The US seems set to vote for Microsoft's Open XML (OOXML) file format be ratified as an international standard; the chair of its technical committee said opposition to the file format was based on spite and anti-Microsoft sentiment.
Two members of the technical committee tasked with setting the national position on a pivotal vote said the US will retain its "Approve" position in a vote to make OOXML a standard at the International Organization for Standards (ISO).
The chair of the committee, Patrick Durusau, who is also the editor of the rival OpenDocument standard, said that the controversy surrounding Microsoft's OOXML standards bid is being fuelled by an irrational anti-Microsoft sentiment.
"What is puzzling in this day and age of quarterly reports and returns is that any corporate-governance structure would long tolerate spite as a business strategy. Or that investors would stay with companies that follow such strategies," Durusau wrote on Friday.
The Executive Board of the US technical committee, called INCITS, will make the final decision on that recommendation.
Microsoft started the process of trying to make OOXML an international standard at the ISO two years ago. Last year, OOXML failed to pass a ballot of international standards delegates. But a meeting in Geneva earlier this month, called the Ballot Resolution Meeting, sought to resolve technical problems and move the specification closer to standardisation.
Delegates from national standards bodies have until 29 March to vote on OOXML. If it gains enough support, it will be certified as a standard.
Doug Mahugh, a Microsoft senior product manager and member of the INCITS committee, said on Friday that the next step for the US delegation is to hold a ballot on the recommendation.
In addition to inciting anti-OOXML campaigns, such as the NOOXML movement, Microsoft's handling of the process has dismayed many industry observers, who say the company inappropriately chose an accelerated process for a very complicated technical specification.
A number of attendees to the Ballot Resolution Meeting at the end of last month complained that many of the technical issues were not thoroughly examined and that the credibility of the ISO standard process has been damaged.
In one example, a delegate from Brazil said the country's plan to discuss backward compatibility was not addressed during the BRM.
