Definition of OpenStandard:

The word standard has several meanings. As per oxford dictionary, "standard" means 1. A level of quality or attainment 2. something used as a measure, norm, or model in comparative evaluations. Technically speaking "Standard" means, A specification that has been approved by a recognised organisation or is generally accepted and widely used throughout by the industry.

In todays world standards are extremely important. It helps us to ensure that the products and the services are of sufficient quality. In Information Technology Industry standards are vital because they help in interoperability of products, services, hardware and software from different vendors. Imagine if there are no standards we may be forced to use software/hardware services from only one specific vendor.

Open Standards

Open standards as per Wikipedia means, publicly available specifications for achieving a specific tasks. The Open Standards Policy of the State of Massachusetts, USA defines it as specifications for systems that are publicly available and are developed by an open community and affirmed by a standards body. Many organizations have different definitions for this. For example the European Commission's European Interoperability Framework (EIF) defines open standards as something that is available either for free or at a nominal charge for usage, copying and distribution and any patents present are to be made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis, and there should be no constraints on the re-use of the standard.

Well-known Open Source exponent Bruce Perens argues that an open standard is more than just a specification, and that the principles underlying the standard and the practice of offering and operating the standard are what make the standard open. The Perens definition has found wide acceptance among the FOSS communities worldwide.

Principles of Open Standards - Bruce Perens

Bruce Perens has proposed the following principles for open standards.

Principles

Availability Open standards are available for all to read and implement. Maximize end-user choice: Open standards create a fair, competitive market for implementations of the standard. They do not lock the customer into a particular vendor or group.

Maximize end-user choice Open standards create a fair, competitive market for implementation of the standards. They do not lock the customer into a particular vendor or group.

No royalty Open standards are free for all to implement, with no royalty or fee. Certification of compliance by the standards organization may involve a fee.

No discrimination Open standards and the organizations that administer them do not favour one implementor over another for any reason other than the technical standards compliance of a vendor's implementation. Certification organizations must provide a path for low- and zero-cost implementations to be validated, but may also provide enhanced certification services.

Extension or subset Implementations of open standards may be extended, or offered in subset form. However, certification organizations may decline to certify subset implementations, and may place requirements upon extensions (see Predatory Practices). Predatory practices Open standards may employ license terms that protect against subversion of the standard by embrace-and-extend tactics. The licenses attached to the standard may require the publication of reference information for extensions, and a license for all others to create, distribute and sell software that is compatible with the extensions. An open standard may not otherwise prohibit extensions.

Example of Open Standards.

1. The POSIX (Portable Operating System Interface for UNIX) from the Open Group, IEEE and ISO 2. The Tranmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol(TCP/IP) suite of networking protocols from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) 3. The Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) service protocol from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 4. The Unicode coding standard from the Unicode Consortium and ISO

FOSS in Open Standards:

Many people are confused between the terms open standards and FOSS thinking that they are one and the same or one cannot exist without the other. To be consistent with other publications by IOSN, the term FOSS will be used in this document to refer to open-source software and/or free software. Unless otherwise stated open standards is not the same as FOSS, which refers to software that follows certain principles in its creation, modification, usage, licensing and distribution. [17] In particular, it should have the four fundamental freedoms: 1. freedom to run the program, for any purpose; 2. freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs; 3. freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others; and 4. freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public

FOSS is software whereas open standards refer to standards. Widespread usage of standards, and especially open standards, is very important to FOSS. It makes it easier for FOSS to be compatible with proprietary software.It is a practical reality that FOSS needs to coexist with proprietary software and that compatibility with the proprietary platforms is facilitated if standards are adhered to by all. If all software products were to follow standards strictly, they should be able to interoperate and communicate among themselves well and data files could be read and written transparently. While both proprietary and open standards may allow this to happen, the latter are preferred by the FOSS community as they facilitate free access, open development and participation.

FOSS is Useful for Popularizing Open Standards

FOSS can play a useful role in popularizing an open standard. A FOSS implementation of a standard usually results in an open and free-working reference implementation. A lot of the benefits of open standards are negated, if its only implementation is a closed and proprietary one. The availability of a FOSS implementation will spur quicker adoption and acceptance of the standard as everyone has easy access to the implementation of the standard and so can try and test it out. A very good example of this is the Internet HTTP standard. One reason why this service became universally accepted is that very early on there were free and open implementations of both the HTTP server (e.g., National Center for Supercomputing Applications or NCSA HTTPd, Apache) and client (e.g., NCSA Mosaic).

