If corrupt, vote for OOXML
(Credit: Electronic Frontier Finland)The terrible "standards" process for Open Office XML (OOXML) just got a new wrinkle today. Electronic Frontier Finland analyzed the OOXML results and compared them to the Corruptions Perceptions Index. Guess what? There is a material correlation between the two.
Surprise, surprise. Put into logical language, all crooks vote for OOXML. :-)
Of course, the data/correlation needs to be taken with a grain of salt (or maybe the Salt Flats), but the one thing that is probably not at issue is that the process was tainted by corruption, however benevolently some may want to spin it. It's unfortunate that people should stoop so low for a few billion dollars in sales. Integrity isn't worth the price (and I think both sides are probably culpable, though my bias has me seeing more on the Microsoft side).
Matt Asay brings a decade of in-the-trenches open-source business and legal experience to The Open Road, with an emphasis on emerging open-source business strategies and opportunities. Matt is vice president of business development at Alfresco, a company that develops open-source software for content management. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
