As we’ve discussed in our last two posts, OpenStand recently conducted a survey of the global open development community regarding the present and future state of open standards. For our third and final question, we wanted to get a sense of whether respondents feel the definition of open standards will change over time. A majority of respondents, approximately 77%, seemed to think the definition would change or evolve in some way, while a number feel current definitions and/or the OpenStand definition is sufficient. Many respondents expressed concern about cost, accessibility and IP/patents.While you can read the full survey responses here, we’ve highlighted a selection of responses to our third and final question, below.
Do you see the definition “open standards” changing in the future? If so, how?
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“No. Copyright, trademark and patent are all temporary protections to motivate IP developers. Big picture, all ideas of merit are shared.”
-Mike, United States
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“As the standard systems grow more complex, explicit broader concepts like ‘standards family’ and narrower ones such as ‘standard aspect’ could become useful to capture nuances in the emerging diversity. Initiatives and organizations such as such as Open Stand and W3C have a key role to play balancing standardization efforts between institutional interests on one hand and private initiatives on the other.”
-Damien, Australia
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“I think that OpenStand has it just right.”
-Russ, United States
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“I think software patents will become increasingly disreputable, and that major public facing companies will increasingly avoid them for reputational reasons.”
-Simon Brooke, United Kingdom
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“Electronic health records might be a good test case. What do we value more? Convenience, privacy, reliability?”
-Kurt Sommerhauser, United States
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“I hope that an “open standard” continues to mean that a standard can be freely adopted, implemented, and extended.”
-Abraham Becker, Avalon Consulting LLC, United States
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“Freely available, free to acquire, free to comment, contribute and maintain.”
-Malcolm, Australia
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“I hope it doesn’t, but chances are the buzz word might overtake the actual meaning.”
-Taelor, Careca Web, United Kingdom
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“Yes I see open standards changing the way the world thinks about all standards making them more universal (sic bad word) worldwide and diverse.”
-Wolf, Australia
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“I hope to see the definition “open standards” turning into something that companies use to advertise their products and services and consumers use as a criteria for their choices. I do see it turning from something that refers mostly to the company-originated technologies of today to anything that people create either as a team or as a single entity and feel the need to share with the world with a blink of an eye, advancing the world to the next level of collective innovation.”
-Anastasios Chatzithomaoglou, Forthnet, Greece
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“’Free standards’ would sound better.”
-Jose Paulo Cunha, UERJ, Brazil
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“I see collaborative development of “pre-standard” specs being developed online and in public happening more and more. Accommodating the IP rights and process back into open standards bodies will be challenging. Possibly we will see more loosely federated standards that are not governed in the traditional sense.”
-Steve Midgley, Mixrun, United States
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“‘Sponsored’ open standards may have vendors (or groups of competitors) promoting standards that will give them a competitive edge.”
-Robert, Boeri, United States
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“Open, in my mind, means free ‘as in freedom’. In the future I would like to see all open standards implemented under (and protected by) an Open Source license.”
-Dimitrios Bouras, Greece
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“No, it is correct and clear.”
-Fulcieri Maltini, France
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“Yes. Open standards will become more and more of a political football as we see more and more nation states increasing their involvement in military and industrial espionage.”
-Frank Rose, United States
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“Hopefully, Open Standards will reflect transparency in all types of affairs.”
-Sven Pedersen, United States
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