03.04.2008
Microsoft Sighs Relief After Winning Open XML Vote
The Geneva-based International Organization for Standardization (ISO) announced that Office Open XML (OOXML) has been now approved as a standard.
According to the report published earlier, opponents of the Microsoft certification had argued that introducing a rival to the already ISO-approved Open Document Format (ODF), developed by a consortium around Sun Microsystems, defeated the purpose of having standards.
The effort to make Open XML an ISO standard did not pass a ballot in September, which precipitated a follow-on Ballot Resolution Meeting in February where, after redundancies were eliminated, over 1,000 issues were considered, according to the ISO.
According to OpenDoc Society, Microsoft won 75 per cent of the votes in a second ballot.
