For those of you who I asked before for comment, many thanks for your input and comment on this. We are trying to agree a definition of an Open standard that can be used within Certified Open. All of these comments have been mulled over and we have a new draft for your consideration (below). One of the most difficult areas has proved to be the proof that it has been implements. There are conflicting comments on whether this is essential and if so would it negate new standards entering the chain? Thoughts? Again I would empasise it is your personal input that is sought , not formal approval by you organisation. Tks G
An Open Standard refers to a format or protocol that is
a) fully and publicly documented;
b) without any components or extensions that have dependencies on formats or protocols that do not meet the definition of an Open Standard themselves;
c) free from legal or technical clauses that could be construed as limiting its utilisation by any party or business model, in particular fully available with no constraints on use;
d) developed and managed independently of any single vendor in a process open to the equal participation of competitors and third parties;
e) already available in multiple complete implementations by competing vendors, or has a complete implementation equally available to all parties.