I have been a member of the Open Web Foundation for some time now. On first impressions, one may wonder: Why do we need yet another Web SSO/standardization body? However, in my view, the Open Web Foundation (OWF) fulfills a key role not currently occupied by other standards bodies so far.
The OWF home page says: The Open Web Foundation is an attempt to create a home for community-driven specifications. Following the open source model similar to the Apache Software Foundation, the foundation is aimed at building a lightweight framework to help communities deal with the legal requirements necessary to create successful and widely adopted specification.
From the above, ‘Community driven – light weight specifications’ is the operative concept.
Thus, one could view OWF as an ‘incubator for standards’. There have been a number of detailed discussions on the OWF forums about what exactly OWF is: It could be seen as a ‘creative commons’ for standards with the potential raison-d’etre: ‘to expand the size, scope, and functionality of the web by promoting interoperability, reuse, transparent, and open/royalty-free technologies, formats, and protocols’. (Chris Messina)
Why is such a foundation needed for the Web currently?
The original presentation from David Recordon announcing the foundation of OWF offers more insights behind the vision. The OWF addresses the evolution of open source and the Open Web especially as the conversation shifts to ‘data’ as we enter the domain of Cloud computing. Thus, OWF is concerned with a scope beyond Open APIs and also addresses the realm of data, interoperability and simplicity. One could see it as evolution of the Web itself beyond the original http protocol to other open protocols like XMPP. In addition, currently, a lot of work is happening outside the formal standardization bodies. Thus, OWF could be seen as an umbrella organization that brings these ideas together in a ‘Lite’ format and with an emphasis on individual contribution. OWF is concerned with four things: The incubation process (creating new open specifications); licensing (ex non assert agreements), copyright (ex – creative commons) and community (to support the open web).
The OWF also has a more democratic ethos – individuals can join and contribute and if possible even become office bearers. This is in contrast to other standards bodies where participation is often corporate and individuals do not wield large influence
I like this approach for a three reasons. Firstly: because of the more democratic/inclusive emphasis on individuals and not corporates or governments. Secondly: because this approach gives choice, flexibility and transparency and brings together formal standards, informal standards and also widely adopted industry standards. Thirdly: it addresses the issues going forward, ex Data and Cloud
At a minimum, OWF is an interesting experiment. But more interestingly, it may well be the shape of things to come for SSOs because of its more organic, inclusive and flexible methodology.
What do we think? Is the path chosen by OWF a shape of things to come for SSOs?