Benefits of using open standards

Numerous benefits are obtained if an organization ensures that its technological and IT procurements and implementations follow open standards as far as possible. First and foremost, there is less chance of being locked in by a specific technology and/or vendor. Since the specifications are known and open, it is always possible to get another party to implement the same solution adhering to the standards being followed. Another major benefit is that it will be easier for systems from different parties or using different technologies to interoperate and communicate with one another. As a result, there will be improved data interchange and exchange. It will not be necessary to use the same software or software from a particular vendor to read or write data files.

If open standards are followed, applications are easier to port from one platform to another since the technical implementation follows known guidelines and rules, and the interfaces, both internally and externally, are known. In addition to this, the skills learned from one platform or application can be utilized with possibly less re-training needed. This can be contrasted with the usage in applications of proprietary standards that are not openly published and where there is inadequate information publicly available about them

National Considerations

From the national viewpoint, the usage of open standards by a government is even more important. In this information age, a government will need to use IT solutions to ensure that it has adequate and reliable information to enable it to govern the country effectively. It is vital that these IT implementations make use of standards that are open as far as possible. In cases where open standards are not available, the government may want to consider other standards that are freely available for usage and implementation. It should also take into consideration how open these standards are and whether they have the possibility of becoming open standards later.

All this can help ensure that there is less likelihood of its information systems being locked in later by any single technology or product. It is also in the interests of national security that open standards are followed to guard against the possibility of over-reliance on foreign technologies/products. Imagine the implications to a sovereign nation if the electronic records of its citizens are kept in databases that can be accessed readily only by proprietary software from a foreign vendor or the documents of the government are kept in a format that belongs to a vendor who thus has total control over its accessibility both now and in the future.

e-Government Projects Specify Open Standards

Many countries have started on e-government projects or initiatives, most of which have policies stating that, as far as possible, open IT standards and specifications are to be followed. Countries that have such policies include Norway, Denmark, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, France, Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and Malaysia.

The European Union's EIF, a framework to facilitate the interoperability of its member countries' e-government services, recommends the use of open standards for maximum interoperability.

In addition, more and more public sector agencies all over the world have adopted or are considering adopting policies that require open standards.

Particular Benefits of Open Standards

File Formats Modern information systems generate data (lots of it in many cases) that have to be stored in some form of electronic file formats for efficient storage, retrieval and exchange. If their specifications are not publicly known, only software and systems from the owner of these proprietary formats can readily access them. In some cases, while the format may be known, it may be the property of a particular party and this party may control the way the format evolves or is used. In such cases, users can have very little say or control over the format. Also it may be possible that the owner may not publish the format specifications at a later stage for a new version. So while compatible systems can be created that can access the files now, there is no guarantee of this when a newer version comes out.

Internet Services and Applications The Internet is perhaps the best showcase of how when technologies are implemented using mainly open standards, there is almost universal accessibility, acceptance and benefits. Most networking infrastructure of the Internet is implemented based on open standards drawn up by IETF. As a result, today, it is possible for one to access major services offered on the Internet using a multitude of environments ranging from commodity PCs, hand-held Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and mobile devices to proprietary set-top black boxes and TV sets. Without this adherence to open standards, the Internet would not be as ubiquitous as it is today.

Open Standards Organizations Bodies dealing with standards are usually non-profit and may be government-appointed, industry-backed, non-government organizations or even voluntary ones. Some more active organizations that are generally perceived to be open include IETF, IEEE, OASIS, W3C and the Free Standards Group (FSG).

Important Open Standards. Some of the important open standards are: 1. Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol 2. Hypertext Transfer Protocol 3. Hypertext Markup Language 4. Simple Mail Transfer Protocol 5. Multipurpose Internet Mail Extensions 6. The Extensible Markup Language 7. Portable Network Graphics 8. The X Window System 9. Ogg Vorbis 10. OpenDocument?

Conclusion This primer has tried to explain what technical standards are and the key characteristics of what may be termed as open standards in the field of information technology. Specifications that satisfy these characteristics can be viewed as open ones and those that are in widespread use and acceptance may be regarded as open standards.

Open IT standards are even more important in this present information age of IT and communications convergence and the Internet. No single technology, group or vendor can provide for everything and, therefore, interoperability in a heterogeneous environment is required more than ever. It is only by strict adherence to standards and specifications that a high degree of interoperability can be achieved. Standards that are open and non-discriminatory are preferred because there is no dependence on any single entity, all types of products can implement them and all interested parties can partake in their development.

Sources: http://www.osrc.org.pk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=29&Itemid=42 Accessed on 25th march 2007