Over the last month I have been collecting examples for fun from the web where scuttlebutt on the websites of well-known commentators has claimed procedural or other irregularities at standards bodies or participants. I started this off on the luridly titled “Bribery Watch page, but it is more “Innuendo Watch.”

Here is a little map (drawn dynamically) with the countries mentioned in red.



Some of the claims have a French farce aspect. For example a mistranslation of “seat” and “chair” caused a great flurry.

However, one persistent theme is the idea that the industry people who actually want a standard should not participate in the standards process. Sometimes there seems to be some idea of neutrality floated, sometimes some idea that people who come late have less legitimate opinions than people who come early, othertimes that the process is flawed unless people are allowed late. But the basic idea is that if you agree with MS on anything or have had any business connection with them, they own you, perhaps even bribed you, and your every opinion is inappropriate. But never an acknowledgment that standards are community self-help efforts participated in, for the most part, by the parties who want to use the standard; and that the standards process is not a tool for cartelization.