The end of last week saw Patrick Durusau has posted another open letter on his site, again urging supporters of ODF to support the standardization of OpenXML within ISO.
His letter is titled “Genies, Peasants and NOOOXML“. As in some of his previous letters he is taking a long term view on the benefits that the ratification of OpenXML would bring to the community as a whole.
One evening, through a cold miserable rain, a hungry Russian peasant was walking home. A luminous being appeared in their path. “Please! If you will make one wish, it will free me from my prison!” The genie pointed to an oddly shaped lamp on the side of the path. “Wish for anything you want, food, power, wealth, …, anything!” The peasant grunted, “I wish my neighbor’s cow would die,” as he pushed
past the genie to continue home.The strategy behind NOOXML strikes me as being quite similar to that of the Russian peasant. It seeks nothing that would benefit itself, no new product to sell to customers, no new service to serve as a revenue stream. It is simply a wish that “…my neighbors cow would die.”
On a similar note, I notice from Doug Mahugh’s blog that the US V1 committee has met to discuss its position on the DIS29500 vote that will be cast by the United States.
Their recommendation continues to be to APPROVE the ratification of OpenXML, despite the personal comments made by their head of delegation as the BRM came to a close in Geneva.
This isn’t the final position for the United States, but it is a positive step. Doug explains in his post;
The final outcome: we are recommending that the US maintain its Approve position on DIS 29500. The next step will be for the INCITS Executive Board to conduct a letter ballot to approve this result.
Finally Brian Jones has posted more information about the work that took place at the BRM in Geneva, outlining some of the more complex issues that were discussed and how they were resolved during the meeting;
It was really a crazy week, and I know that a lot of people went without sleep as we worked around the clock to make the most of the opportunity. It was a chance for everyone to discuss additional things they wanted to see done with the spec, and also to meet those folks who will probably be involved in the next version of the spec as it enters into maintenance (assuming it is approved this month).
He misinterprets and misreports the Russian peasant joke.