Tag Archives: Open Standards

Why the Commission is doing the right thing on antitrust

Posted on 10. February, 2009 by Georg Greve

Previously on “European Commission Antitrust”… Free Software Foundation Europe has been supporting the European Commission’s DG Competition in its antitrust work since 2001, when it first offered its expertise to the former Competition Commissioner Mario Monti. In 2003 it brought … Continue reading →

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Topic of 2009: Interoperability

Posted on 9. February, 2009 by Georg Greve

It seems the topic of 2008 will also be the key topic of 2009. This is hardly surprising. Interoperability is at the connecting point of innovation and standardisation, of Free Software and proprietary software, of SME’s and large enterprises, and … Continue reading →

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Re-enacting the parrot sketch

Posted on 2. April, 2008 by Georg Greve

Calling the past months work-intensive would be something of an understatement. Fortunately my colleagues in FSFE did an excellent job of working on the same project in various countries while I was partially absent. They also managed to put out … Continue reading →

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An emerging understanding of Open Standards

Posted on 4. October, 2007 by Georg Greve

Open Standards have been somewhat of a holy grail for some time now. Interoperability and vendor-independence, the IT industries’ equivalent of eternal life, are the prize for those who find the grail that are Open Standards. This conquest took decades, … Continue reading →

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WIPO GA: Current situation, and FSFE’s statement

Posted on 29. September, 2007 by Georg Greve

The good news first: The outcome of the Development Agenda discussions has been accepted by the Assembly of the Member States of WIPO, so there is now formally a Development Agenda for WIPO to discuss the substantial issues. Definitely a … Continue reading →

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Groklaw article: Microsoft, antitrust and innovation

Posted on 27. September, 2007 by Georg Greve

[http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070923170905803] Microsoft, antitrust and innovation — by Georg C. F. Greve If one were to believe Microsoft, antitrust law is for sore losers who are too lazy to innovate, and the decision of the European Court of Justice against Microsoft … Continue reading →

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So this is what hit Microsoft…

Posted on 20. September, 2007 by Georg Greve

The past two months have been interesting in the Chinese sense. A primary culprit of that was Microsoft’s failed attempt to push their proprietary MS-OOXML format through ISO. But there were also talks and meetings with ministers (see [1][2]) to … Continue reading →

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The Inquirer on MS-OOXML and ODF

Posted on 17. July, 2007 by Georg Greve

The Inquirer has an interesting opinion piece called "Microsoft twists and turns over ODF" in which they pick up on the MS-OOXML conversion hoax: The problem is that if Robertson and Paoli’s early claim is correct would be theoretically impossible … Continue reading →

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MS-OOXML conversion hoax

Posted on 16. July, 2007 by Georg Greve

Microsoft has been quite busy signing up various associates such as Novell, Xandros, Linspire and Turbolinux to work on its MS-OOXML converter. This was somewhat surprising. To make myself clear: It was no surprise that Microsoft would try to enroll … Continue reading →

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BBC: Questions for Microsoft on open formats

Posted on 11. July, 2007 by Georg Greve

The BBC just put an article by FSFE media coordinator Joachim Jakobs and myself online in which we respond to an earlier article on a "time bomb" in the UK National Archives. What Microsoft carefully sought to avoid mentioning in … Continue reading →

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