‘Let market decide on technology’

Printed in the New Straits Times, page 18 on the 10th of September 2007. This was in response to the infamous article which criticised the Ministry of Science, Technology and Innovation for "dragging its feet".

===

‘Let market decide on technology’

 

Datuk Seri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis is not against the format

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia abstained from voting for Microsoft’s Open Office XML (Open XML) as an ISO standard on the "technology-neutral" principle, the Science, Technology and Innovation Ministry has said.

  This means that it is not against the proposed standard, but would rather let the market decide on which technology meets its needs, minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaludin Jarjis said in a statement.

His statement was in response to a report that the ministry does not support Open XML as an ISO 9001:2000 standard.

Open XML is a document format, or a set of specifications, which supports its respective software.

Jamaludin said abstaining from voting meant that the Open XML would need to go through a more rigorous standardisation process.
  A review will be held in February.

ISO member countries will then look at proposals for re-evaluation, and the proposer of Open XML can resubmit its application to be published as a standard.

"By abstaining, it does not mean that Malaysia agrees or disagrees with the new proposed standard, but that at the moment it is too premature to make a concrete decision based on vague and unclear information."

He said the government consulted key ministries, agencies and industries before reaching its decision to abstain from voting.

Another reason cited for abstaining was concerns over the format voiced by the market and industry.

Seventeen countries voted to approve, nine abstained, while 15 voted against approval, including several European Union countries and three of the Group of Five countries.

Comments

[John Drinkwater]

‘Jamaludin said abstaining from voting meant that the Open XML would need to go through a more rigorous standardisation process.’

Does he actually believe that a *shrug* vote will have put OOXML through a more rigorous process? :s

Whenever people don’t want to be seen taking sides, they suggest, ‘let the market decide’. In a market like this, with a monopolist that you just know is going to try everything it can, how is the market deciding?

--
I know a US friend, his school has rolled out a few hundred new Vista machines, and all the students can have free copies of Office 2007!
Thanks MS, dumping software onto children to get them ‘hooked’.

[Harish Pillay]

It would be good to record what the Malaysian vote on the ODF was last year. I reckon it was yes. On that count, I think the minister is implicitly stating that abstaining was probably the right thing to do for there was already an ISO document standard.

I would like to contrast that with the Singapore vote. Singapore voted Yes to ODF last year and Yes again to OOXML this year - two document standards in two years. It would appear that the Singapore group is probably confused - or was voting under M$ pressure. Looking back at how the world voted, both Malaysia and Singapore are out of sync on how the world saw this episode.

[yoonkit]

Harish,

Didn't Malaysia and Singapore vote "No" to Fast Tracking MSOOXML early this year in the February Vote? Why are our countries so "confused"?

yk.