blog/data/2010-12-27-open-standard.txt

   1 Title: The many definitions of a open standard
   2 Tags: english, standard, digistan
   3 Date: 2010-12-27 14:45
   4
   5 <p>One of the reasons I like the Digistan definition of
   6 "<a href="http://www.digistan.org/open-standard:definition">Free and
   7 Open Standard</a>" is that this is a new term, and thus the meaning of
   8 the term has been decided by Digistan.  The term "Open Standard" has
   9 become so misunderstood that it is no longer very useful when talking
  10 about standards.  One end up discussing which definition is the best
  11 one and with such frame the only one gaining are the proponents of
  12 de-facto standards and proprietary solutions.</p>
  13
  14 <p>But to give us an idea about the diversity of definitions of open
  15 standards, here are a few that I know about.  This list is not
  16 complete, but can be a starting point for those that want to do a
  17 complete survey.  More definitions are available on the
  18 <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">wikipedia
  19 page</a>.</p>
  20
  21 <p>First off is my favourite, the definition from the European
  22 Interoperability Framework version 1.0.  Really sad to notice that BSA
  23 and others has succeeded in getting it removed from version 2.0 of the
  24 framework by stacking the committee drafting the new version with
  25 their own people.  Anyway, the definition is still available and it
  26 include the key properties needed to make sure everyone can use a
  27 specification on equal terms.</p>
  28
  29 <blockquote>
  30
  31 <p>The following are the minimal characteristics that a specification
  32 and its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an
  33 open standard:</p>
  34
  35 <ul>
  36
  37 <li>The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit
  38 organisation, and its ongoing development occurs on the basis of an
  39 open decision-making procedure available to all interested parties
  40 (consensus or majority decision etc.).</li>
  41
  42 <li>The standard has been published and the standard specification
  43 document is available either freely or at a nominal charge. It must be
  44 permissible to all to copy, distribute and use it for no fee or at a
  45 nominal fee.</li>
  46
  47 <li>The intellectual property - i.e. patents possibly present - of
  48 (parts of) the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-
  49 free basis.</li>
  50
  51 <li>There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.</li>
  52
  53 </ul>
  54 </blockquote>
  55
  56 <p>Another one originates from my friends over at
  57 <a href="http://www.dkuug.dk/">DKUUG</a>, who coined and gathered
  58 support for <a href="http://www.aaben-standard.dk/">this
  59 definition</a> in 2004.  It even made it into the Danish parlament as
  60 <a href="http://www.ft.dk/dokumenter/tingdok.aspx?/samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/som_fremsat.htm">their
  61 definition of a open standard</a>.  Another from a different part of
  62 the Danish government is available from the wikipedia page.</p>
  63
  64 <blockquote>
  65
  66 <p>En åben standard opfylder følgende krav:</p>
  67
  68 <ol>
  69
  70 <li>Veldokumenteret med den fuldstændige specifikation offentligt
  71 tilgængelig.</li>
  72
  73 <li>Frit implementerbar uden økonomiske, politiske eller juridiske
  74 begrænsninger på implementation og anvendelse.</li>
  75
  76 <li>Standardiseret og vedligeholdt i et åbent forum (en såkaldt
  77 "standardiseringsorganisation") via en åben proces.</li>
  78
  79 </ol>
  80
  81 </blockquote>
  82
  83 <p>Then there is <a href="http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/def.html">the
  84 definition</a> from Free Software Foundation Europe.</p>
  85
  86 <blockquote>
  87
  88 <p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
  89
  90 <ol>
  91
  92 <li>subject to full public assessment and use without constraints in a
  93 manner equally available to all parties;</li>
  94
  95 <li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies on
  96 formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open
  97 Standard themselves;</li>
  98
  99 <li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its utilisation by
 100 any party or in any business model;</li>
 101
 102 <li>managed and further developed independently of any single vendor
 103 in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third
 104 parties;</li>
 105
 106 <li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
 107 vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to all
 108 parties.</li>
 109
 110 </ol>
 111
 112 </blockquote>
 113
 114 <p>A long time ago, SUN Microsystems, now bought by Oracle, created
 115 its
