Decision is expected soon

The committee under the Parliament had a meeting yesterday. Guests speakers was:

• Jørgen Bardenfleth, Microsoft
• Mogens Kühn Pedersen, professor at Copenhagen Business School
• Representatives from Rambøll Management

The Parties Dansk Folkeparti (Morten Messerschmidt) and Socialdemokratiet (Sophie Hæstorp Andersen) feels that they are getting closer to a final decision. The Minister of Science and Technology Helge Sander (Venstre) needs a decision to work with. Start of implementation of resolution B 103 must be at the beginning of 2008.

Reference: Computerworld (Danish)

Counting votes ...

While we are waiting...

This is the situation in the Parliament:

Venstre (liberal)	51	Government. Suggest dual standards
Konservative	18	Government. Probably pro dual standards together with the Minister
Socialdemokratiet (Labour)	47	Pro single standard ODF
Radikale	16	Pro single standard ODF
Dansk Folkeparti	23	Pro single standard ODF
Socialistisk Folkeparti	11	Pro single standard ODF
Enhedslisten	6	Pro single standard ODF
Fólkaflokkurin, Tjóðveldisflokkurin, Inuit Ataqatigiit and Siumut	4	Faroe Islands and Greenland - Will probably abstain
Stand-alone Members	3	Unknown
Members	179

Four members from Faroe Islands and Greenland will probably abstain from voting. They will only use their vote in matters regarding their home lands.

So 103 members is pro single format ODF. 69 votes is recommending dual standards. A few votes are unknown.

Will this automatically give us a single standard implementation ?

Unfortunately not.

The case is, that the Minister of Science and Technology has already proposed a plan for implementing dual standards (EOOXML and ODF). It's his job to suggest the implementation of Resolution B 103 and the Parliament will accept this, unless something is absolutely wrong. This is what we are trying to convince them about right now. There has already been a meeting, where the Minister asked the Members to accept his proposal, but they didn't. They postponed the decision. The Members are asking questions to the Minister and the Minister must answer these questions. He must answer correctly. He will do what he can, to avoid saying anything that is not the truth. If he did, it could cost him the position and in a serious case: the government.

What might happen next ?

Scenario 1: The Minister will stick to dual standards and force it. This will cost him some bargains later on. But if this cause is important to him, he might want to do it.
Scenario 2: The Minister will count votes (like I did) and see that forcing dual standards could be dangerous form him at a later time.
Scenario 3: This issue will end up in a major bargain between several parties and the votes will be 'sold' for votes on other (and more important/understandable) matters.

No, I don't want to make a bet on this at this time.

Change in media coverage

One positive thing that has happened over the last week or so, is that the debate has moved from the internet based IT-news to the printed press. The newspaper Børsen is covering the debate on print now. Other papers are following as well.

Today I gave an interview to another business paper called Erhversbladet. This is also a printed newspaper. I think it's very good that we can get into other media than dedicated IT-news. The question is, if it's too late now. I don't know when the final decision is made in th Parliament, but we still have a job to do regarding the ISO process.

Report on competitive issues published

The organization OSL (The Danish Open Source Business Association) has published a new report. The report was developed by Professor Peter Møllgaard, Copenhagen Business School and managing director Claus Kastberg Nielsen, Copenhagen Economics. Both authors must be respected for their knowledge and work.

The report analyzes the competitive situation regarding standards, but due to the short time scope, it is not giving any concrete figures or calculations. The conclusion in this report is clear: Recommending two dual standards will leave Microsoft in a marked leading position forever. Because Microsoft has the absolute leading position on office applications now, they will continue to lock-in customers to Microsoft Office and other Microsoft applications.

This is in contradiction to the 'spirit' of resolution B 103 from the Danish Parliament.

The report is in Danish: Read it here.

Back from the country side

I just came back from a nice long weekend on the country side. My family and I have spend the last four days in the family cottage on the west coast (Map). Nice to stay off-line for several days. But revenge came, when I had the first look at my inbox when I came home: 165 new mails.

Well, after a couple of hours sorting and reading, I started answering some of them.

I came to my knowledge that IBM passed on the mini hearing tomorrow. Instead, they have asked professor Mogens Kuhn Pedersen from Copenhagen Business School to present the ODF side. Mogens is up tp date with all relevant information and he is, by the way a resource on this area. He is chairman for the U-34 committee under DS (http://www.ds.dk/3537).

I think it's very wise to ask the professor to do this presentation.