Rob Weir has put up an interesting, yet very sarcastic blog about the future of OOXML. From the article:
[…] Another example of working on autopilot is the ad-hoc working group in SC34 [ISO subcommittee for document description and processing languages] looking at OOXML maintenance. Although it was heralded with much pomp “SC takes control of OOXML”, the fact is SC34 currently can’t even look at OOXML [the final text was still not released], let alone maintain it. They are entirely impotent. But still they will go through the motions and meet next week in London to advise Alex Brown [the convenor at the Ballot Resolution Meeting on OOXML in Geneva in Februrary], who will then take all this advice and later formulate and write up his OOXML maintenance plan for SC34 to vote on.
All the best to them. They voted on OOXML without seeing it. Now they’ll determine how to maintain it without seeing it. Maybe ISO should stand for Invisible Standards Organization? Maybe one of the participants can let me know where can I submit my invisible defect report?
(Source)
He says it is likely that Ecma takes over the maintenance of ISO OOXML, as it would be the best for this “Microsoft-only standard”:
Who is better positioned to clarify exactly how Excel financial functions work, the Microsoft engineer who has access to the Excel source code, or an SC34 representative from Khazakstan?
No strings attached.