Gourt > Computers > Data Formats > Open Standards
Open Standards are publicly available and implementable standards. By allowing anyone to obtain and implement the standard, they can increase compatibility between various hardware and software components, since anyone with the necessary technical know-how and resources can build products that work together with those of the other vendors that base their designs on the standard (although patent holders may impose "reasonable and non-discriminatory" royalty fees and other licensing terms on implementers of the standard).
Many technical specifications that are sometimes considered standards are proprietary rather than being open, and are only available under restrictive contract terms (if they can be obtained at all) from the organization that owns the copyright for the specification.
Being an open standard also does not necessarily imply that no licenses to patent rights are needed to use the standard or that such licenses are available for free. For example, the standards published by the major internationally recognized standards bodies such as the ITU, ISO, and IEC are ordinarily considered open, but may require patent licensing fees for implementation.
More on [ Open standard ]
Advocacy :: Open Source
Standards :: Reference
Patents :: Intellectual Property
Investor Icahn Urges Yahoo-Microsoft Merger
Thu, 15 May 2008 06:00:00 -0400
After Microsoft withdrew its bid for Yahoo, it's been reported that billionaire Carl Icahn bought 50 million shares of Yahoo. Apparently, he wants to see the two companies merge, and he has even launched a proxy contest to get rid of Yahoo's entire board of directors.
Gaming Your Way to Fitness
Thu, 15 May 2008 01:36:00 -0400
Video games designed to provide a workout are becoming big business. But do these games — such as the Wii Fit, which hits stores Monday — deliver on their fitness promises?
Study: Number of Wireless-Only U.S. Homes Grows
Wed, 14 May 2008 11:45:00 -0400
More Americans are cancelling their landlines and using only wireless phones, according to a new study from the National Center for Health Statistics. In the last half of 2007, the number of homes without landlines — 16 percent — had more than doubled from the same period in 2004.
L.A. Times - Technology News
Icahn launches bid to take Yahoo board
Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700
The proxy battle is on as the billionaire investor backs an alternative slate of directors aiming to revive merger talks with Microsoft. San Francisco
Interpol data analysis bolsters Colombia claim
Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700
Electronic files that Bogota says prove Venezuela offered aid to FARC rebels are found to be unaltered. Interpol on Thursday vouched for the integrity of electronic files downloaded from a dead rebel leader's computer equipment, data that Colombia says strongly indicate that Venezuela offered to aid this nation's largest insurgent group.
CBS agrees to buy Internet media firm CNET
Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:00 -0700
The network hopes the deal will greatly expand its advertising reach on the Web. Critics say the broadcaster's $1.8-billion offer is too high. In its biggest and boldest move onto the Web, agreed Thursday to buy the Internet media company CNET Networks Inc. for $1.8 billion in a deal that drew flak from critics for its high price and its daunting management challenges.
Attachments in Proprietary Formats Considered Harmful - Explains the risks of exchanging data in non-public format and suggests the main alternatives.
Meta Description: [ Problems of proprietary email attachments. ]
Avoid E-Mail Attachments, Especially Microsoft Word - Short document with instructions to MS-Word users on alternatives they can use for document exchange.
Build Systems, Not Companies, on Open Standards - Without standards, every job is a one-off, and vendor lock-in is assured after the first project. Open standards are the beating heart of e-Business, without which concepts like intranets and business-to-business commerce would not be practical on a mass scale.
Meta Description: [ Without standards, every job is a one-off, and vendor lock-in is assured after the first project. Open standards are the beating heart of e-Business, without which concepts like intranets and business-to-business commerce would not be practical on a mass scale. ]
Burn All GIFs - Campaign for replacing the (formerly) patent-encumbered GIF format by open standard graphics. Since the GIF formats has become patent-free, the site advocates against software patents.
Business Case for Open Standards - Paper investigating economical issues related to the diffusion of public standards.
Content Management and Edit Data Exchange - Article on formats interoperability in audio and video content.
Meta Description: [ EdlMax provides edit data software tools for the video and film production industries. ]
Cover Pages: Patents and Open Standards - Investigates the effects of patent proliferation and criticizes reasonable and non-discriminatory license terms (RAND) for patented technologies.
