The Elephant in the Room - with a calling card.

If you thought that a Technical Committee meeting cannot get more bizarre, think again. Today was the final meet for SIRIM's Technical Committee for E-Commerce (TC4) to decide on the fate of the OOXML with respect to Malaysia's interests.

As you may have heard, PIKOM, who is also a TC4 and ISC-G member of SIRIM had a little debate just two nights ago. I was invited initially, but was told not to go on Monday because I was NOT a PIKOM member. Then one day later, I was told that I could go. Thinking that it's just Microsoft playing tricks with PIKOM's process, I decided that my time with my extended family was better served than one corporation's mind games. So other PIKOM members (Oracle, IBM, QubeConnect) and non-PIKOM members (Google and Omnilogic) represented the pro-"Not-So-Fast Standards" camp.

Although Microsoft seems to insinuate that I avoided the meeting, I never could have guessed that they flew in the world's experts on OOXML, and therefore dump my family for the other mob which I've gotten to know for the past year and a half! Microsoft didn't tell me that Doug, Oliver, Mr. Ex-Ecma and accessories would be there! Am I supposed to read minds now?

OK. So that's that. Oliver Bell of Microsoft Singapore was disappointed that I wasn't around, and I have a blog post dedicated to me by Doug Mahugh on why I should have been there. That's a first. Anyway, I told Oliver that all's not lost, Microsoft does have an avenue for them to state their case via their "proxy" in IASA, who happen to be a committee member at TC4. Yes, they were the ONLY one who voted "Approve" to OOXML during last year's contradiction period (Feb07).

I emailed Oliver at 2pm yesterday (20th March):

"I think as a general rule now, vendors aren't welcomed at TC4. You can try talking to Sirim, but the complication is, if MS joins, other vendors will throw a fit and ask to come too. That, like the Pikom situation, is something they'd want to avoid. You can try.

"MS has still a chance to be heard through IASA. Isn't Aaron Tan its president? At least then things are clearer and proxies aren't required."

I sent this off and never heard from him again. I just assumed that Microsoft would have given up and gone off home to their respective countries, or more likely, to yet another country to subvert.

Now, a little bit about IASA. They project themselves to be a neutral party who is only interested in the architecture of software systems. I don't doubt that, as their International body is kosher, but judging by the representatives in Malaysia they keep sending to TC4, it's certainly NOT looking after the interests of the nation.

More often than not the rep is consistently looking after the interest of his own company, and its business partners. I know that's not abnormal in other nations where TCs are allowed to be stacked, but in Malaysia, we worked hard in making sure that commercial vested interest parties are kept at bay from our standards development.

That is why Microsoft, IBM and any other multinationals are only 'co-opted' members. This is "A Good Thing (tm)". We can call on them for expert advice, but we need to leave them out when we make serious decisions especially when one of them has such a strong vested interest! Additionally, it's only normal for Good Corporate Governance to declare any vested commercial interests on certain matters, and absolve yourself from the decision making process so as not to unfairly influence the committee.

Anyway, without thinking much more about it, I turned up at the SIRIM meeting room this morning. The first person I see seated is Mr. Doug Mahugh. Yes, he is the "Senior Product Manager" at Microsoft USA. And he is here in the SIRIM building. It's nice to see him here, but ... what's going on?

• Is he Malaysian? No.
• Is he a TC4 member? No ... SIRIM decided to make Microsoft a co-opted member, and it was made clear that this meeting excluded all co-opted members.
• Is he an expert? Yes, but SIRIM never requested for an expert from a co-opted member.
• Would he have Malaysia's interests before his corporation? I dunno, but I somehow doubt it.

He certainly got quite a few stares from the room.

So anyway, I find out, from the business card, that Doug is representing our friends from IASA! He even has a business card and all! Sure, IASA is an international body for software architects, but Doug Mahugh is actually a VP for IASA, specifically, for Malaysia!

The quality of the card was interesting. It certainly didn't look like it was professionally printed, i.e. not using proper spot colours. It looked more like it came out of a average colour laser printer done at 3pm yesterday. Fancy that. Now I'm giving tactical ideas to Microsoft on how to get their employees into national meetings. Darn! I should get paid for this.

Someone commented incredulously to me after the meeting: "Wow, the lengths Microsoft has to reach and the levels they have to stoop!"

During the start of the meeting, the issue of the official and alternate representative of the organisation was discussed. This is a standard process, as even with ISO procedures, the attendees have to be registered prior to the meeting. Even the Director General of Standards Malaysia who flew all the way to Geneva, was not allowed into the BRM because her name was not registered on the list prior to the 21st of February. That's how the process works! It sucks at times, and I personally have faced the brunt of it over the past 2 years, and it takes a lot getting used to it.

If we allowed anybody to come in, PIKOM (for instance, as an example) could have been requested/demanded by one of its members (e.g. Oracle [not that they are that desperate]) for them to attend. There will be no stopping the manipulation which was so apparent.

