Sometimes I get lazy and just do a del.ici.us link to articles that really deserve more mention of their own, so I’m going to start making up for it by pointing you over to Edward Macnaghten’s excellent “When is a standard not a standard?” article at Free Software Magazine. There’s too much good stuff there for me to even extract just a little bit: go see for yourself.
I heard that the latest amusing tactic is to say that both ODF and OOXML have won and we should move on, by an OOXML supporter. I like to be gracious, but this is like a fighter who is down on the mat nearing the final count and then asks “can we call it a draw?”. The black knight in Monty’s Python’s Holy Grail also comes to mind (and I believe has already been used as an analogy in this case, pardon my poor memory).
There are many things not to miss from Macnaghten’s piece, but note his link to ECMA’s website where it says:
Ecma is the inventor and main practitioner of the concept of “fast tracking” of specifications drafted in international standards format through the process in Global Standards Bodies like the ISO. Since 1986, when fast tracking was introduced to ISO, over 75% of fast-tracked standards have been fast-tracked through Ecma.
Interesting statistic and interesting goal.
Also see: “Peaceful existence of one open document standard, ODF”
