Hi all,

Hey, let me make it clear, there is already an ISO Open Document Format as
an open standard and approved and in place and being used, Microsoft just
wants to battle it with its "Vendor Backed" OOXML format so that it can have
its "Always There" & "Monopolistic Advantage" to lock-in everyone who uses
it to Microsoft. Boy, don't we all love Microsoft for that? Since we are so
naïve, we never thought of looking at: ISO/IEC 26300:2006
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnum
ber=43485

I would like to appreciate Shahzad's optimism as always, but still, I would
remain very skeptical on Pakistan's decision to vote in favor or against MS
OOXML Specification, we already know their answer, despite our efforts and
the reasons being very factual, and that have continuously been witnessed on
the Pakistan ICT Policy list since we first brought up the issues and
started the campaign against OOXML. We have had an experienced background to
do so, not claiming that we have full knowledge against it, just for the
sake of it, and we continue to advocate against it.

First, international vendors and corporations like Red Hat India and Google
were the first ones to notify Pakistan of the MS OOXML campaign, even IBM
Pakistan didn’t respond, which definitely shows lack of responsibility on
their part whereas they have been beating the Open Source drums for quite
some years now probably since 2001. Novell India that heavily pushes Suse
Linux and OpenSuse (all carrying ODF support) that services Pakistan has
been also acting like a chicken, probably their eggs will hatch soon.

Secondly as far as the Government of Pakistan with reference to the Ministry
of IT & T and Pakistan Software Export Board is concerned, now that the PSEB
MD has left his seat, I can guarantee you, the acting MD may have no
knowledge of the issue and it would definitely be a hectic task to have him
or his new team go through the 6000 document specification and understand
all the technical and not so technical jargon and identify where Pakistan
should have its position in the process. I don't blame them, their eggs may
be ready to hatch too, its summer already.

Reality bites but Ministry of IT has no control or intervention power over
the Pakistan Quality Standards body as it falls under the Ministry of
Science and Technology that is totally alien to Open Source Software, Open
Standards, for them, the Internet may be believed to be a product of
Microsoft too. A bit of letters may have revoked some activity in favor of
the OOXML discussion but that was due to continuous pushing from our end to
the PSEB to take up its stance on such an IT/ICT issue as it affects their
members. Only a handful of vendors of open source solutions from Pakistan
intelligently pursued the matter despite PSEB claiming it was playing a role
but if you browse through our email exchange with the ex-MD PSEB on the
subject, he had raised his hands as well declaring PSEB has intervened for
all it could in its limited capacity. Big round to the IT Industry, as they
claim, they are well aware of "all" the technology advancements around the
globe, we can say "DUH" to that.

Second set of issues involve, the local industry is hardly aware of the
existing ISO open standard called Open Document Format or XML-ODF or how
these affect its future of document exchange. With the new Electronic Crime
Bills and various other electronic ordinances, we will be witnessing a lot
of foul play, I am not going to explain it here though but we may remain
optimistic that it's going to eventually happen. Well just for "Pete's Sake"
and since all of already knew about it, and to feed my sheer optimism in
favor of Shahzad, here is information about the standard:

ISO/IEC 26300:2006 - Information technology -- Open Document ...
http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_tc/catalogue_detail.htm?csnum
ber=43485

OpenDocument - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia |
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OpenDocument

OASIS Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) |
http://www.oasis-open.org/committees/office/

In order to vote against OOXML, it must be initially recognized that our
Government lacks knowledge on the Open Document Format ODF, the existing
open standard and specification already approved by ISO. It never accepted
it in the first place and isn’t against it either since its awareness on the
subject is limited and we would like to assure you that with the way things
have been, there may be less luck in the future.

The purpose of XML-based ODF is for document contents to become independent
from specified application or vendor's file format and vendor lock-in, an
important issue that governments must take into consideration, especially
the Government of Pakistan that has many ICT/IT programs in progress
throughout the public infrastructure. Hence open and transparent
standardization process through opinions from worldwide user community is
being developed and its position has strengthened since its official
approval from ISO, international organization for standards, as file format
standard.

For example, the Korea Agency for Technology and Standards announced in
November 2007 that it had accepted ODF as a national standard (KS) and
OpenOffice.org applications such as word processor, spreadsheet,
presentation etc, have been accepted as document formats for the first time
thus following the KS establishment, ODF now stands as the national standard
for Korea, have we heard anything of this nature from Pakistan?

It must also be noted that even though Korea approved ODF as KS, it is not
compulsory for users but it could be influential in public institutions as a
choice of document standard. At the time, 23 countries were voting rights
including Korea all voted in favor, thus it was approved as ODF without any
objection. According to an official at Korea Agency for Technology and
Standards, ODF was approved as ISO standard for it realizes open mind with
participation of various vendors and it is not subordinated to a specific
vendor. These reason also worked for the approval as KS in its case.

I would like to point you all to realize that what you all think or
anticipate is happening here is not actually action but discussion. Like the
PKNIC issue, clearly diverted to a point of no-discussion. Same goes on the
OOXML case, just be optimistic because pessimism is only for the action
takers. A change in attitudes and coalitions for change is required. Things
are getting messed up and we just want to play wearing blindfolds to the
problems arising instead of gearing up towards taking action to resolve
them.

Anyways, as always, going on with sharing Shahzad's optimism, the world is
beautiful, we are all intelligent, we are not going to vote in favor of
OOXML and we are really all aware of ODF, PKNIC is no more an issue, we
govern the internet really well, oh there really is no problem, if there is,
lets hope it will just disintegrate with our optimism. Keep up the good work
all and beat the drums on Pakistan ICT Policy but lets understand one thing
for sure, it ain't all peanut butter and jelly for us.

Btw, Shahzad, I would love to know what you feeded the government officials
and what we campaigned for, I hope it’s the same thing, oh, by the way,
don’t get me wrong, but, did you feed the ODF pill first or the OOXML first
because what's happening is making perfect logical sense.

Best optimist ever

Fouad Bajwa
FOSS Advocate with a twist