SC 34 plenary

I had slept deeply, I had slept long, and awoke in showroom condition ready to face the excitements of an SC 34 plenary: this is the forum in which all SC 34 members present meet to discuss and pass resolutions. In the event this went extremely smoothly: all resolutions passed with unanimous consensus by the attending NBs (Brazil, Canada, China, Côte d’Ivoire, Denmark, Finland, Germany, India, Italy, Japan, Korea, Norway, South Africa, UK, and USA). Only one issue had caused contention, and that was smoothed away amicably over lunch.

The two most significant resolutions established two new working groups, WG 4 and WG 5.

WG 4 was the result of my recommendations following the work convening (the now disbanded) Ad Hoc Group 1. We had met in London in July and decided how we thought OOXML should be maintained. The recommendation was essentially very simple: this should be a full ISO/IEC standard under purely International (i.e. National Body) control. WG 4 is the forum in which that will happen. Although Ecma’s existing individual experts will participate in this group, Ecma will have no voting rights and has been constrained to a purely administrative role – the SC 34 Secretariat (Japan) has decided to retain Ecma’s services as a subordinate secretariat for the new Working Group. WG 4 will be convened by the eminent Murata Makoto (Japan), who’s strict impartiality (and strictness) will I’m sure keep WG 4 on the straight and narrow.

WG 5 is the home for “Document Interoperability” (a tweet I received on the subject from Simon Phipps, questioning whether documents could be said to interoperate sparked quite a discussion – in the end it was decided that yes, they could be said to). The immediate work for this working group is the new project working on 26300/29500 translation, but it’s likely I think that a number of new projects will start here before long. WG 5 will be convened by the excellent Dr Jaeho Lee (Korea).

My retirement?

With the arrangements made for WG 4, a vacancy arose for the convenorship of WG 1, and I was pleased to accept the honour of taking this role. It is a great responsibility, following in the giant footsteps of preceding convenors Charles Goldfarb, Martin Bryan, and Murata-san himself.

On a personal level it must also be said it is a relief to step away from the standardisation of OOXML. Whatever one’s views about the merits of the spec, I think there can be no disagreement with the thought that being heavily involved with its passage is both tiring and stressful. For now, I’ve had enough.

Impressions of Jeju

Jeju is a beautiful and charming place, whose people are unfailing kind and helpful. We experienced a full gamut of weather from sunny skies to driving rain and high winds as we experienced the outer bands of Typhoon Jangmi.

I took some snaps throughout these meetings to decorate this blog, but for a much better impression (and a sight of real photographic talent), Dough Mahugh’s photos of Korea are a must-see.

SC 34 celebrates

After the plenary, a few of us headed out to Jungmoon for some sightseeing and a bite to eat. After marvelling at an ooh-inducing sunset (aided in spectacle, it is said, by the air pollution from China) we toured some of the luxury hotels and casinos in the area before reaching consensus (with no dissent) that we’d prefer to eat a more rustic-style Korean barbeque. That we did, washing it down (naturally) with some more Korean vodka.


So, after a tough year, what is the mood in SC 34? Positive, is my impression. The tensions surrounding ISO/IEC 29500 have dissipated and all agree that we have made the best arrangements we could for stewardship of the Standard and progression of work around it. With two new working groups now established the character of SC 34 is bound to change, and it’s possible future meetings will be double, or even triple the size we are used to as we attract more International interest. The future is bright, and we look forward to meeting up again for our “Prague Spring” in March 2009.