Now my original suggestion to Oliver of having Microsoft's experts braindump Aaron Tan Dani on this matter can at least be woven to a more credible story:

• Aaron Tan holds a senior position in IASA Malaysia.
• He contributes actively (I hope) to their small and select community.
• He is also known to be a Microsoft employee, but hey, he is, ultimately Malaysian. He should have the professional and ethical mettle to judge between what is in the best interest of his employer, and what is in the best interest of his country.

That, I think may be acceptable to the members of TC4. Borderline, but with a bit of spin, almost credible.

But to pass off a foreigner as a Malaysian organisation's representative? That's really stretching it, dudes. It's not as bad as having someone from Senegal representing another country, but it's still not particularly ... appropriate.

Anyway, we danced about the issue about this, and nobody wanted to give in. Eventually however, the people not in the original list left the room, and we could then talk freely and vote on their status.

Now this is why we have this "no-vendor" rule. We want to have an OPEN forum where members can OPENLY debate, criticise and bring out issues which may be sensitive when foreign vendors are in the room. After all, some members have certain business relationships with these vendors, and have to display a certain position when the vendors are around, and breathing down their necks. Now that they were gone, we could finally speak freely and OPENLY out on issues when we were restricted because of the "Elephant in the room" [with a 'tache].

Which is also why there was an uneasy silence when Doug came back into the room to remove his computer, and he gruffly said, "I think it's best that I leave." I thought that was noble of him, and a great way to exit with whatever dignity he had left. I don't think he would normally bend his ethics to represent an organisation's national branch which he does not belong nor contribute to, but we must all understand, that employees at Microsoft are all facing a really stressful time now.

They are fighting like their jobs depend on this, and unfortunately for Microsoft as a brand, they are killing themselves. Bending their morals, burning their bridges which they have built so long and hard over the years, and hurting so many people and organisations over this silly matter of a File Format.

You can detect his spite in his latest post entitled 'An "open standards" meeting in Malaysia'. I don't know how, or whether if I should respond to it, because he does make some disparaging remarks directed at me, Ditesh, Hasan and even government folk like MAMPU's Mdm. Tan. He also questions the Chair's authority. It is exactly this big bully behaviour which paints a very bad picture of Microsoft today, and it just underlines their desperation in the final 9 days [Oh gourd, when will it ever END?].

Eventually, TC4 found consensus to allow the unregistered people to sit in as Observers.  However by that time, Doug had already left for the airport. So maybe I should have suggested to Oliver to change his flight from 2pm to 9pm. Silly me, maybe I should have called up their travel agent and done it for them yesterday ...

So the meeting proceeded as per the agenda, we had a very good discussion between all the members, and everyone contributed well. BTW, the secretariat provided by SIRIM who also attended the BRM provided excellent rebuttals to certain claims in previous meetings. She also was there to confirm or deny what happened at the BRM, which easily rebuts Doug's angry claim that there is "nobody else there to corroborate (or contradict) his version".

BTW, now that Doug is a registered member and representative of IASA (Malaysia) at SIRIM TC4 (with faxed confirmations), I hope to see more of him in the coming meetings. I hope the flight from Seattle to KLIA is a comfortable one, because we, at TC4, meet a few times a year.

yk.

Comments

[Wesley Parish]

Wow! With a capital MMMM! At this rate I could so easily represent ... umm ... but dammit, who's representing the Penguins of Uganda? the Polar Bears of Ecuador? The Bald Eagles of China? The Panda Bears of Argentina? The Beavers of Saudi Arabia? The Camels of Bermuda? "We can only hope his Vista died." Anony Mouse, it was vistabeting.

[Aaron Browne]

Pia,

Is there documented evidence of the crazy tactics in Australia? I have been in contact with Standards Australia by phone and they assured me that everything is by the book.

[Waleed Oransa]

I hope that M$ can change it's strategy and adopt more ethical way even if they don't really to be open and support the open community but at least they can stop play games and destroy a lot of things in ISO, NBs and open community.

[Pia Waugh]

Just amazing. We are facing some pretty crazy tactics in Australia. It's great to know there are oddities happening all around the world in respect to this issue, and that we are still standing strong :)

[Anonymous Coward]

Did the Microsoft person leave his laptop in the room to record the conversation using his laptop's built-in microphone during his absence?

I wonder if he used Audacity.

[Jonathan]

Stay strong, yoonkit!

[Wayne]

I've been watching the entire thing since ODF was made an ISO standard. I have some experience with standards myself, and in nearly 10 years of being involved with standards as our corporation's technical representative, I've never seen anything like this, and hope I never see anything like it again.

I don't think that management at Microsoft realize what damage that they are doing to their corporate image. Damage of this sort takes a long time to go away, and a negative public image can have a severe impact on your bottom line.

[reiisi]

You know, I think this whole "internationalization" express train is going to see attempts at applying breaks as certain large corporations from certain companies discover that "international" is not going to remain a good excuse for imposing their version of what's new on the world.

[Chai]

Yay! I hope M'sia doesnt get bullied into making a rushed decision. If anything, I think M$ would have been more successful using a soft approach, esp in M'sia.

[Anony Mouse]

hmm... kindof handy for him to have left his system in the room, maybe recording audio... maybe... easy enough to do. We can only hope his Vista died.