Would It Matter whether Microsoft Didn t Cheat with OOXML Approval?

The International Party for Standardization (ISO) has adopted an international standard based on Microsoft's Office Open XML (OOXML) document format. This adoption process has caused some to jar provided Microsoft enduring armed this standard into existence.

I've been watching the approval process for OOXML with some interest. Never before have I seen a vendor that has the existing standard for anything challenged in this fashion. I'm not definite what it means for the market, but regardless of which side you are on, I conclude both sides can agree the process sure trumped-up ISO look like a joke. Seriously, when should an approval process look adore a U.S. election (with hanging chads)?

Regardless of prevailing opinion that Microsoft cheated to get ISO approval, would it even matter if it didn't? Currently, there is no evidence that it has, still though there is an in fashion investigation. If I apply the teachings from the book "True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society," I'd conclude, probably correctly, that it doesn"t. (As a side note, much of the coverage on this volume has been on Apple fan behavior, which is actually a really tiny part of the book.) By the way, while the manual has besides fleeting to cook with tech, it should be required reading for all of us as it showcases how we are losing the ability to determine the truth, which could obtain significant adverse life consequences.

The Damning Evidence Against Microsoft

There isn't any on this vote; there is only an investigation, which so far just makes the process look bad. I may be nuts, but don't you admit to prove guilt?

However, Microsoft currently has so yet oversight from the U.S. and European governments that it seems to be an cleared book at the moment.

There is apparently an independent report saying that OOXML is really better than ODF, and the editor of ODF has formallly away on record saying that if OOXML lost, so does ODF, suggesting that there may have been good reasons to approve it.

Microsoft Isn't That Powerful

I"d like you to stop and comprehend of the Mac vs. PC campaign that Apple is running where they nightly fabricate Bill Gates look like a stupid, self-centered, untrustworthy twit. Now don"t you think, given that Steve Ballmer and Bill Gates are close friends and Windows is Microsoft"s most primary product, were Microsoft that powerful, those ads wouldn"t exist? Think for a moment what would happen if Sybase tried this with Larry Ellison and Oracle, or IBM with Michael Dell.

If Microsoft doesn"t even have the power to protect its trade-mark or the image of its founder, do you really envision it has the power to overturn a referendum that cuts across this many people? Remember when they gave Ferrari laptops out for Vista Web review? Fact of the matter is, it wouldn"t work.

Why It Doesn"t Matter

According to the research in "True Enough," and it is substantive, in this age of artistic reality, people form opinions augmented on what they want to believe than the actual facts. In effect, folks will both selectively choose to read matters that agree with their world design and selectively interpret evidence they are confronted with to confirm that view.

In fact, in the book, there was substantial evidence that when confronted with opinions that might clash with what they believe, folks will conclude the source is suspect and the person writing or talking has been bribed. That appears to be the case in this instance.

This means that Microsoft isn"t virgin until proven guilty - it is guilty unless proven innocent, and all the more in the unlikely event such proof is even possible, the folks speaking gone couldn"t examine it if it were 10 feet tall and standing on their collective chests.

The botheration for Microsoft is that if enough people believe Microsoft cheated, they won"t use the OOXML because they won"t trust it or Microsoft. In fact, I expect folks to use this belief as yet another dialectics to choose a non-Microsoft thought broadly.

The Big Message

If we absolutely don"t fancy to be able to tell the difference between fact and fiction, we are so incredibly screwed. For instance, if we agree that Microsoft taking outside all election is wrong, why would we also not agree that making the only choice ODF was equally wrong? Existence free to choose only one device isn"t freedom, no matter what the choice is.

Let me place this into bona fide perspective and method above Microsoft. I belong to a assembly called the Lifeboat Foundation, which is committed to saving the human chase from extinction. Go now, a good figure of members are convinced that we are building a slogan that will dispatch the earth. Others are convinced that this device is critical to our future. If the people deciding have no more connection to the facts than the folks rendering their opinions on OOXML, we are either all dead or on a path to another Dark Ages.

In short, if we can"t each at least try to make the truth matter, the approval of OOXML will be the least of our problems. It"s not just Microsoft that"s screwed , we all are.

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06 Oct 2008 11:37:22

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