Alan Bryden, the ISO Secrerary General, has made some press comments about the OOXML standardisation project, which make interesting reading for those who have been following along. After noting the wrong-headedness of much of the anti-ISO commentary, he is quoted as saying of the standards process:


This is surely the key point: where there are improvements to be made, then the system admits for that change.

It is also noted that ISO/IEC 29500 is not the first controversial project ISO has had to deal with. I am told by ISO veterans that the recent fuss was mild compared to that surrounding ISO 10990-4, for example...