The European Parliament’s first thoughts on ICT standardisation reflect the sensible view that the standards system is not fundamentally broken. To me this is its most encouraging contribution! Discussions about standards too often suffer from overstatement and over-reaction.
During August, Talkstandards.com hosted an open forum focused towards a number of issues related to the tension between traditional software development business models, FRAND and RAND IPR licensing requirements and the open source community. The event was structured such that two featured articles were posted by Talkstandards regular Stacy Baird (Managing Director of Citrus Co.) and James Bryce Clark (from OASIS). In response to these featured articles, a series of expert contributors were invited to post introductory remarks, upon which the event discussion took place. These articles are summarized below. Please follow the links to access the articles in full.
As you know, open standards work and open source code development have some similarities. Both systems are designed to permit strangers to collaborate in joint design. Both have rules for discovering and filtering private patent or copyright claims, with the goal that end-users can access and use the outputs safely. While they’re two distinct systems, usually they are complementary, not in opposition.
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Is there an inherent tension between the FRAND, as implemented by many Standard Setting Organizations, and the imperatives of Open Source software development? In one word, no.
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In July, Talkstandards.com hosted an open forum which covered current issues related to Transparency in EU Standardization. A number of expert contributors posted a series of articles which covered a broad range of issues related to the general theme of the event. These articles are summarized below. Please follow the links to access the articles in full.
Everyone is in favour of transparency these days – who can be against the idea of more information getting out there to consumers? So, yes, more transparency in standards is broadly a good thing. But standard setting is a complex process and sometimes full transparency is not always possible if it comes at the expense of longer-term corporate business strategies or discretionary negotiations between entities which might be harmed by information entering the public domain.
Several interesting themes can be expected in the European Commission’s forthcoming White Paper on ICT standardisation. This was evident after a speech by Anne Lehouk, Principal Administrator at the European Commission, at the Talk Standards event in Brussels today.
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Several interesting themes can be expected in the European Commission’s forthcoming White Paper on ICT standardisation. This was evident after a speech by Anne Lehouk, Principal Administrator at the European Commission, at the Talk Standards event in Brussels today.
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