Introduction to Open Standards

Standards, from what I understand from the word itself, are preset qualities or preferred quality of something, either on things, persons, values or even beliefs or a set of preferences. It is also synonymous to principles that govern a person in is daily living and is “widely used and respected” [1].

We need standards because it serves as a basis when developing a certain product; standards, a framework of specifications that has been approved by a recognized standards organization (de jure standard), and is accepted as a de facto standard by the industry, or belongs to the open standards [2]. Imagine that you are creating software without a basis. It is hard to develop software without standards and even use it.

In the techie world, when creating a product, software for example follows six principles of open standards that were proposed by Bruce Perens. And these principles are: availability, maximize end-user choice, no royalty, no discrimination, extension or subset, predatory practices [2], [3], [4], [5], [6], [7], [8]. With these principles creators are guided when creating a product as well as the consumers. It is because it helps create a fair, competitive market for standard implementation that does not lock a customer into a particular vendor because it is available and free for all, and the organizations that administer them do not favor an implementor over other; its implementation is extended, or offered in subset form that may employ license for subversion protection.”

Open standards has become an important basis for creators and consumers. It is because without standards customers are locked up or will rely solely on a certain vendor for product. Thus, if standards are maintained and followed the possible over-reliance on certain product is guarded, ensuring that adequate and reliable information is governed. In addition, it eliminates the friction from routine activities and enables us to focus on more important priorities in our life…enable us to accomplish what we set out to achieve [10].

References:

1. http://encarta.msn.com/dictionary_1861714490/standard.html
2. Robin Good, “ Standards: Do We Really Need Them?” , December 23, 2003, http://www.masternewmedia.org/2003/12/26/standards_do_we_really_need.htm
3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Open_standard
4. http://perens.com/OpenStandards/Definition.html
5. http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FOSS_Open_Standards/Introduction
6. Venkatesh Hariharan, “Policy challenges for “Open Standards”” , http://osindia.blogspot.com/2007/08/policy-challenges-for-open-standards.html
7. http://www.csrstds.com/openstds.html
8. Ken Krechmer, “The Meaning of Open Standards” , International Center for Standards Research, University of Colorado, http://www.csrstds.com/openstds.html
9. “FOSS Open Standards/Importance and Benefits of Open Standards” , http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/FOSS_Open_Standards/Importance_and_Benefits_of_Open_Standards
10. Venkatesh Hariharan, “The Importance of Open Standards” , http://osindia.blogspot.com/2007/01/importance-of-open-standards.html
11. http://www.openmalaysiablog.com/2006/06/open_standards_.html