Ex-ECMA General Secretary, author of the JTC1 rules on fast tracking.
His blog says:
I was born in Holland, and from 1991 till April 2007 I was Secretary General of Ecma International in Geneva. Since then I'm consultant in IT Standardization issues, working for organizations like Ecma International, CompTIA, SNV (Swiss National Standards Body).
Is a Microturf because…
He promotes OOXML extensively and appears to be directly coordinating with Microsoft on this.
He is in the Swiss National Standards Body (SNV) and influenced their vote for OOXML.
He consults for CompTIA.
The Internet on Jan van den Beld
When listening to this, we see Jan van den Beld describing his visions on how standards are legitimate weapons in the application war, and how his role at Ecma was that of an arms dealer, giving them even the fifth standard if they wanted yet another battle line drawn. ("Why do you want to have 5 formats? Do you still call that standardization? The answer is always the same: You are well paid. Shut up")
Right here in little ol' KL, Microsoft flew in OOXML experts from around the world! Doug Mahugh, the OOXML evangelist turned up from USA, Oliver Bell based in Singapore was shuttled in, Mr Ex-Ecma, Jan van den Beld also conveniently happen to be in the vicinity, 7 timezones away. Also attending was a Senior Microsoftie who supposedly stomped around alot, and the customary Microsoft Malaysia hanger on. The entire pro-OOXML delegation were Microsoft employees!
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