An open standard is a standard that is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it.
The terms "open" and "standard" have a wide range of meanings associated with their usage. The term "open" is usually restricted to royalty-free technologies while the term "standard" is sometimes restricted to technologies approved by formalized committees that are open to participation by all interested parties and operate on a consensus basis.
New Zealand official interoperability framework definition
The E-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) states defines open standard as royalty free according to the following text:
While a universally agreed definition of "open standards" is unlikely to be resolved in the near future, the e-GIF accepts that a definition of “open standards” needs to recognise a continuum that ranges from closed to open, and encompasses varying degrees of "openness". To guide readers in this respect, the e-GIF endorses "open standards" that exhibit the following properties:
- Be accessible to everyone free of charge: no discrimination between users, and no payment or other considerations should be required as a condition to use the standard.
- Remain accessible to everyone free of charge: owners should renounce their options, if any, to limit access to the standard at a later date.
- Be documented in all its details: all aspects of the standard should be transparent and documented, and both access to and use of the documentation should be free.
The e-GIF performs the same function in e-government as the Road Code does on the highways. Driving would be excessively costly, inefficient, and ineffective if road rules had to be agreed each time one vehicle encountered another.
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References
External Links & References
- Australian Standards blocked from open
- XKCD - Something to think about!
- Google Search