Dear Sir or Madam,

The ECMA International standards group has recently submitted the "Ecma 376 Office Open XML" standard (ISO/IEC DIS 29500) for "fast-track" ISO approval.

Ecma-376 is a standard for "word-processing documents, presentations, and spreadsheets". It is redundant and overlaps with the existing, approved standard ISO/IEC 26300:2006 (openDocument (ODF)). It therefore conflicts directly with ISO's goal of having one standard for any specific area.

Furthermore, this specification is so complex (>6,000 pages) and vendor-specific that it can only be successfully implemented by Microsoft Office (the application on which it is modeled). Have you had a chance to read through the document? Have you seen any reference implementation?

The numerous concerns over Ecma 376 as pertaining to ISO approval, as well as many contradictions (as defined by the ISO rules), objections, and facts regarding the issue are conveniently summarized at:

http://www.grokdoc.net/index.php/EOOXML_objections.

I believe that this standard should not be allowed "fast-track" approval. I believe this "standard" should not be approved at any pace.

Sincerely,

Frank Kelbe
IT Professional

PS - A reply is unnecessary - just please do the right thing :)