Open standards

Description

Open standards are available and free for all. It is subject to transparent input and transparent output. The standard that has been published is available either freely or at nominal charge and is permissible to all to copy, distribute and use. The intellectual property for eg: patents possibly present as parts of the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.

Open standards result in broader applications, greater potential cost savings, greater security and extended value of investment.

Enablers

1) Flexibility : No constraints on the re-use of that standard

2) Openess : Participation opens to all interested people and can be implemented by any development model as interoperability is independent from choice of application.

3) Market demands : Effectiveness and relevance

4) Transparency : Easily accesible information

Inhibitors

1) Conflict between vendors' desire for dominance and industry's need for efficiency (common to all industries)

2) Rapid (arbitrary) technological change

3) New technology is harder to standardize