I care if there is more than one standard.   It is a matter of choice.  At
the point that governments make policy that procurements require a product
have a standard's status, having a choice of standards is a matter of having
competitive products.   As you pointed out, there are a range of positions
and people in this debate, but at the extremes, the anti-OOXML forces
consistently take the point that there should only be one standard, thus no
choice.  That these are the same people who put "Open" in the name of their
candidate is not just a little bizarre.  

The anti-MS part of this is old grudges amplified by years of repetition.
When Tim was caught in the same meat grinder of being a paid consultant to
Netscape and MS protested, he was quite publicly angry and possibly still
is.  When similar charges came to your door, Rick, your treatment was a
quite a bit worse publicly.  Tim, you know that to be true.  So let's back
the heck away from the anti-MS FUD tactics.   

IMO, the issue of importance here is whether or not our customers will have
choice in their products.   

This is evolving toward one of three attractors (not a good thing given the
chaotic orbit):

1. The policies change with respect to procurements and standards lose some
clout but maintain some respect.

2. Standard submissions quit being politicized by the business competitors
as a mean to fix the competition.  ooXML goes forward even if later.

3.  Standards become a bigger joke and the weight of market share is felt in
its full impact.  ooXML goes forward but as a keiretsu standard on the same
footing as ODF.

A betting man will take the third position.  The ultimate outcome then is
that standards are weaker and the web is wilder.

len

From: Rick Marshall [mailto:rjm@z...] 


for the record my view is that i don't care if there's more than one 
standard - there's often more than one standard for the same job - take 
screw threads for instance - whitworth (the original), af, metric for 
starters.

the important things is we all know what they mean and how to get and/or 
build a tool to do the job with them. i'm more concerned by the attitude 
(policy?) of this is now a standard but we're the only ones who can use 
it. that's not a standard.

the other thing that popped up in this discussion that worries me is 
that ms seems to be publishing new standards for dates etc as part of 
this one rather than using existing standards. this raises lots more 
questions and possible objections.