"In an informational email that, according to Microsoft, went 'to a few' partner companies, they write among other things that their partners are 'expected' to join the standards institute and 'participate on the meeting the 27/8, to vote yes to Open XML'."

Microsoft has been caught, red-handed as it were, literally purchasing the ISO standards process for OOXML. Pamela Jones at Groklaw has written an excellent article about this event and more related to ISO and OOXML, and that's [link|http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=20070829070630660|here]