Sweden voted yes for OOXML, or was it Microsoft themselves that rigged the voting?.
When SIS held the vote whether OOXML becomes a new ISO-standard or not in Sweden, 24 new member companies signed up so they could vote - majority Microsoft partners
The Swedish blogger Marcus Rejås who paid 17000 SEK to vote against OOXML found it useless as he discovered that 24 new companies paid the fee and joined SIS, where the majority had strong ties to Microsoft itself - Microsoft partners.
According to Marcus SIS accepts new members in their work group for OOXML up to the time of the starting of the meeting, which costs 17000 SEK.
2000 SEK for the joining fee and 15000 for work group costs.
- Just the fact that SIS allows new groups to join up to the meeting starts without them participating in the work group and the fact that you can pay 17000 SEK and be able to work is just scandalous!
He also sees the fact that SIS sells votes for 17000 SEK as outrageous as SIS seems to be a ideal organisation.
here’s a list of the companies voting, taken from Marcus’s blog:
Exor AB (Microsoft Partner)
Formpipe software AB (Microsoft Gold Partner)
H-Vision AB (doesn’t exist, typo?)
HP
Cybernetics (Microsoft Gold Partner)
Google (voted against OOXML)
Ibizkit AB (Microsoft Partner)
Readrift AB (doesn’t exist, typo?)
Emric AB (Microsoft Partner)
Strand Interconnect AB (Microsoft Gold Partner)
Nordicstation AB (Microsoft Partner)
Sourcetech AB (Microsoft Partner)
Cornerstone Sweden AB (Microsoft Gold Partner)
Solid Park AB (Microsoft Gold Partner)
Fishbode systems AB (Microsoft Gold Partner)
FSSystem AB
KnowIT Sverige (Microsoft Gold Partner)
Modul 1 (Microsoft Gold Partner)
IDE Nätverkskonsulter (Microsoft Gold Partner)
Connecta AB (Microsoft Gold Partner)
Camako Data AB (Microsoft Gold Partner)
Sogeti AB (Microsoft Gold Partner)
Tieto Enator Corp. (Microsoft Gold Partner)
According to Marcus’s estimates 22 voted yes which means that Sweden’s vote landed around 374 000 SEK - which he sees as cheap for microsoft’s part.
Source: Marcus’s blog (Swedish)
Yeah well if you got the money this things happen more often, you can’t fight the evil!
steve
August 28th, 2007
Microsoft forced partners to vote Yes
“Vote Yes to OOXML and we’ll make sure that you get extra marketing money for you campaigns; this is Microsoft’s Sweden’s own words when they rounded up their Gold Partners in Sweden. Klas Hammar, Microsoft Sweden now regrets the formulation and regrets that the e-mail was sent out.”
Above speaks for itself on Microsoft’s ethics; get more here:
http://www.os2world.com/content/view/14871/2/
Landreth
August 30th, 2007
[…] Microsoft accused of rigging the OOXML vote […]
Não ao OpenXML « Felipe’s Journal
September 5th, 2007