95 lines
3.5 KiB
HTML
95 lines
3.5 KiB
HTML
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
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<html>
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<head>
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<title>FSFE - Open Standards Overview</title>
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</head>
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<body>
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<a id="moreinfo" href="/projects/os/os.html">Open Standards</a>
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<h1>FSFE's work on Open Standards</h1>
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<p class="background">
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We increasingly entrust our information and communication to
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electronic storage and transmission. Open Standards are
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essential for your records and communication to outlive the
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application you are currently using. Lack of Open Standards
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quickly leads to data lock-in, generally followed by product and
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vendor lock-in. FSFE is promoting Open Standards in order to
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ensure equal freedom of data, competition, and innovation for
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everyone.
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</p>
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<h2>Open Standards and Democracy</h2>
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<p>Electronic records and communication include those of your
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government, such as tax and legal records or minutes of
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parliamentary proceedings. Making sure that such records remain in
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the control of the government is essential for a functioning
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democracy. The same is true for all interactions between citizens
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and their government, which should never depend on monopolies or
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the proprietary product of a single company.</p>
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<h2>Open Standards and Your Wallet</h2>
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<p>Open Standards are essential for a free market and competition
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between various solutions because users can choose freely. Such
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competition results in better functionality and prices for
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everyone, you included.</p>
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<h2>Open Standards and Innovation</h2>
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<p>All innovation stands on the shoulders of giants. Open
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Standards ensure that everyone can climb on those shoulders and
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innovate. Lack of Open Standards can stifle innovation by
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allowing the innovator of the last layer to claim everything
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that came before and control everything that follows.</p>
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<h2>Open Standards in court</h2>
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<p>Our work on Open Standards is closely linked with various areas
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of activity. This includes the Freedom Task Force and in
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particular the antitrust case against Microsoft where FSFE and
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Samba worked to free the workgroup server protocol layer.</p>
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<h2>Open Standards at the IGF</h2>
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<p>In the Internet Governance Forum (IGF) we helped launch the
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Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards (DCOS). The coalition brings
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together governments, industry and NGOs to discuss the role and
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impact of Open Standards on a global level.</p>
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<h2>Open Standards at ISO</h2>
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<p>International Standards of the ISO are not Open Standards in
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general. An example of this are the MPEG standards or the
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proprietary versions of PDF. When Microsoft pushed its MS-OOXML
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for ISO approval, FSFE was among the first to highlight the
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issues. Our intensive work on MS-OOXML helped to demonstrate the
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problems in the ISO process.</p>
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<h2>Open Standards tomorrow</h2>
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<p>Since the traditional standardisation system is failing to
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deliver Open Standards, we also seek new ways. One such
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initiative is "Certified Open" in which we aim to boost Open
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Standards.</p>
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<address>
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Free Software Foundation Europe<br />
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Talstraße 110, 40217 Düsseldorf, Germany<br />
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E-Mail: standards-policy@fsfeurope.org<br/>
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Phone: +49 700 373387673<br/>
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http://www.fsfe.org/projects/os/<br/>
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</address>
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</body>
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<timestamp>$Date$ $Author$</timestamp>
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</html>
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