It appears that the Gnome Foundation is participating in ECMA TC 45 regarding resolving comments and contradictions for DIS 29500. Given the technical shortcomings in the specification and the disregard for process that the backers of DIS 29500 have displayed during the process, Gnome’s participation in this activity is to the detriment of interoperability among office suits.
Efforts should be made to support the International Organization for Standards (ISO) policy of “one standard, one test, accepted everywhere.” Gnome can do this by promoting support for ISO/IEC 26300. Once the standard is implemented and in use, then add extras can be added, either import-only, or read-write. But, if different suites support unfinished specifications while failing to support the standard, then there is no interoperability.
Having Gnome team members promoting the agenda of its main opponent, however, is not only counter-productive but also reflects negatively on the project and its credibility. GNOME is supporting its main opponent by explicitly participating in the official Ecma / ISO process; by participating informally at the conferences; and, presumably, by participating inside of actual development. It seems that Gnome is becoming Microsoft’s catspaw to damage and slow down open source and open standards.
Along those lines, it would be important for Gnome to present a respectable public image in regards to standards and to be sure that Gnome team members are able to back ISO’s position rather than ISO’s opponent. Individuals may wish to work against open standards, and they are free to do so, but Gnome as a project should distance itself and emphasized that such activities not be done under the auspices of Gnome nor in their role in the project.
For example, one high profile team member can cause a lot of trouble for Gnome, especially when promoting proprietary technologies in opposition to open source and open standards. Quotes like, “Time to play with C#, ASP.NET and some nifty toys (you can make almost Windows feel like Linux now)” seem to be promoting themes advanced by bloggers at Gnome’s (and open standards’) main antagonist, Microsoft.
A good illustration of pragmatic reasons for standards has been provided in a presentation by David Wheeler, linked below. In sum, Wheeler makes a compelling case that open standards save time and effort.
http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/open-standards-security.pdf
http://www.dwheeler.com/essays/open-standards-security.odp
http://www.dwheeler.com/multimedia/open-standards-security.ogg
It is time to unite the community behind the standard, universal format for office suites and distance themselves from Ecma TC45 and DIS 29500. The participation of Gnome in Ecma TC45’s apparent subversion of the standards process is a major disservice to FOSS and all in the community who have worked so hard for open platforms and open standards.
Further reading
http://www.ecma-international.org/memento/TC45-M.htm
http://www.mail-archive.com/foundation-list@gnome.org/msg01874.html
[...] October 29, 2007 at 1:25 am · Filed under Microsoft, ODF, OOXML The Gnome Foundation has put up it’s hand to participate in ECMA TC 45 (Office Open XML) much to the chagrin of some community members such as Russell Ossendryver who has written an open letter to the foundation. [...]
Pingback by Gnome foundation participates in Office Open XML development « ideas are free — 28 October 2007 @ 9:25 pm
[...] at all? These concerns no longer escape everyone’s attention. Consider the following newly-published open letter. Having Gnome team members promoting the [OOXML] agenda of its main opponent, however, is not only [...]
Pingback by Boycott Novell » Anti-symbiosis: ODF, OOXML, Mono, GNOME, and OpenOffice.org — 28 October 2007 @ 10:40 pm
[...] Links: 0. http://einfeldtampdigitaltippingpointcom/ 1. http://linux.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/09/10/2343256&tid=109 2. http://fanaticattack.com/2007/a-letter-to-the-gnome-foundation.html [...]
Pingback by [Slashdot] Stories for 2007-10-29 | Kaizenlog — 29 October 2007 @ 7:38 am
[...] una lettera sul suo blog, Ossendryver ha invitato caldamente il fondatore di GNOME a fermare il suo apparente [...]
Pingback by TuxJournal.net 2.0 » Archivio » La GNOME Foundation aiuta il formato OOXML? — 29 October 2007 @ 7:07 pm
GNOME Support of OOXML…
Russell Ossendryver, who sits on the OpenDocument Fellowship, recently heavily criticized GNOME for supporting Microsofts Office Open XML (OOXML) format. While I agree with the basic intent of Russell’s post, that the Open Document Format is alre…
Trackback by I don't do the foxtrot, I'm just foxxtrot — 30 October 2007 @ 10:22 am
[...] of making the Microsoft Word format an ISO document standard, like OpenDocument Fellowship member Russell Ossendryver, compare GNOME’s actions to Democrats offering counters to President Bush’s 2005 plan [...]
Pingback by Open Source mobile edition — 31 October 2007 @ 9:43 am
[...] of making the Microsoft Word format an ISO document standard, like OpenDocument Fellowship member Russell Ossendryver, compare GNOME’s actions to Democrats offering counters to President Bush’s 2005 plan on [...]
Pingback by Will GNOME’s betrayal lead to Microsoft Victory? | Linux and Open Source Blog — 3 November 2007 @ 9:33 pm
[...] Foundation may be moving to a Shared Source style of licensing its really not the case. While Russell Ossendryver may think that the GNOME Foundation helping with OpenXML may be a bad thing I for one applauded [...]
Pingback by GNOME Foundation Endorses MS OpenXML « The Tech Journal — 25 November 2007 @ 2:13 pm
[...] GNOME's involvement in the effort recently sparked stern rebukes from backers of the ODF (Open Document Format), such as Russell Ossendryver, a member of the OpenDocument Fellowship. "It seems that GNOME is becoming Microsoft's cat's-paw to damage and slow down open source and open standards," he wrote. [...]
Pingback by Info World » Blog Archive » GNOME Foundation defends OOXML involvement — 26 November 2007 @ 3:20 pm
[...] GNOME's involvement in the effort recently sparked stern rebukes from backers of the ODF (Open Document Format), such as Russell Ossendryver, a member of the OpenDocument Fellowship. "It seems that GNOME is becoming Microsoft's cat's-paw to damage and slow down open source and open standards," he wrote. [...]
Pingback by Techzi » Blog Archive » GNOME Foundation defends OOXML involvement — 26 November 2007 @ 5:11 pm
[...] for OOXML is essentially a betrayal of the aims of the Free Software community. Here’s a snapshot of that viewpoint from Russell Ossendryver: Having Gnome team members promoting the agenda of its [...]
Pingback by tecosystems » With Friends Like These - GNOME, OOXML, and ODF: A Q&A — 30 November 2007 @ 1:45 am
[...] A Letter to the Gnome Foundation [...]
Pingback by TuxWorkshop — 6 December 2007 @ 4:38 pm
I would like to see a continuation of the topic
Comment by Maximus — 20 December 2007 @ 2:37 am
OOXML is dead anyway. It’s like Video 2000 against VHS. Or Blueray against… the game is already lost. Stop wasting this earths time.
Comment by Marky Goldstein — 5 February 2008 @ 3:35 pm
quality consultants…
ISO is derived from the Greek word isos, which means “equal”. The prefix -iso occurs in many words, such as isometric, meaning equal measure or dimensions and isonomy, meaning equality of laws or people before the law. From equal to “standard,” t…
Trackback by quality consultants — 19 October 2008 @ 3:48 pm