Death to Proprietary Word Formats - Argues in favor of using HTML instead of proprietary word formats.
Meta Description: [ This article by Charlie Calvert argues in favor of using HTML instead of proprietary word formts such as those supported by Microsoft Word. ]
LinuxLab - Open Standards - Argues in favor of patent-free standards and suggests recommended formats for different kinds of content.
Meta Description: [ The importance of Open Standards ]
MS-Word Is Not a Document Exchange Format - Explains the appropriate use of document formats and argues against the use of Word attachments.
No Proprietary Binary Data Formats - Why not use proprietary formats and what are the main open alternatives.
Open Data Format Initiative - Initiative aiming to convince software companies to release data format documentation and to pass laws that governments can only store user data in open format. Presents its manifesto, forum, news, links to institutional resolutions.
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Open File Format Definition - Definition proposed and discussed on the Texas Open Source Initiative Mailing List, as part of an initiative to promote the use of such standards in government projects.
Open Source versus Open Standards - Draws a distinction between open source advocacies and the promotion of public standards, warning against the confusion of these two initiatives.
Open Standards - What is a standard, what is an open standard, and why use open standards on the Internet.
Meta Description: [ A complete guide to building a school web site;
a hands-on project that teachers and kids can do together ]
Open Standards Repository - Archive of standards relevant to the Open Source community, including licenses, public standards, protocols, RFCs.
Open Standards-The Only Option - Internet technologies and the economical challenge of open protocols.
Meta Description: [ SD Times: Software Development, a BZ Media LLC publication ]
Open Standards: Principles and Practice - Illustrates the principles behind format standardization and the practice of promoting formats interoperability.
Openformats.org - Collaborative documentation projects on why use public standards and open formats and why avoid proprietary formats in data exchange.
OpenStandards.net - A not-for-profit organization connecting people to open standards and the bodies that build and foster their growth.
Please don't send me Microsoft Word documents - A discussion of the problems of MSWord as a document exchange format and what alternatives are available. Suitable for a non-technical audience.
Meta Description: [ A discussion of the problems of Word as a document exchange format, suitable for a non-technical audience. ]
Sincere Choice - Intercommunication and file formats should follow standards that are sincerely open for all to implement, without royalty fees or discrimination.
Software Standards versus Protocol Standards - How open standards may help mitigate or prevent customer lock-in strategies.
Streaming media: A case for open standards - Benefits of the development of open specifications for audio and video formats. By Rich Mavrogeanes.
Meta Description: [ Streaming media: A case for open standards | VBrick Systems president Rich Mavrogeanes says streaming media will never match the quality or ubiquity of commercial TV, as long as it fails to rally around a single standard. | October 29, 2003, 4:00 PM PT | Rich Mavrogeanes ]
The Free Standards Group - A non-profit corporation to increase the use and acceptance of open source technologies through the application, development and promotion of standards.
Meta Description: [ Open Standards for Open Source ]
The Principles of Open Standards - Ken Krechmer analyzes the distinct issues behind advocacy for non-proprietary formats.
Meta Description: [ The Meaning of Open Standards by Ken Krechmer ]
W3C Patent Policy - Governs the handling of patents in the process of producing Web standards. The goal of this policy is to assure that Recommendations produced under this policy can be implemented on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis.
We Can Put an End to Word Attachments - Richard Stallman's arguments against the use of proprietary formats in document exchange.
We Can Put an End to Word Attachments - A Discussion - Forum on Richard Stallman's document against file exchange in proprietary format.
Meta Description: [ - By Richard Stallman -
Don't you just hate receiving Word documents in email messages? Word
attachments are annoying, but worse than that, they impede people from
switching to free software. Maybe we can stop this practice with a
simple collective effort. All we hav... ]
Why Not Word! - Why not using Word, Excel or any other proprietary format to communicate.
Meta Description: [ Why you should not use Word, Excel or any other proprietary format to communicate information ]
Why There Are Not GIF Files on GNU Pages - Advocates against the use of image formats that are protected by patents. Presents a brief history of the GIF format as well as its open alternatives.
| Piers Take note that these type of dungeons are quite long, especially to GS1 standards so make some time free. Also you can get Piers to join you | |
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