You might have read my earlier blogs about countries voting against OOXML as a standard and also how Microsoft paid vendors for voting in their support. ISO announced today that Microsoft failed to garner enough vote to approve OOXML as a standard by ISO.
The actual numbers for the final tally are, all 41 P members voted, with the following breakdown: 17 yes, 15 no, and 9 abstain. A 66 2/3% majority
was required, after subtracting abstentions. Instead, only a 53.12% approval was achieved, after abstentions, and 41% before abstentions were subtracted.
On the second test, 87 National Bodies voted, including Full Members that were not JTC1 members, as well as P (Participating) and O (Observer) members of JTC1. Out of this pool, 69 voted yes or no (abstentions are disregarded for this test as well), with 18 voting no, or 26.08%, thus failing the second test (no more than 25% of the total of all eligible yes and no votes can be no votes).
Though Microsoft got more than what they deserved, it was still not enough for them to get the majority approval. Microsoft has to revise the OOXML standard based on the comments it received from the ISO members. Once revised, it’ll undergo a voting again in early 2008. I hope people will realize the mistake of supporting OOXML standard and vote against it in 2008 (though the chances are less).
Voting count source: Consortiuminfo.org