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to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was d
esigned (e.g. open process). There is no single definition and interpretations v
ary with usage.
The terms "open" and "standard" have a wide range of meanings associated with th
eir usage. There are a number of definitions of open standards which emphasize d
ifferent aspects of openness, including the openness of the resulting specificat
ion, the openness of the drafting process, and the ownership of rights in the st
andard. The term "standard" is sometimes restricted to technologies approved by
formalized committees that are open to participation by all interested parties a
nd operate on a consensus basis.
The definitions of the term "open standard" used by academics, the European Unio
n and some of its member governments or parliaments such as Denmark, France, and
Spain preclude open standards requiring fees for use, as do the New Zealand, So
uth African and the Venezuelan governments. On the standard organisation side, t
he World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) ensures that its specifications can be implem
ented on a royalty-free basis.
Many definitions of the term "standard" permit patent holders to impose "reasona
ble and non-discriminatory licensing" royalty fees and other licensing terms on
implementers and/or users of the standard. For example, the rules for standards
published by the major internationally recognized standards bodies such as the I
ETF, ISO, IEC, and ITU-T permit their standards to contain specifications whose
implementation will require payment of patent licensing fees. Among these organi
zations, only the IETF and ITU-T explicitly refer to their standards as "open st
andards," while the others refer only to producing "standards." The IETF and ITU
-T use definitions of "open standard" that allow "reasonable and non-discriminat
ory" patent licensing fee requirements.
There are those in the open-source software community who hold that an "open sta
ndard" is only open if it can be freely adopted, implemented and extended.[1] Wh
ile open standards or architectures are considered non-proprietary in the sense
that the standard is either un-owned or owned by a collective body it can still
be publicly shared and not tightly guarded.[2] The typical example of open source
that has become a standard is the personal computer originated by IBM and now re
ferred to as Wintel, the combination of the Microsoft operating system and Intel
microprocessor. There are three others that are most widely accepted as open whic
h include the GSM phones (adopted as a government standard), Open Group which pr
omotes UNIX and the like, and the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) which c
reated the first standards of SMTP and TCP/IP. Buyers tend to prefer open standa
rds which they believe offer them cheaper products and more choice for access du
e to network effects and increased competition between vendors.[3]
Open standards which specify formats are sometimes referred to as open formats.
Many specifications that are sometimes referred to as standards are proprietary
and only available under restrictive contract terms (if they can be obtained at
all) from the organization that owns the copyright on the specification. As such
these specifications are not considered to be fully Open. Joel West has argued
that "open" standards are not black and white but have many different levels of
"openness". Ultimately a standard needs to be open enough that it will become ad
opted and accepted in the market, but still closed enough that firms can get a r
eturn on their investment in developing the technology around the standard. A mo
re open standard tends to occur when the knowledge of the technology becomes dis
persed enough that competition is increased and others are able to start copying
the technology as they implement it. This occurred with the Wintel architecture
as others were able to start imitating the software. Less open standards exist
when a particular firm has a lot of power (not ownership) over the standard whic
wins
Contents [hide]
1 Specific definitions of an open standard
1.1 ITU-T definition
1.2 IETF definition
1.3 European Interoperability Framework for Pan-European eGovernment Services
1.4 Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium definition
1.5 Danish government definition
1.6 French law definition
1.7 Indian Government Definition
1.8 Italian Law definition
1.9 Spanish law definition
1.10 Venezuelan law definition
1.11 South African Government definition
1.12 New Zealand official interoperability framework definition
1.13 Bruce Perens' definition
1.14 Microsoft's definition
1.15 Open Source Initiative's definition
1.16 Ken Krechmer's definition
1.17 World Wide Web Consortium's definition
1.18 Digital Standards Organization definition
1.19 Free Software Foundation Europe's definition
1.20 FFII's definition
2 Examples of open standards
2.1 System
2.2 Hardware
2.3 File formats
2.4 Protocols
2.5 Programming languages
2.6 Other
3 Examples of associations
4 Patents
5 Quotes
6 See also
7 References
8 Further reading
9 External links
Specific definitions of an open standard[edit]
ITU-T definition[edit]
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 di
rector's Ad Hoc group on IPR that produced the following definition in March 200
5, which the ITU-T as a whole has endorsed for its purposes since November 2005:
[5]
The ITU-T has a long history of open standards development. However, recently so
me 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 deve
loped (or approved) and maintained via a collaborative and consensus driven proc
ess. "Open Standards" facilitate interoperability and data exchange among differ
ent 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) foll
owing a transparent consensus driven process that is reasonably open to all inte
rested parties.
