Standards Revolutionise Open Source

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Standards Revolutionise Open Source
Tineke M. Egyedi
Wizards of OS, Berlin, 10-12 June 2004
ICT Unit Faculty of Technology, Policy and
Management
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Argument

• OS standardisation even more than OS
  revolutionises the IT sector.
• Why? Interoperability
• How? Coordinate focus by standards
• Comparison Container standardisation rather
  than containerisation revolutionised the global
  transport infrastructure

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Background

• Problem Development and maintenance of large,
  complex IT systems difficult
• Diagnosis Lack of flexibility
• Flexibility Ease with which a system can adjust
  to changing circumstances and demands
• Medicine Standards

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Standards

• Standards
• Committee standards (multi-party)
• De facto standard (market share proprietary or
  OS )
• Standards fix technology. Wherein lies flexible
  nature?
• Flexibility in adjacent component/ subsystem
• In defining the component subsystem boundaries
  (i.e. loosening the systems fabric into
  reusable/adaptable units)
• Complements substitutes
• Core issue Interoperability or Compatibility

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Danger of diverging OSS variants not
interoperable

• Mechanisms stimulating divergence
• Everyone has access to the source code
• Everyone can contribute to existing projects
• Everyone can start a new line of software (forks)
• Individual pride in improvements

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Coordination mechanisms in OSS (Egyedi Ruben
van Wendel de Joode, 2004)

• But it seems that overall OSS interoperates
  (true?)
• Categories
• Committee standardization
• Market/socio-economic coordination
• Regulatory coordination
• Operational coordination
• Coordination by authority

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Examples
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Compare to committee standardisation

• Mechanisms
• Range from optional to compelling
• Complement standardisation
• Perhaps useful for standardisation
• Are they an alternative to standardisation?
• No

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Conclusions

• Interoperability prerequisite for OS market
• Coordination needed voluntary (bottom-up and
  effective)
• Standards valuable coordination mechanism (I.e.
  compatibility strategy)

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Recommendation to OS community

• Prioritise interoperability (compatibility)
• Monitor divergence
• Assess effects on interoperability
• Design interoperability policy
• Evaluate compatibility strategies
• Use standards for
• market coordination
• flexible system design

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Call for Papers on Standards X OS Areas of
overlap and common interest

• Special issue for Computer Standards Interfaces
  (CSI/ Elsevier)
• Guest editors Egyedi Gosh
• Deadline full papers 1 July 2004
• Envisaged publication late 2004
• See handout