Comments on: Microsoft now owns the ISO JTC 1 http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2007/12/09/microsoft-now-owns-the-iso-jtc-1/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=microsoft-now-owns-the-iso-jtc-1 The Magic of Open Source Fri, 10 Feb 2012 18:02:33 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.4 By: Alan Bell http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2007/12/09/microsoft-now-owns-the-iso-jtc-1/comment-page-1/#comment-370 Alan Bell Mon, 10 Dec 2007 09:47:33 +0000 http://www.theopensourcerer.com/2007/12/09/microsoft-now-owns-the-iso-jtc-1/#comment-370 This is a worry, this may affect ISO at a number of levels. Clearly SC34 is broken now, they can't approve anything without a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whip_%28politics%29#Three_Line_Whip" rel="nofollow">three line whip</a> from Microsoft to get out the votes of the new P members. But what else is broken? well the new P members actually have their voting status across all of JTC1, not just the SC34 bit of JTC1. JTC1 is a technical committee of ISO in collaboration with the IEC, could the problem spread out of JTC1 to the rest of ISO? Well yes, it could. If, as we suspect, Microsoft have gained a controlling interest in several national bodies in the context of a technical vote, they probably have that level of control in the national bodies for any other committee they care to join. Just a few years and we will be putting M4 paper into our printers. This is a worry, this may affect ISO at a number of levels. Clearly SC34 is broken now, they can’t approve anything without a three line whip from Microsoft to get out the votes of the new P members. But what else is broken? well the new P members actually have their voting status across all of JTC1, not just the SC34 bit of JTC1. JTC1 is a technical committee of ISO in collaboration with the IEC, could the problem spread out of JTC1 to the rest of ISO? Well yes, it could. If, as we suspect, Microsoft have gained a controlling interest in several national bodies in the context of a technical vote, they probably have that level of control in the national bodies for any other committee they care to join. Just a few years and we will be putting M4 paper into our printers.

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