[iai-discuss] [Fwd: [A2k] NewsForge: EC announces Open Standards
Definition (November 2004)]
Rufus Pollock
rufus.pollock at okfn.org
Sat Jun 4 08:36:57 PDT 2005
-------- Original Message --------
Subject: [A2k] NewsForge: EC announces Open Standards Definition
(November 2004)
Date: Fri, 03 Jun 2005 14:08:10 +0200
From: Thiru Balasubramaniam <thiru at cptech.org>
To: a2k at lists.essential.org
http://trends.newsforge.com/trends/04/11/19/148236.shtml?tid=138
*Title* EC announces Open Standards Definition
*Date* 2004.11.19 10:05
*Author* Rishab Aiyer Ghosh
*Topic*
<SNIP>
In the session on interoperability and open standards, Barbara Held from
the European Commission's IDA (Interchange of Data between
Administrations) Unit announced their definition of Open Standards,
which require the royalty-free licensing of any applicable patents, and
prohibit any restrictions on re-use of open standards. While a
representative from COMPTIA in the audience heavily criticised this new
definition, speakers Doug Heintzmann from IBM and Phil Zamani from
Novell said their organisations were in support of the new definition of
open standards.
<SNIP>
*Use of Open Standards*
To attain interoperability in the context of pan-European
eGovernment services, guidance needs to focus on open standards. The
following are the minimal characteristics that a specification and
its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an open
standard:
* The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a
not-for-profit organisation, and its ongoing development
occurs on the basis of an open decision-making procedure
available to all interested parties (consensus or majority
decision etc.).
* The standard has been published and the standard specification
document is available 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 standard is made irrevocably available on a
royalty-free basis.
* There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.
---------------
http://trends.newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=04/11/19/148236
The "Open Standards and Libre Software in Government" conference held in
coordination with the Dutch Presidency of the European Union in The
Hague concluded successfully yesterday. Keynote speakers on behalf of
the Dutch prime minister and the office of the Irish prime minister
urged governments to consider open source software in spirit of
inter-agency collaboration. The European Commission launched its
definition of Open Standards, and several representatives of EU
ministries announced major national open source and free software efforts.
Open standards and Free/Libre/Open Source software is of critical
importance to governments across Europe, which was reflected by the
keynote speakers. Frans Nauta, Secretary of the Innovation Platform
chaired by the Dutch Prime Minister, emphasised the need for
collaboration between governments and citizens and lauded the open
source movement as a model for open cooperation. Colm Butler, director
of information society policy for the department of the Irish Prime
Minister urged the open source community to make technical matters
easier to understand for decision-makers.
In the session on interoperability and open standards, Barbara Held from
the European Commission's IDA (Interchange of Data between
Administrations) Unit announced their definition of Open Standards,
which require the royalty-free licensing of any applicable patents, and
prohibit any restrictions on re-use of open standards. While a
representative from COMPTIA in the audience heavily criticised this new
definition, speakers Doug Heintzmann from IBM and Phil Zamani from
Novell said their organisations were in support of the new definition of
open standards.
Among other speakers, Christian Hardy from the French ministry of
finance presented the large migration of over 100,000 desktops to
OpenOffice, the free software alternative to Microsoft Office, across
the national French Administration. Rolf Theodor Schuster, CIO at the
German Foreign Ministry presented a live demonstration of the fully open
source desktop and server system that secures the global German embassy
network.
Additionally, the vice-mayor of The Hague, and representatives from
government authorities in Vienna, London, Haarlem and the Union of
Italian Provinces described their open source experiences and future plans.
The event was organised by MERIT, University of Maastricht under the
FLOSSPOLS project supported by the 6th Framework IST / e-government
Programme European Commission, the Dutch Ministries of Economic Affairs
and of the Interior, and the Dutch Government's OSOSS Programme.
The European Commission's definition of open standards is part of the
final version 1.0 of the European Interoperability Framework which also
encourages the favourable consideration of open source software. The
Framework <http://europa.eu.int/ida/servlets/Doc?id=18063> has a
definition that is worth quoting in full:
*Use of Open Standards*
To attain interoperability in the context of pan-European
eGovernment services, guidance needs to focus on open standards. The
following are the minimal characteristics that a specification and
its attendant documents must have in order to be considered an open
standard:
* The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a
not-for-profit organisation, and its ongoing development
occurs on the basis of an open decision-making procedure
available to all interested parties (consensus or majority
decision etc.).
* The standard has been published and the standard specification
document is available 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 standard is made irrevocably available on a
royalty-free basis.
* There are no constraints on the re-use of the standard.
The EC document goes on to suggest a strong link between open source and
open standards. In particular, it says that "OSS products are, by their
nature, publicly available specifications, and the availability of their
source code promotes open, democratic debate around the specifications,
making them both more robust and interoperable. As such, OSS corresponds
to the objectives of this Framework and should be assessed and
considered favourably alongside proprietary alternatives."
More information and the conference programme is available at the
conference website <http://flosspols.org/conf/>. Presentations from the
sessions should be available early next week.
Links
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