An esoteric but key U.S. technical standards committee decided last week not to endorse Microsoft's Office Open XML document specification, increasing the odds that the U.S. will vote against approving Open XML as an open standard next month at an ISO standards body meeting.

An endorsement by V1, the technical committee that advises the InterNational Committee for Information Technology Standards (INCITS), which represents the U.S. on this issue in the ISO, would have required a vote of "approval, with comments" from two-thirds of the 26 voting members.

According to a blog by Rob Weir, an IBM employee who is a member of the V1 committee, Open XML failed to gain the necessary votes -- even after multiple motions.

Patrick Durusau, chairman of the V1 committee, and Jennifer Garner, administrator for INCITS's technical advisory group overseeing the U.S. position on Open XML, did not immediately return requests for comments.

According to Weir and other sources, the long-moribund committee has seen an influx of new members in recent months, many of them business partners with Microsoft, such as Mindjet Corp., 3Sharp and Xinnovation Inc.

Voting tended to be split, with newer members voting for approval and older members showing less support for the Open XML proposal, also known as DIS 29500, in its current form.

Open XML's approval as a standard is considered key to helping Microsoft maintain its better than 90 percent share among some half-billion productivity software users worldwide. While Open XML -- which is built into Office 2007 -- is freely licensable by others, Microsoft maintains that it wants to keep the specification separate from the OpenDocument format in order to speed development of new collaboration features and maintain compatibility with old Microsoft Office documents.

V1 members were charged with evaluating Open XML on its technological merits. "This is not supposed to be about whether Microsoft is a monster or if OOXML is bad for your kids," said one committee member who declined to be identified. "It's supposed to be: Is this a spec that ISO can be proud of? From a technical point of view, the answer is yes."

Sun Microsystems Inc., largely considered an avowed opponent of Open XML because of its own development and support for the competing, ODF-based StarOffice suite, found itself in the unexpected position of stating its support for ratifying Open XML -- albeit after some changes in the proposal are made.

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