Microsoft’s Open XML is now an ECMA standard
This is a big story - 126 posts at the time of writing according to Google News - reported fairly dispassionately here.
Microsoft’s own press release is here and that from the hither-to deeply obscure ECMA is here.
Despite the hype, Open XML is not yet achieved the holy grail, becoming an ISO Standard, which is a formidably bureaucratic procedure. What we think happens is that the ECMA-approved Open XML standard will be submitted to ITTF - the ISO/IEC Information Technology Task Force - under the so-called fast track process. National bodies such as BSI then vote, within a tightly defined time frame, on the acceptability or otherwise of the proposed standard. This is the page to watch to know when voting is being carried out.