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110 lines
4.8 KiB
HTML
110 lines
4.8 KiB
HTML
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<title>Open Standards - Definition</title>
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</head>
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<p id="category"><a href="/activities/activities.html">Our Work</a> / <a href="/freesoftware/standards/standards.html">Overview of Open Standards</a></p>
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<h1>Open Standards</h1>
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<div id="introduction">
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<p>Open Standards allow people to share all kinds of data freely
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and with perfect fidelity. They prevent lock-in and other
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artificial barriers to interoperability, and promote choice
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between vendors and technology solutions. FSFE pushes for the
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adoption of Open Standards to promote free competition in the IT
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market, as they ensure that people find it easy to migrate to Free
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Software or between Free Software solutions.</p>
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</div>
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<p>Starting from the definition contained in the original version
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of the European Commission's <a
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href="https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/eif_en">European
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Interoperability Framework (EIF)</a>, we engaged in a dialogue
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with various key players in industry, politics and community. In
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this process, the definition was reworked into a set of five
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points that found consensus among all the involved. The definition
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has subsequently been adopted by the SELF EU Project, the 2008
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Geneva <a
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href="http://www.ecis.eu/news/documents/OpenForumEuropeDeclaration.pdf">Declaration
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on Standards and the Future of the Internet</a> or the <a
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href="https://www.documentfreedom.org/about/openstandards">Document
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Freedom Day</a>. A very similar set of <a
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href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-standards-principles/open-standards-principles">"Open
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Standards Principles"</a> was adopted by the UK Government in July
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2014.</p>
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<h2>Definition</h2>
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<p>An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is</p>
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<ol>
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<li>subject to full public assessment and use without
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constraints in a manner equally available to all parties;</li>
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<li>without any components or extensions that have dependencies
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on formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an
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Open Standard themselves;</li>
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<li>free from legal or technical clauses that limit its
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utilisation by any party or in any business model;</li>
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<li>managed and further developed independently of any single
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vendor in a process open to the equal participation of
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competitors and third parties;</li>
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<li>available in multiple complete implementations by competing
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vendors, or as a complete implementation equally available to
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all parties.</li>
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</ol>
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<h3>Comment on Emerging Standards</h3>
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<p>When a new format or protocol is under development, clause 5
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cannot possibly be met. FSFE believes this is the correct
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behaviour in cases where technological maturity is required. In
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several scenarios, e.g. governmental deployment, the cost of
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failure can be very high.</p>
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<p>In scenarios that seek to promote the growth of Open Standards,
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strict application of the clause could prevent new Open
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Standards. From the view of the definition, such standards would
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compete directly against vendor-driven proprietary formats. In
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such cases, it can make sense to allow failure of clause 5 for
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"Emerging Standards."</p>
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<p>Which treatment such "Emerging Standards" receive is largely
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dependent on the situation. Where cost of failure is high, only
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fully Open Standards should be used. Where promotion of Open
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Standards is wanted, Emerging Standards should receive special promotion.</p>
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<p>Generally speaking: Open Standards are better than Emerging
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Standards and Emerging Standards are better than vendor-specific
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formats. The closer a format comes to meeting all points of the
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definition, the higher it should be ranked in scenarios where
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interoperability and reliable long-term data storage is
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essential.</p>
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<h3>Links to other definitions</h3>
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<p>Wikipedia has an overview of the term <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard">Open Standard</a> and various definitions. The following is a sample of some definitions:</p>
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<ul>
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<li><a href="https://ec.europa.eu/isa2/eif_en">European Interoperability Framework</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://www.ft.dk/Samling/20051/beslutningsforslag/B103/index.htm">Motion B 103 of the Danish Parliament</a></li>
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<li><a href="http://web.archive.org/web/20081218213743/http://perens.com/OpenStandards/Definition.html">Open Standards - Principles and Practice</a> by Bruce Perens</li>
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</ul>
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</body>
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<description>Definition of Open Standards, with comment on emerging standards and links to other definitions.</description>
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</html>
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