|
Technology itself requires definition and implementation of standards that guarantee that certain technology will provide full functionality and compatibility when it is implemented. We believe that standards should be open and available to everyone so the economic development should be much easier worldwide.
An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it. Open standards that relate to software should not be patented since patents jeopardize freedom of software. A good example of open standards are standards published by the Word Wide Web Consortium. The Word Wide Web Consortium ensures that its specifications can be implemented on a Royalty-Free basis.
Open standards which specify formats are sometimes referred to as open formats which is especially important when the file formats are concerned. Although it is possible to discuss details of some definitions of open standards we found very good explanation of some sorts of open standards in Wikipedia which describe definitions set by ITU-T, IETF, European Union, World Wide Web Consortium and Digital Standards Organisation definitions as follows:
"ITU-T definition
The ITU-T is a standards development organization (SDO) that is one of the three sectors of the International Telecommunications Union (a specialized agency of the United Nations). The ITU-T has a Telecommunication Standardization Bureau director's Ad Hoc group on IPR that produced the following definition in March 2005, which the ITU-T as a whole has endorsed for its purposes since November 2005 [2]:
The ITU-T has a long history of open standards development. However, recently some different external sources have attempted to define the term "Open Standard" in a variety of different ways. In order to avoid confusion, the ITU-T uses for its purpose the term "Open Standards" per the following definition:
"Open Standards" are standards made available to the general public and are developed (or approved) and maintained via a collaborative and consensus driven process. "Open Standards" facilitate interoperability and data exchange among different products or services and are intended for widespread adoption.
Other elements of "Open Standards" include, but are not limited to:
* Collaborative process – voluntary and market driven development (or approval) following a transparent consensus driven process that is reasonably open to all interested parties.
* Reasonably balanced – ensures that the process is not dominated by any one interest group.
* Due process - includes consideration of and response to comments by interested parties.
* Intellectual property rights (IPRs) – IPRs essential to implement the standard to be licensed to all applicants on a worldwide, non-discriminatory basis, either (1) for free and under other reasonable terms and conditions or (2) on reasonable terms and conditions (which may include monetary compensation). Negotiations are left to the parties concerned and are performed outside the SDO.
* Quality and level of detail – sufficient to permit the development of a variety of competing implementations of interoperable products or services. Standardized interfaces are not hidden, or controlled other than by the SDO promulgating the standard.
* Publicly available – easily available for implementation and use, at a reasonable price. Publication of the text of a standard by others is permitted only with the prior approval of the SDO.
* On-going support – maintained and supported over a long period of time.
The ITU-T, ITU-R, ISO, and IEC have harmonized on a common patent policy under the banner of the WSC. However, the ITU-T definition should not necessarily be considered also applicable in ITU-R, ISO and IEC contexts, since the Common Patent Policy does not make any reference to "open standards" but rather only to "standards".
IETF definition
In section 7 of its RFC 2026, the IETF classifies specifications that have been developed in a manner similar to that of the IETF itself as being "open standards", and lists the standards produced by ANSI, ISO, IEEE, and ITU-T as examples. As the IETF standardization processes and IPR policies have the characteristics listed above by ITU-T, the IETF standards fulfill the ITU-T definition of "open standards".
However, the IETF has not adopted a specific definition of "open standard"; both RFC 2026 and the IETF's mission statement (RFC 3935) talks about "open process", but RFC 2026 does not define "open standard" except for the purpose of defining what documents IETF standards can link to.
[edit] European Union definition
The European Union adopted the following definition in its European Interoperability Framework:
To reach interoperability in the context of pan-European eGovernment services, guidance needs to focus on open standards.
The word "open" is here meant in the sense of fulfilling the following requirements:
* The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties (consensus or majority decision etc.).
* The standard has been published and the standard specification document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a nominal fee.
* The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.
* There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard"
World Wide Web Consortium's definition
As an important provider of Web technology ICT Standards, notably XML, http, HTML, CSS and WAI, the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) follows a process that promotes the development of high-quality standards.
Looking at the end result, the spec alone, up for adoption, is not enough. The participative/inclusive process leading to a particular design, and the supporting resources available with it should be accounted when we talk about Open Standards:
* transparency (due process is public, and all technical discussions, meeting minutes, are archived and referencable in decision making)
* relevance (new standardization is started upon due analysis of the market needs, including requirements phase, e.g. accessibility, multi-linguism)
* openness (anybody can participate, and everybody does: industry, individual, public, government bodies, academia, on a worldwide scale)
* impartiality and consensus (guaranteed fairness by the process and the neutral hosting of the W3C organization, with equal weight for each participant)
* availability (free access to the standard text, both during development and at final stage, translations, and clear IPR rules for implementation, allowing open source development in the case of Internet/Web technologies)
* maintenance (ongoing process for testing, errata, revision, permanent access)
Digital Standards Organization definition
The Digital Standards Organization (DIGISTAN) states that "an open standard must be aimed at creating unrestricted competition between vendors and unrestricted choice for users".[20] Its brief definition of "open standard" (or "free and open standard") is "a published specification that is immune to vendor capture at all stages in its life-cycle". Its more complete definition as follows:
* "The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit organization, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties.
* The standard has been published and the standard specification document is available freely. It must be permissible to all to copy, distribute, and use it freely.
* The patents possibly present on (parts of) the standard are made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.
* There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.
A key defining property is that an open standard is immune to vendor capture at all stages in its life-cycle. Immunity from vendor capture makes it possible to improve upon, trust, and extend an open standard over time."
This definition is based on the EU's EIF v1 definition of "open standard", but with changes to address what it terms as "vendor capture". They believe that "Many groups and individuals have provided definitions for 'open standard' that reflect their economic interests in the standards process. We see that the fundamental conflict is between vendors who seek to capture markets and raise costs, and the market at large, which seeks freedom and lower costs... Vendors work hard to turn open standards into franchise standards. They work to change the statutory language so they can cloak franchise standards in the sheep's clothing of 'open standard'. A robust definition of "free and open standard" must thus take into account the direct economic conflict between vendors and the market at large."
Examples of open standards:
- World Wide Web
- PCI (Peripheral Component Interconnect)
- TCP (Transfer Control Protocol)
- IP (Internet Protocol)
- AGP (Accelerated Graphics Port)
- HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language)
- ODF (Open Document Format)
- OOXML (Office Open XML)
- PNG (Portable Network Graphics)
- Ogg ( a container for various audio and video formats)
- Ada (Programming Language)
- C# (General Purpose Programming Language)
and many more ...
|
