Andy Updegrove has the news that South Africa has filed an official appeal, protesting the approval of OOXML, and their action means that OOXML is now in limbo until the appeal ends:SABS, the National Body member of ISO/IEC JTC1 for South Africa, has filed a formal appeal with both ISO and IEC, challenging the Fast Track adoption of OOXML.

3 nations (at least) are already confirmed to have appealed against ISO's decision

Slashdot seems to suggest that Brazil filed an appeal against OOXML (ISO's decision on it) after all.

Now that there have been at least three official appeals filed against OOXML, by South Africa, Brazil and India, as well as a letter of protest from a participant entity at the BRM over the way matters were handled in Denmark, I thought this might be an excellent time to take a moment and remind ISO of its published Code of Ethics [PDF].

Representatives from developing countries (primarily of South America) reject OOXML and ISO's decision.

The South African Bureau of Standards (SABS) on Friday approved the Open Document Format (ODF) as an official national South African standard. The adoption of ODF by South Africa opens the way for the businesses and government to adopt ODF more widely in their processes. ODF is already an international standard, approved by the International Standards Organisation, or ISO.

I've been puzzling over something in the ISO press release announcing that the four appeals against OOXML as an ISO standard, from Brazil, India, South Africa and Venezuela, would go no further. In the press release, it said this:According to the ISO/IEC rules, DIS 29500 can now proceed to publication as an ISO/IEC International Standard.

The Shuttleworth Foundation has sent out a press relase explaining what it believes is wrong with OOXML as a standard, and stating its conviction that the the South Africa Bureau of Standards has a strong case for appeal.

The other day we mentioned South Africa because of its decision to embrace OpenDocument format. Shortly afterwards we spotted Microsoft’s plan to pay a little visit to this country. Coincidence? Maybe.