Microsoft Bid for 'Open' XML Format Gets a Big Thumbs-Down

By Angela Natividad (@Luckthelady) Sep 4, 2007

Microsoft's Open XML format has just been turned down for international standard status.

Microsoft reportedly fails two major criteria for standards designation under the rules of the ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission.

Only 74 percent of 87 bidding countries supported the Microsoft bid. The company needed at least 75 percent to meet the voting standard.

And out of a necessary 66 percent favorable vote from countries on the Joint Technical Committee 1, the open XML format only received 58 percent, according to an anonymous source for the International Herald Tribune.

President Pieter Hintjens of the Foundation for a Free Information Infrastructure, a Brussels-based organization that opposed Microsoft's format, attributed the failure to that “Microsoft simply lobbied too hard.”

Microsoft has stated it would work with opponents to amend the standard, but Hintjens is skeptical that the good-faith move will help. He noted that unless Microsoft is willing to make its secret coding public domain, few opposing countries will take a second look.