2009/5/21 John Bywater <[email protected]>: [snip]
> From the POV of Service Orientation the question is very simple: what > sort of service would require another service to be an open software > service? > > If the answer is: a replica/derivative service, then we need 'strong' OSSD. > > I can't think of what a 'weak' OSSD would support, except curiosity. As > software services are increasingly refactored into service dependencies, > most of a service will be implemented within its dependencies. So 'weak' > will over time tend to become 'almost entirely closed'. Which is what I argued in the quoted section in my previous email -- and why I was in favour of the strong definition. At the time I got the impression from people (e.g. Luis) that they weren't entirely happy with this and since no-one spoke up either way the issue got "deferred". >From your comments my feeling is we should put something in the definition along the lines of the "strong" requirement. It would be fairly simple to do. > Beyond replication, it would be useful to list some of the different > types of usage of an open software service, as defined by the OSSD. > > But what is the OSSD actually for? (And is anybody currently using it?) The OSSD is there to define what an free/open service is. Statements as to why we should want free/open software services is dealt with in something like the Franklin Street Statement [1] of which the Open Knowledge Foundation is a signatory. The OSSD forms a natural complement to that statement and its influence should be discernible in the section outlining what service providers are supposed to do (in fact it is outstanding 9-month-oldTODO to put a post on the autonomo.us site explaining the link!). [1]:<http://autonomo.us/2008/07/franklin-street-statement/> If one accepts that the openness (or not) of a service is important, particularly to a user or reuser of a service, then I think it follows that is important to have a clear and *simple* definition of what openness means (and a clear associated 'mark/badge' so that people can easily work out when a service is open). It this that the OSSD provides. Rufus _______________________________________________ okfn-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.okfn.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/okfn-discuss
