Is it Microsoft who is bad?
After
reading
this /. article, I'm disgusted. Yes, it
happens. It happened in the past and it will happen in the future.
It is not a problem of Microsoft trying to get their work done. And
they are doing it. Doing it in a way that normal people/companies
would feel ashamed for. Microsoft is different. They stick at nothing.
This is "great" motivation for their employees.
Ever heard about Microsoft being the best company you'd like to work
for? If so, probably only the employees of Microsoft were asked. Or
many different people were asked by some Microsoft partner. Millions
of ways to get the "goal" as you wish.
But I think that it is not Microsoft problem. It is a problem in ISO
and its member bodies. We can only imagine, how the standardization
process works in general... Hopefully it is not the same as what
currently happens with OOXML in Sweden.
But there are exceptions - I can't say anything wrong to our national
standardization body. It is very hard to work on a task where one side
says "no, never, it can be like this" and the other side repeats
"This is the only way and no other way exists".
There are more methods to solve this problem. One of them is very easy
- set a price tag and allow everyone who has the money to vote. More
money wins. Easy. Correct? Depends.
The other one is: do you have a technical comment to our task? No?
OK, thanks. Yes? OK, other side: do you have a technical comment to
proposed technical comment? And so on...
Czech standardization body selected the second method and they
rejected all tries to get it to incorrect method one - letters by
Microsoft puppies, "independent" lobbyists from "independent"
institutions, rejecting valid technical comments because "it has to be
this way" etc.
I very often have the feeling that our country is very bad at this,
but after reading the article again, I'm proud I'm living in Czech
Republic!