My comments on: Would this policy support innovation, competition and choice in delivery of government services?
The policy might be gamed through production of artificial open standards- that meet the requirements of the policy but which do not have broad vendor support in that sector. An infamous example is the Office Open XML specification which enjoyed little support apart from by Microsoft and required much political wrangling to receive standards status, in which it has been alleged that ISO committee members installed with pressure from Microsoft ceased to function after the standard was ratified, causing real problems for ISO committees which then had problems reaching a full quorum for further decisions. To be simple, the open standards allow wide vendor participation are in fact a potential benefit which is actually obtained when other vendors actively and creatively participate. Office Open XML is arguably a single vendor open standard present not to deliver benefit to it's users but for it's controllers by expanding their marking to include customers requiring open standards. The policy will support innovation and competition if proper consideration is given to the use and wide support of the standard rather than just the apparent openness. Does a promise of non-assertion of a patent when used in open source software alleviate concerns relating to patents and royalty charging? Promise of non-assertion is weaker than a patent license, and may not be honoured by others who might purchase patent rights at a future time. On Fri, Feb 10, 2012 at 11:47 AM, Glyn Wintle <[email protected]> wrote: > Goverment Open Standards consultation has just gone live. This is > important stuff http://consultation.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/openstandards/Please > respond > > _______________________________________________ > Fsfe-uk mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-uk > _______________________________________________ Fsfe-uk mailing list [email protected] https://lists.gnu.org/mailman/listinfo/fsfe-uk
