoft and partners against critics of Office in the public sector who have sought to curtail government use of proprietary document formats for public documents.

The vote was organized by a joint subcommittee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which bring together national standards bodies and whose standards often gain legal force in participating countries. It followed a fast-track submission of the Office Open XML standard proposal to ISO/IEC by Ecma, a European standards body that has already approved the formats.

The next step will be a Feb. 2008 meeting in which an ISO/IEC subcommittee (JTC1/SC34) reviews comments submitted with votes and tries to develop a new draft for approval. Microsoft professes high hopes for this meeting, pointing out that September’s vote was close and that some participants may be willing to change their votes once their objections have been addressed. However, if the committee can’t agree on a new draft or if a new draft also fails to win enough votes, Microsoft will have to start over, which will substantially delay final approval.