With 6,000 pages of text subject to 1,100 modifications, all to be approved
by 120 delegates from 37 countries in just five days, the task facing the standards
committee discussing Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) document format in
Geneva this week is mammoth.

Its work will influence whether OOXML is adopted as a standard by the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO).

The members of ISO/International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Joint Technical
Committee 1 have already rejected OOXML once, in a vote last September. National
bodies made around 3,500 comments on the draft standard in that ballot. ISO
passed the comments to ECMA International, an industry consortium that submitted
the OOXML draft to ISO for standardization. ECMA has whittled them down to 1,100
recommendations for processing at the Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) in Geneva
this week.

Delegates at the meeting must decide to accept each of ECMA's recommendations,
reject them or make some other change instead.

It began calmly, with the meeting's convenor, the editor of the draft standard
and other officials presenting themselves, according to people familiar with
the proceedings, which is closed to outside observers. Then it was quickly down
to business.

In alphabetical order, national delegations took turns to raise one of the
1,100 issues with the draft standard that they felt needed change.

Some matters raised were resolved, through a mix of consensus decision and
voting, but others were remitted for later decision. Ad-hoc working parties
formed, to talk through topics during breaks or overnight. Among those topics
discussed was an idea for the creation of conformance criteria for the standard.

Other yet-to-be-resolved comments cover the spectrum from philosophical objections
down to quibbles over punctuation.

Discussion was free and open on Monday, according to those involved, but became
more polarized on day two. By Tuesday evening the committee was just half way
through the second round of national delegates.

Wednesday's business included a proposal to approve a bundle of dozens of "purely
editorial" modifications in one go.

National delegations come to the meeting with a view on what it will take to
satisfy the objections they made in the September vote, but may have to formulate
a position "on the fly" for others. Delegates may come from national
standards bodies, or from companies with a technical interest in the matter.
A number of them are employees of Microsoft, but also of IBM, seen as a staunch
opponent of OOXML. IBM favors the rival OpenDocument Format, which has already
won ISO approval as standard ISO/IEC 26300 and is used by StarOffice, Lotus
Symphony and OpenOffice.org.

In the committee room, delegates are making use of technology, with some quietly
exchanging views by instant messaging during debate, say insiders. The meeting
room at Geneva's International Conference Center has an open Wi-Fi network and
mobile phones are allowed in the room, although delegates have been asked not
to take photographs.

There's not much to photograph, in any case, said one delegate. "There's
no shouting, no throwing chairs. It's all very polite."

The committee must find some way to deal with all 1,100 comments by Friday
night -- although that may not mean discussing them individually. Three proposals
are apparently on the table for disposing of comments unresolved at the end
of the meeting: to accept ECMA's recommendations without modification, to reject
ECMA's recommendations and leave the draft unchanged on the unresolved matters,
or to conduct a paper ballot on each.

While the third of those options sounds the most democratic, it robs national
delegations of the opportunity to propose their own modifications, say those
involved. Yet allowing delegations to submit other options to a paper ballot
after the meeting is itself fraught with complications, as there is no guarantee
of a majority vote -- and then no meeting in which to reach consensus.

After the meeting closes, the editor of the draft standard will compile all
the approved modifications into a new draft. Delegates will report back to their
national standards bodies, and each will have 30 days to decide whether they
approve the revised text and seal OOXML's fate as an international standard.

IDG News Service

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