I remember my first SC34 Plenary, back in 2006. There were only 5 or 6 people attending the WG1 sessions and none from Microsoft. Now we have 32 total, 12 from Microsoft. Who knew XML was so exciting.

<=> Microsoft attendees = 8 + 4 = 12
<=> current level of MS stacking = 12/35 = 34%

Number confirmed: current level of nominal ISO JTC 1 SC34 Microsoft stacking is 34.375 ( 11/32 ):

1 Canada Mr. John WEIGELT Microsoft
2 Côte d’Ivoire Mr. Wemba OPOTA Microsoft West And Central Africa
3 Finland Mr. Kimmo BERGIUS Microsoft Finland
4 Germany Mr. Mario WENDT Microsoft Deutschland GmbH
5 India Mr. Vijay KAPUR Microsoft India Ltd
6 Italy Mr. Andrea VALBONI Microsoft
7 USA Mr. Dave WELSH Microsoft
8 Ecma Mr. Rex JAESCHKE Microsoft Corporation
9 Ecma Mr. Jean PAOLI Microsoft Corporation
10 Ecma Mr. Doug MAHUGH Microsoft Corporation
11 Ecma Mrs. Isabelle VALET-HARPER Microsoft Corporation

my first sight impression is that the first photo is real

but the second seemed very unreal for me!

I can’t said anything about other NB’s but Microsoft was representing Brazil on that meeting, against the decision of our committee (full story here: http://homembit.com/2008/10/meeting-of-jtc1sc34-in-korea-it-is-the-end-of-the-world-as-we-know-it.html).

They defended and presented THEIR position, not the Brazillians one.

There are several participants in SC34 who have had the stated goal of taking control of OOXML and ODF and maintaining them both in SC34 WG’s. They’ve been quite open about this plan. The problem is that they are planning a future for standards that they neither own nor control nor have technical expertise.

This was an interesting goal when they first articulated this idea, around two years ago. However, now that we’ve seen that JTC1 is easily corruptible, both at the NB, SC and administrative levels, that JTC1 is incapable of fairly carrying out its own Directives, and that in practice SC34 is now so dominated by Microsoft that we could consider it a fully integrated division of Microsoft Corp., this push toward maintaining ODF in SC34 is both naive and dangerous. It will not happen. Doing so would be a huge step backwards in participation,openness, transparency, in IP rights and in technical quality. Drain the swamp first, and then let’s talk.

As for the photos, there are a couple thing going on there. First, I used a circular polarizer at shoot time to darken the sky and improve the contrast. Second, I took a series of bracketed exposures of the same scene, and then combined the images. These techniques allow a single photo to show a wider dynamic range, showing details in both shadow and highlights. But every pixel is real, was there when the picture was shot. Nothing has been added, subtracted or moved. If it looks faked,then I’m not doing it right ;-)

Any comments on their proposal to “take over” ODF maintenance from OASIS?

Did you fake the pictures, they look a bit surreal, especially the second picture.

WuMingShi

John, why would I be interested in hearing Microsoft talk about how they plan on supporting OOXML? That’s not really my department.

In any case, if better interoperability could be achieved by talking about it, or by changing 25% of your employees job titles to “Director of Interoperability” then we would have perfect interoperability by now.

But there is a difference between “caring” and “engineering”, and I’m firmly on the engineering side of interoperability. We don’t get there by social drinking and singing kumbayah.

Rob, do you think that this lawyer is part of the “new and rejuvenated guard” [0] that Microsoft generously provided to SC34 and NBs or he was just accidentally/incidentally attending this meeting? ( a la Doug “the Malaysian” Mahugh ).

Thanks in advance

Felix

[0]
“Most standards bodies are filled with ‘an old guard’ membership that needs rejuvenation”

–Tom Robertson, general manager for interoperability and standards at Microsoft.

(http://www.computerworlduk.com/management/infrastructure/applications/news/index.cfm?newsid=4939)

doing some math:

given that Ecma = Microsoft

<=> Microsoft attendees = 8 + 4 = 12
<=> current level of MS stacking = 12/35 = 34%

A big number indeed … i would call it a defcon 3 or so…

“On another point of detail I did not convene anything during these meetings — too busy looking for defects in ISO/IEC 29500 (on which topic, will the USA be contributing in this area soon?)”

I can see the top guys in Microsoft headquarters laughing and saying: big one! we bought the ISO stamp; and as a bonus we still have NBs and SC34 guys working free for us,,, to try to fix the mess we made throwing this internal Office 2007 documentation ( aka DIS 29500 ) to fast-track.

Delicious!!

I'm sure the attendance list for the meeting will appear in the usual way in due course – as you may have seen from the SC34 feed, the documents from the meeting are still being produced. It not often that the attendance list is such a high priority.

By my (rough, unconfirmed) count, there were eight MS employees in 15 NB delegations (+ 4 people in the Ecma group) out of the 35 or so attendees. There were zero IBM employees. Patrick Durusau was there sometimes with an OASIS hat on. Naturally "MS person != MS position" just as "IBM person != IBM position". Delegates are charged with representing national positions. Your own head of the USA delegation (Dave Welsh) for example is an MS employee yet represents faithfully the position you guys have collectively decided as a committee, right?

On a point of detail I *did* mention the increase in numbers of MS people in SC 34 when it happened (Oslo 2007), see: http://adjb.net/index.php?entry=entry070322-214025. Since then, as your table shows, their attendance in numbers has been the norm.

On another point of detail I did not convene anything during these meetings — too busy looking for defects in ISO/IEC 29500 (on which topic, will the USA be contributing in this area soon?)

I am glad to hear you were taking a (no doubt well-earned) break. As I've said elsewhere, leaving the corporate/national/political concerns to one side I think those of us who have been personally involved in this need some R&R. Nice picture too.

Maybe Prague … ?

beautiful place, Rob , i don’t know it but the photo looks good!