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   6     <title>Petter Reinholdtsen: The many definitions of a open standard</title>
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  12  <h1>
  13      <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/">Petter Reinholdtsen</a>
  14
  15  </h1>
  16
  17 </div>
  18
  19
  20     <div class="entry">
  21       <div class="title">The many definitions of a open standard</div>
  22       <div class="date">27th December 2010</div>
  23       <div class="body"><p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
  24 "<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
  25 Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
  26 the term has been decided by Digistan.  The term "Open Standard" has
  27 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
  28 about standards.  One end up discussing which definition is the best
  29 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
  30 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
  31
  32 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
  33 standards, here are a few that I know about.  This list is not
  34 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
  35 complete survey.  More definitions are available on the
  36 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
  37 page</a>.</p>
  38
  39 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
  40 Interoperability Framework version 1.0.  Really sad to notice that BSA
  41 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
  42 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
  43 their own people.  Anyway, the definition is still available and it
  44 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
  45 specification on equal terms.</p>
  46
  47 <blockquote>
  48
  49 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
  50 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
  51 open standard:</p>
  52
  53 <ul>
  54
  55 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
  56 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
  57 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
  58 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
  59
  60 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
  61 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
  62 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
  63 nominal fee.</li>
  64
  65 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
  66 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
  67 free basis.</li>
  68
  69 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
  70
  71 </ul>
  72 </blockquote>
  73
  74 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
  75 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
  76 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
  77 definition</a> in 2004.  It even made it into the Danish parlament as
  78 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
  79 definition of a open standard</a>.  Another from a different part of
  80 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
  81
  82 <blockquote>
  83
  84 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
  85
  86 <ol>
  87
  88 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
  89 tilgængelig.</li>
  90
  91 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
  92 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
  93
  94 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
  95 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
  96
  97 </ol>
  98
  99 </blockquote>
 100
 101 <p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
 102 definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
 103
 104 <blockquote>
 105
 106 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
 107
 108 <ol>
 109
 110 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
 111 manner equally available to all parties;</li>
 112
 113 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
 114 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
 115 Standard themselves;</li>
 116
 117 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
 118 any party or in any business model;</li>
 119
 120 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
 121 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
 122 parties;</li>
 123
 124 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
 125 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
 126 parties.</li>
 127
 128 </ol>
 129
 130 </blockquote>
 131
 132 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
 133 its
 134 <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
 135 Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
 136
 137 <blockquote>
 138 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
 139
 140 <ul>
 141
 142 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
 143   democratic:
 144
 145          <ul>
 146
 147          <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
 148             participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
 149             imposed by the organization under which it is developed
 150             and managed.</li>
 151
 152          <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
 153             method, can be changed through input from all
 154             participants.</li>
 155
 156          <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
 157             the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
 158
 159          <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
 160             and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
 161
 162          <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
 163             public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
 164             comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
 165
 166          </ul>
 167
 168 </li>
 169
 170 </ul>
 171
 172 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
 173 <ul>
 174
 175 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
 176   and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
 177   implementations to the interface described in the standard without
 178   undue or restrictive constraints.  Interfaces include APIs,
 179   protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
 180
 181 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
 182   a technical or economic barriers</li>
 183
 184 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
 185   interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
 186   program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
 187   programs and mutually to use the information which has been
 188   exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
 189   file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
 190   conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
 191   computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
 192   intended to function.</li>
 193
 194 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
 195   standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
 196   must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
 197
 198 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
 199   fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
 200   perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
 201   sell products based on the standard.  The only exceptions are
 202   terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
 203   outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
 204   patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
 205   only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
 206
 207       <ul>
 208
 209       <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
 210         licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
 211         (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
 212
 213       <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
 214         or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
 215         essential to practice that standard (also known as a
 216         "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
 217
 218       <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
 219         licensor</li>
 220
 221       </ul>
 222 </li>
 223
 224 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
 225   implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
 226   or restricted licensing terms</li>
 227
 228 </ul>
 229
 230 </blockquote>
 231
 232 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
 233 there are so many of them.  As you can see, the same holds true for
 234 open standard definitions.  Most of the definitions have a lot in
 235 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
 236 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
 237 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
 238 competition to downplay the significance of open standards.  I hope we
 239 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
 240 Standards.</p>
 241 </div>
 242
 243       <div class="tags">Tags: <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/digistan">digistan</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/english">english</a>, <a href="http://people.skolelinux.org/pere/blog/tags/standard">standard</a>.</div>
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