Critics have reacted angrily after most of the proposed changes to a draft standard for Microsoft's Open Office (XML) standard were waved through at an ISO meeting last week in Geneva.

The New Zealand Open Source Society is warning government and business users that the Microsoft-sponsored Open XML file format is "peppered" with potential patent liabilities.

Microsoft is pushing to get their new office document format, "Office Open XML" better known as OOXML, through the ISO fast track process in order to get it approved as an open standard.

On September 2, the comment and voting period will close on ISO/IEC DIS 29500, the draft specification based upon Microsoft's Office Open XML formats (OOXML). The Linux Foundation (LF) has received questions from outside its membership regarding its position on adoption of OOXML in its current form as a global standard, and on the adoption process itself.

Following criticism from the Open Source Industry Association (OSIA) over its ambition to have the Office Open XML (Open XML or OOXML) format accepted as an international (ISO) standard, Microsoft's group product manager for Microsoft Office, Gray Knowlton, spoke with Computerworld about why the world needs two standard document formats.

Hello to Tuesday's IT Blogwatch: in which the deadline looms for national standards bodies to vote on Microsoft's proposed "Open Office XML" ISO standard. Not to mention comparative lavatories...

Remember I told you I've noticed that people who don't support Microsoft's agenda end up the victim of smear campaigns?... The New Zealand Open Source Society is reporting that an employee at Microsoft recently sent an email to one of the technical bodies advising an NB involved in the OOXML ISO process, smearing a man's reputation

The GNOME Foundation has issued a statement in response to recent accusations that it has been supporting the acceptance of Microsoft's Office Open XML format (OOXML) as an ECMA standard at the expense of the Open Document Format (ODF), the open standard used by OpenOffice.org, KOffice and other free software office applications.

Standards New Zealand have casted a ‘NO’ vote on the proposal to adopt the Open XML draft Standard as an international Standard.