Following the decision to deny OOXML the fast-track option to becoming a standard, ECMA have the daunting task of replying to the 3522 "Comments" made by the voting countries.

As at 16 Nov, they had responded to 662 leaving a pile of work to do before the 14 Jan 2008 deadline. Presumably they have responded to a few more in the last few weeks, but they have not updated the website with those responses yet.

To date, ECMA have not responded to any of the 54 comments made by NZ, but we look forward to seeing them soon!

In fact, ECMA have specifically said that they will only respond to "technical" comments, leaving the philosophical e.g. "Do we need two standards?",the legal "What guarantees will Microsoft offer not to sue over IP, patents, etc?" and other such issues unresolved! This means that they only actually have 44 comments from NZ, with the other 10 being non-technical. It remains to be seen what will happen to these??

Another interesting comment that has reached my ears is that fundamentally ISO do not grant two standards for the same thing! Does this mean that all of this time and effort will be in vain... Surely ISO wouldn't have let is get this far without making that point clear??

It remains and intriguing argument/battle and I look forward to the next enthralling installment!