[okfn-discuss] An interesting question about open data for local government.

Thu Oct 11 09:52:53 UTC 2012

On Wed, Oct 10, 2012 at 11:23:43AM -0700, Luis Villa wrote:
> Yes, I was going to say - the right solution is reference to a
> well-developed definition of open standards, rather than specific
> standards that may or may not be open at this time.

I agree.

FSFE maintains a definition of Open Standards that has been
through an extensive discussion process with many groups and
companies, and has served us well in many a stormy debate: 

	http://fsfe.org/activities/os/def.en.html

	An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is

	- subject to full public assessment and use without
	  constraints in a manner equally available to all
	  parties;

	- without any components or extensions that have
	  dependencies on formats or protocols that do not meet
	  the definition of an Open Standard themselves;

	- free from legal or technical clauses that limit its
	  utilisation by any party or in any business model;

	- managed and further developed independently of any
	  single vendor in a process open to the equal
	  participation of competitors and third parties;

	- available in multiple complete implementations by
	  competing vendors, or as a complete implementation
	  equally available to all parties.

Talking about "restriction-free" standards has turned out to be a
good descriptive shorthand for all this.

Best regards,
Karsten
-- 
Karsten Gerloff                      [ ]   <gerloff at fsfeurope.org>
Free Software Foundation Europe   [ ][ ][ ]      [http://fsfe.org]
President                            | |         +49 176 9690 4298
Your donation powers our work!           [http://fsfe.org/donate/]

Free Software Foundation Europe e.V. is a German Verein registered
at the Registergericht Hamburg (VR 17030). 

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