Reasonably balanced
ensures that the process is not dominated by any one interes
t group.
Due process - includes consideration of and response to comments by interested p
arties.
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 ar
e 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 i
nterfaces are not hidden, or controlled other than by the SDO promulgating the s
tandard.
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 th
e 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 [6] und
er the banner of the WSC. However, the ITU-T definition should not necessarily b
e considered also applicable in ITU-R, ISO and IEC contexts, since the Common Pa
tent Policy [7] does not make any reference to "open standards" but rather only
to "standards."
IETF definition[edit]
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 standard
s," 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 definin
g what documents IETF standards can link to.
RFC 2026 belongs to a set of RFCs collectively known as BCP 9 (Best Common Pract
ice, an IETF policy).[8] RFC 2026 was later updated by BCP 78 and 79 (among othe
rs). As of 2011 BCP 78 is RFC 5378 (Rights Contributors Provide to the IETF Trus
t),[9] and BCP 79 consists of RFC 3979 (Intellectual Property Rights in IETF Tec
hnology) and a clarification in RFC 4879.[10] The changes are intended to be com
patible with the "Simplified BSD License" as stated in the IETF Trust Legal Prov
isions and Copyright FAQ based on RFC 5377.[11]
In August 2012, the IETF combined with the W3C and IEEE to launch OpenStand [12]
and to publish The Modern Paradigm for Standards. This captures "the effective
and efficient standardization processes that have made the Internet and Web the
premiere platforms for innovation and borderless commerce". The declaration is t
hen published in the form of RFC 6852 in January 2013.
European Interoperability Framework for Pan-European eGovernment Services[edit]
The European Union defined the term for use within its European Interoperability
Framework for Pan-European eGovernment Services, Version 1.0[13] although it do
es not claim to be a universal definition for all European Union use and documen
tation.
To reach interoperability in the context of pan-European eGovernment services, g
uidance needs to focus on open standards.
The word "open" is here meant in the sense of fulfilling the following requireme
nts:
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 proc
edure available to all interested parties (consensus or majority decision etc.).
The standard has been published and the standard specification document is avail
able 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 st
andard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.
There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard[14]
Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium definition[edit]
The Network Centric Operations Industry Consortium (NCOIC) defines open standard
as the following:
Specifications for hardware and/or software that are publicly available implying
that multiple vendors can compete directly based on the features and performanc
e of their products. It also implies that the existing open system can be remove
d and replaced with that of another vendor with minimal effort and without major
interruption.[15]
Danish government definition[edit]
The Danish government has attempted to make a definition of open standards,[16]
which also is used in pan-European software development projects. It states:
An open standard is accessible to everyone free of charge (i.e. there is no disc
rimination between users, and no payment or other considerations are required as
a condition of use of the standard)
An open standard of necessity remains accessible and free of charge (i.e. owners
renounce their options, if indeed such exist, to limit access to the standard a
t a later date, for example, by committing themselves to openness during the rem
ainder of a possible patent's life)
An open standard is accessible free of charge and documented in all its details
(i.e. all aspects of the standard are transparent and documented, and both acces
s to and use of the documentation is free)
French law definition[edit]
The French Parliament approved a definition of "open standard" in its "Law for C
onfidence in the Digital Economy."[17] The definition is:[18]
By open standard is understood any communication, interconnection or interchange
protocol, and any interoperable data format whose specifications are public and
without any restriction in their access or implementation.
Indian Government Definition[edit]
A clear Royalty Free stance and far reaching requirements case is the one for In
dia's Government [19]
4.1 Mandatory Characteristics An Identified Standard will qualify as an
dard , if it meets the following criteria:
Open Stan