Gates goes to Washington as US OOXML decision nears

Microsoft's last-minute lobbying in the US on behalf of its Office Open XML document format included a visit by outgoing chairman Bill Gates to a US Congressional committee last week.

The executive board of the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards, or INCITS, is expected to tally the results of a letter ballot whether or not to maintain its position in favor of OOXML's ratification in ISO.

Most of INCITS' 19 members are large high-tech vendors, including Microsoft, HP, EMC, Intel, Sony Electronics, and Apple, all of whom supported OOXML last September, as well as opponents such as IBM and Oracle.

But more than a third of INCITS' members are federal groups, such as the US Department of Defense, the US Department of Homeland Security and the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), or industry trade groups with close ties to Washington DC. The industry contingent includes the IEEE, the Electronic Industries Alliance, GS1 US, and a new member, RFID and barcode standards consortium AIM Global.

Gates spoke ( YouTube video) Wednesday in front of the US House of Representatives' committee on science and technology. Though most of his talk was devoted to his own predictions concerning the future of IT, he answered a question from Washington state congressman Brian Baird, who said he was "particularly interested in the issue of Open XML and the broader question about standards."

Gates answered that Microsoft wants to see OOXML become an ISO standard, in part, "so that families and researchers and archivists will be able to access information from the past and use it to interact in the future. And it's by mining data like this that I think a lot of the advances in understanding how education is best done, or understanding what should be in the medical field. So it's both an important thing for innovation and an important thing for citizens to have access to information."

Baird, who represents Washington's capitol (Olympia) and other towns south of the Seattle metropolitan area in the US, where most of Microsoft's employees live and work, replied that he "appreciated" and "applauded Microsoft for its leadership in this area and the whole issue of standards."

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Ammo for the opposition?

This softball exchange in the US capitol may give ammunition to OOXML foes, who argue that Microsoft is playing hardball and more in the US and internationally in order to secure OOXML's passage.

For instance, a site called NO OOXML alleged that the that the 17-4 vote by INCITS' V1 technical committee last week in favor of OOXML was tainted because of the numerous Microsoft allies that joined a year ago.

Microsoft technical evangelist Doug Mahugh and V1 member readily admits to contacting Microsoft's partners and customers about joining the committee.

"These people have hands-on experience with XML. My view is that they are exactly the right people for V1," he said by phone. Mahugh denied pressuring or offering incentives to them.

This was corroborated by Adam Jansen, former digital archivist for the US State of Washington, who joined V1 last year and was, until leaving the State, a member.

"There was absolutely no coercion" by Microsoft," Jansen said via phone. "This was a crusade I felt passionate about."

Jansen, who worked closely with Microsoft to start up the state's digital archive project, calls his stance on standards a "pragmatic one. I don't care whether it's ODF or OOXML, as long as they are open."

Big dog isn't barking

IBM, Microsoft's main nemesis, has not filed a formal complaint in INCITS, though its V1 member, Rob Weir, has blogged about it.

It may not matter. Despite V1's failure last year to come to agreement over OOXML, the INCITS Executive Board still ended up voting 12-3 (with 1 abstention) in favor of it.

"The EB definitely has its own mind," said one board member who declined to be named.

And no one has accused the 19-member EB of being packed with allies from either Microsoft or IBM. Packing the EB would be more difficult, in part because of the higher annual membership fee (US$35,000 for companies making more than US$100 million a year, versus US$1,200 for any size company in V1).

Besides AIM Global, other new members to the EB include Adobe Systems -- which, with its ISO-approved PDF format, is pitted against Microsoft -- and mobile phone equipment maker, Qualcomm, which has partnered closely with Microsoft on Windows Mobile and other initiatives.

In the unlikely event that the EB reaches a unanimous position on the first ballot, it will forward that result to ISO, which plans to tally votes worldwide on March 29th. The more likely scenario is that the EB members will next week start proposing resolutions approving, abstaining from, or disapproving OOXML. Those resolutions can be decided by a two-thirds majority (see p. 33 of this INCITS' PDF, or p. 39 in the Acrobat Reader).