This story has appeared in a number of publications over the last few days, I’ll pick up the copy from iTnews in Australia.
The text is based upon an interview with the current ISO Secretary-General, Alan Bryden, where he comments on the recent process to standardize OpenXML as IS29500.
Here are a couple of choice paragraphs;
On some of the public commentary from the press and from various blogs;
“Some of the negative publicity is quite extreme,” Bryden said in written answers to questions from Reuters.
“It’s not exactly pleasant for me to see ISO vilified, particularly when much of the extreme criticism is based on false assumptions and a lack of understanding of what ISO is and how it works.”
On the Fast Track process;
Bryden said criticisms that a fast-track process was abused to rush through the Microsoft standard were unfounded, and said the process was not new but had been used for 267 standards over the last 20 years, 212 of which were still current.
On what ISO do next with the process;
Still, he said there were lessons to learn. “The experience with ISO/IEC 29500, along with the results of other standards development activities, will indeed assist in determining whether further continued improvements should be made.”
And finally, on the issue of multiple standards in similar domains;
“In such cases, multiple standards can exist and it is the market that eventually decides which will survive,” he said.
I’ll leave you to read the whole article here.
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