 116 <a href="http://blogs.sun.com/dennisding/resource/Open%20Standard%20Definition.pdf">Open
 117 Standards Checklist</a> with a fairly detailed description.</p>
 118
 119 <blockquote>
 120 <p>Creation and Management of an Open Standard
 121
 122 <ul>
 123
 124 <li>Its development and management process must be collaborative and
 125   democratic:
 126
 127          <ul>
 128
 129          <li>Participation must be accessible to all those who wish to
 130             participate and can meet fair and reasonable criteria
 131             imposed by the organization under which it is developed
 132             and managed.</li>
 133
 134          <li>The processes must be documented and, through a known
 135             method, can be changed through input from all
 136             participants.</li>
 137
 138          <li>The process must be based on formal and binding commitments for
 139             the disclosure and licensing of intellectual property rights.</li>
 140
 141          <li>Development and management should strive for consensus,
 142             and an appeals process must be clearly outlined.</li>
 143
 144          <li>The standard specification must be open to extensive
 145             public review at least once in its life-cycle, with
 146             comments duly discussed and acted upon, if required.</li>
 147
 148          </ul>
 149
 150 </li>
 151
 152 </ul>
 153
 154 <p>Use and Licensing of an Open Standard</p>
 155 <ul>
 156
 157 <li>The standard must describe an interface, not an implementation,
 158   and the industry must be capable of creating multiple, competing
 159   implementations to the interface described in the standard without
 160   undue or restrictive constraints.  Interfaces include APIs,
 161   protocols, schemas, data formats and their encoding.</li>
 162
 163 <li> The standard must not contain any proprietary "hooks" that create
 164   a technical or economic barriers</li>
 165
 166 <li>Faithful implementations of the standard must
 167   interoperate. Interoperability means the ability of a computer
 168   program to communicate and exchange information with other computer
 169   programs and mutually to use the information which has been
 170   exchanged. This includes the ability to use, convert, or exchange
 171   file formats, protocols, schemas, interface information or
 172   conventions, so as to permit the computer program to work with other
 173   computer programs and users in all the ways in which they are
 174   intended to function.</li>
 175
 176 <li>It must be permissible for anyone to copy, distribute and read the
 177   standard for a nominal fee, or even no fee. If there is a fee, it
 178   must be low enough to not preclude widespread use.</li>
 179
 180 <li>It must be possible for anyone to obtain free (no royalties or
 181   fees; also known as "royalty free"), worldwide, non-exclusive and
 182   perpetual licenses to all essential patent claims to make, use and
 183   sell products based on the standard.  The only exceptions are
 184   terminations per the reciprocity and defensive suspension terms
 185   outlined below. Essential patent claims include pending, unpublished
 186   patents, published patents, and patent applications. The license is
 187   only for the exact scope of the standard in question.
 188
 189       <ul>
 190
 191       <li> May be conditioned only on reciprocal licenses to any of
 192         licensees' patent claims essential to practice that standard
 193         (also known as a reciprocity clause)</li>
 194
 195       <li> May be terminated as to any licensee who sues the licensor
 196         or any other licensee for infringement of patent claims
 197         essential to practice that standard (also known as a
 198         "defensive suspension" clause)</li>
 199
 200       <li> The same licensing terms are available to every potential
 201         licensor</li>
 202
 203       </ul>
 204 </li>
 205
 206 <li>The licensing terms of an open standards must not preclude
 207   implementations of that standard under open source licensing terms
 208   or restricted licensing terms</li>
 209
 210 </ul>
 211
 212 </blockquote>
 213
 214 <p>It is said that one of the nice things about standards is that
 215 there are so many of them.  As you can see, the same holds true for
 216 open standard definitions.  Most of the definitions have a lot in
 217 common, and it is not really controversial what properties a open
 218 standard should have, but the diversity of definitions have made it
 219 possible for those that want to avoid a level marked field and real
 220 competition to downplay the significance of open standards.  I hope we
 221 can turn this tide by focusing on the advantages of Free and Open
 222 Standards.</p>