The Danish Parliament decided to ….not to decide !

Actually the agreed on implementing both ODF and EOOXML as open standards in the public sector from January 1th. 2008. Exactly what the Minister of Science and Technology proposed.
I have been reporting from the struggle about open standards in the Danish Parliament for some time now. And it seems that I will be doing this for some time in the future too.

Today the Parliament agreed to ….not to agree !

Well, actually the agreed on implementing both ODF and EOOXML as open standards in the public sector from January 1th. 2008. Exactly what the Minister of Science and Technology proposed.

But.

There will be a two year review period for Microsoft to prove that EOOXML is open enough. This is exactly what we have been arguing about for the last several months. Openness. Or the lack of it. Microsoft MUST prove that

1. other vendors can and will use EOOXML

2. EOOXML can be used on other platforms that Microsoft Windows.

This is not what I expected. I thought that the politicians could make up their minds, but this will give Microsoft an enormous advantage. There is no guaranty, that the politicians will take us serious in two years from now. If they will, why didn’t they now ?