[Fsf-friends] [Fwd: <NO>OOXML: Your action is required: Contact BIS now!]

-- Sunil Mohan -------- Original Message -------- Subject: <NO>OOXML: Your action is required: Contact BIS now! Date: Thu, 6 Dec 2007 18:59:22 +0100 From: Benjamin Henrion bhenrion@ffii.org To: sunilmohan@fsf.org.in Dear Sunil Mohan Adapa, You signed the <NO>OOXML petition, a movement backed now by more than 70.000 supporters worldwide. Our effort to influence the OOXML (Office Open XML) standardization process has been an astonishing success so far. We aim for at least 100.000 signatures in February when the Geneva Ballot Resolution Meeting (BRM) will convene with the aim to resolve comments. Microsoft is trying by all means to get its "standard" adopted without substantial changes despite of its thousands of officially reported technical flaws and the pre-existence of ISO 26300:2006 (OpenDocument, ODF) as the most appropriate international standard for the representation of office documents. By next Tuesday Dec 11 2007 delegates from your National Standards Body BIS who will participate in the BRM have to be announced to ISO. At least Portugal and Ireland will be represented by Microsoft. In many other countries, we know that Microsoft gold partners are proposing themselves as heads of national delegations. Many of them will prevail if we do not take action. Will you let Microsoft represent your country at Geneva and decide the future of OOXML? You can make a difference and call now BIS at +91-1123237991 and help us to find out: a. Who will represent BIS on DIS 29500 at the Ballot Resolution Meeting in Geneva? b. When will the decision on delegates be made and if BIS is aware of the Dec 11 deadline? c. Does your national delegates for the BRM are independent enough from Microsoft? d. Does the responsible Committee of BIS for DIS 29500 work on resolution proposals for all the 3500 comments tabled or - if at all - only for the national comments that they submitted? Please report your findings by replying to this email, we will update this page with the members of each national delegation: http://www.noooxml.org/brm More things that you can do to help our effort against this broken standard proposal: 1. Join our mailing list and get in touch with many other activists: http://lists.ffii.org/mailman/listinfo/noooxml-club 2. Become a member of FFII, the worldwide association leading the <NO>OOXML campaign: http://action.ffii.org/member_application 3. Become a member of DIGISTAN, the organization for the promotion of true digital open standards worldwide; please indicate your interests to: members@digistan.org 4. Blog about OOXML which shapes the public debate; blogging has been instrumental to our success in Sweden for example; 5. support our campaign work with financial means: http://www.noooxml.org/donations Best regards, -- Benjamin Henrion bhenrion@ffii.org <NO>OOXML Campaign leader