Presentation at WITFOR (World IT Forum) on open standards, and the unprecedented lobbying campaign around the proposed OOXML standard.

1. A Standards Story World IT Forum Addis Ababa 22-24 August 2007 J. Philipp Schmidt University of the Western Cape United Nations University MERIT [email_address]

2. Standards describe a common way of doing things

3. Key issue related to standards is participation Good standards enable participation Open processes enable participation that leads to good standards

4. Good standards = Open Standards

5. A story of Bill ...

6. ... and of Bob

7. New standard for office documents OOXML

9. Bill and Bob disagree ... What is a good standard? How do we create one?

11. Natural monopolies

12. Natural monopolies = monopolies

15. Technology standards are even more important in the world of global information and communication technologies

16. The Web

21. Email

23. But standards are not always good

25. Document Formats

26. ODF Open Document Format ISO/IEC 26300 700 pages can be extended open

27. New standard for office documents OOXML

28. Proposed OOXML ECMA - ISO DIS29500 Fast-tracked (6 months) During first phase many countries signalled contradictions

29. There are some problems: - too long to review in short time - tied to legacy formats - questions about patents - duplicates W3C standards - calendaring bugs - culturally biased (Weekends)

30. The discussion is not just about one particular standard, but about much broader issues of how we create good standards

32. Careful deliberative processes National standard bodies represented at ISO Not all countries vote on every standard

33. But things are changing

34. More standards Global implications Deeply technical standards that require expert input Fast-tracked procedures Intense lobbying

35. Important to participate – the creation of standards and governance of standards cannot be ignored

36. 2 September 2007

37. Algeria Botswana Cote d'Ivoire DRC Egypt Ethiopia Ghana Kenya Libya Mauritius Morocco Nigeria South Africa Sudan Tunisia Zimbabwe

38. A story of Bob ...

39. ... but this is also a story of Dorcas, Gbenga, Judy, Alice, Solomon, AhA, Sunday, Omo, Igor, Benjamin, Dorothy, Dawit, Abebe, Nnenna, Ben, Dhouha, David, and many others ...

40. ... forming a network of (civil society) organisations that can support and engage with their national standards bodies