[Fwd: ECMA 376 - When standards produce fictitious days]

[Jon 'maddog' Hall]

Hi,

Below is a letter that I sent to the Secretary of ISO who is holding a
new standard that is trying to be rammed^h^h^h^h^h^hpassed through the
Fast-Track process by Microsoft.

Now normally I take these things with a grain of salt, but when I looked
at the objections on the site, the FIRST one I hit was this one:

http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/EOOXML_objections#The_Gregorian_Calendar

and I could start to feel my blood boil a bit.  Then I started to go
down the list in a more selective fashion, and I found this:

http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/EOOXML_objections#Undisclosed_proprietary_specifications

Now ten years ago I might have understood a standard based on a widely
used commercial product, but with the Internet and "Openness" I would
hope that the standards bodies would get a little better.

So while normally I would not suggest that someone "fill up a person's
email inbox" with form letter, I suggest that you go to the list and
find your favorite outrage, formulate a letter specifically about that,
and send it to Mr. Bryden

My thanks to Jomar Silva <homembit at uol.com.br> for his original letter
(included below my letter to Mr. Bryden), making me aware of this.

-------- Forwarded Message --------
From: Jon 'maddog' Hall <maddog at li.org>
Reply-To: maddog at li.org
To: bryden at iso.org
Cc: Jon 'maddog' Hall <maddog at li.org>
Subject: ECMA 376 - When standards produce fictitious days
Date: Fri, 02 Feb 2007 13:03:13 -0500

Dear Mr. Bryden,

It has come to my attention that ECMA 376 is under Fast-Track processing
as an ISO specification.  This is in regards to the OpenXML
specification, which is over 6000 pages long.  Microsoft has submitted
this as a Fast-Track submission to ISO and is ramming it through.

The review period was only a month, and given the fact that people in
that short time have found several objections:

(http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/EOOXML_objections)

to a specification that will have such world-wide impact, I think that
some more time and effort should be put into the review process and that
ECMA should come to resolution of these issues and consensus in the
world-wide community before re-submitting this proposal.

In addition, as an elder 38-year member of the commercial computer
industry, historian and computer scientist, I really have to say that I
am *shocked* at the concept of invalidating existing standards of
calendar creation (ISO 8601) and the *definition* of the Georgian
calendar just because of a bug in one commercial vendor's particular
product.  If you do not know what I am talking about, and especially if
you *do* know what I am talking about, then you *have* to send the
Fast-Track proposal back to ECMA.

Warmest regards,

Jon "maddog" Hall

================================Jomar's letter===============================
                              From: 
Jomar Silva <homembit at uol.com.br>
                                To: 
maddog at li.org
                           Subject: 
OpenXML proposal at ISO
                              Date: 
Fri, 02 Feb 2007 14:50:45 -0200
(11:50 EST)


Hi Maddog,

   It's been a long time since our last contact, but I (and the whole 
community) need your help.

   As you may already known, Microsoft submited on january 5th a 
Fast-Track submission to ISO, regarding the OpenXML specification. The 
final date of this analysis is the next monday, 5th of february.

   Seeing that there are too many contradictions about this 
specifications, and the community don't has a official way to act on 
this process, we're asking here in Brazil to the community members to 
send the e-mail message found bellow to the Secretary of ISO, Mr. 
Bryden. We believe that if he receives at least 500 messages and read
at 
least one time the link mentioned, he will see that the world-wide 
community is watching his decisions.

   If you can send copy of this e-mail to your contacts and
communities, 
you will be helping all of us.

   Best regards, and thank you for your help,

Jomar Silva

--------------------------------------
PARA: bryden at iso.org
SUBJECT: Objections to JTC-1 Fast-Track Processing of the Ecma 376 
Specification v. 0.1
MENSAGEM:

Mr. Bryde,

  I'm writing you regarding the Fast-Track processing of the ECMA 376 
specification.

  You can see on this website 
(http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/EOOXML_objections) there are several 
objections that the world-wide community found on the proposed 
specification (more than 6000 pages to be analysed only on 30 days).

  For those reasons, I would like to ask you to send the specification 
back to ECMA, and accept it back when all the issues are solved.

  Best regards,

A member of world-wide community