The JTC 1 Secretariat informed Ecma International today that Office Open XML will move immediately to the next phase of the ISO/IEC’s review of the Ecma standard. The JTC 1 Secretariat issued the 5-month DIS 29500 (Office Open XML) ballot on Monday, April 2, 2007; the ballot will close on Sept 2, 2007. This action came after the closure of the one-month “perceived contradiction” period, and after Ecma had provided a review of the National Body comments which had been received.

“Ecma International welcomes the continuation of the ISO/IEC DIS 29500 process for Ecma-376: Office Open XML File Formats with the 5-month ballot by the national members of ISO and IEC” said Dr. Istvan Sebestyen, new Secretary General of Ecma International. ”We look forward to working with ISO/IEC and their Member Bodies and National Committees to address any technical issues that they may have about Office Open XML and look forward to Ecma-376 Office Open XML becoming an ISO/IEC standard”.

The work to standardize OpenXML has been carried out by Ecma International as part of an open, cross-industry collaboration via Technical Committee 45 (Ecma TC45), which includes representatives from Apple, Barclays Capital, BP, The British Library, Essilor, Intel, Microsoft, NextPage, Novell, Statoil, Toshiba, and the United States Library of Congress. On December 7, 2006, the Ecma General Assembly approved both adopting Office Open XML as an Ecma standard (Ecma 376) and submitting it for adoption under the ISO/IEC JTC 1 fast-track process.