Microsoft influencing partner NGOs to support OOXML in India
March 4, 2008, Mayank Sharma, Linux.com
The article profiles the recent activity on the part of Microsoft in garnering the support of NGOs for its Office Open XML specification. The way Microsoft has gone about getting NGOs to endorse its standard is questionable and is being contested by the proponents of the Open Document Format (ODF) as being unethical. While the standards battle is still being fought at various levels, Microsoft's latest action is bound to be controversial as it pushes the limits of ethical lobbying. India, which is known to be lax in enforcing rules for such promotions, should heed the warnings and keep a close watch on companies using third parties to promote their proprietary standards.