IBM Standards Principles

IBM Open Source and Standards

IBM Standards Principles

© 2008 IBM Corporation


What did IBM announce on September 23?

A new corporate policy that formalizes
the company's behavior when helping to create
open technical standards.

2 IBM Standards Principles © 2008 IBM Corporation


Why are such standards important?

 In the globally integrated economy, open technical
standards are integral to enabling the delivery of
everything from disaster relief services and health care,
to business services and consumer entertainment.
 They enable governments to create economic
development platforms and deliver services to their
citizens.



What are the main ideas in the new policy?

 IBM's new standards policy promotes simplified and
consistent intellectual property practices, and
emphasizes that all stakeholders, including the open
source community and those in growth markets, should
have equal footing as they participate in the standards
process.
 The policy is expressed in five principles.



The Principles represent positive, constructive ideas

 “create economic development platforms”
 “deliver services to their citizens”
 “quality and openness”
 “adopt open and global standards”
 “participate”
 “advance”
 “collaborate”
 “clear, simple, and consistent”



Where did the principles come from?

 They were written by IBM for IBM but were inspired by
the results of an online conversation facilitated by IBM
during the summer of 2008.
 This brought together 70 independent, forward-thinking
experts across the globe from academia, standards-
setting, law, government, and public policy.
 They debated the question of whether standard setting
bodies have kept pace with today's commercial, social,
legal and political realities.



IBM Standards Principles: Process Quality

Begin or end participation in standards bodies
based on
the quality and openness of their processes,
membership rules, and intellectual property policies.



IBM Standards Principles: Process Quality

 IBM belongs to many, many fine standards organizations and it looks
forward to long and productive relationships with them.

 IBM will increasingly look more closely at issues like the openness
and transparency of a standards organization, as well as the
modernness and consistency of the processes and intellectual
property rules.

 IBM hopes to use its experience to help resolve problems that are
found in a constructive and collegial way, before the situation
becomes too dire.



IBM Standards Principles: Global Application

Encourage emerging and developed economies
to both adopt open global standards and
to participate in the creation of those standards.



IBM Standards Principles: Global Application

 Standards should take into account requirements coming from
anyone who might use the standards, even if that person or
organization is on the other side of the planet from you.

 Conversely, the more countries or regions that use global
standards instead of creating local silos, the better connected we
all will be.

 A standard that can be used with great success globally does not
necessarily have to be an “international” standard.



IBM Standards Principles: Participant Independence

Advance governance rules within standards bodies
that ensure technology decisions, votes, and
dispute resolutions are made fairly by
independent participants,
protected from undue influence.



IBM Standards Principles: Participant Independence

 We get problems when decisions are reached in ways that don’t
reflect real independence of the decision makers.

 Open, transparent organization should help users and other
stakeholders understand who voted how and why, and this is
especially true for organizations that represent countries.

 We must have and understand accountability.



IBM Standards Principles: Implementability

Collaborate with standards bodies
and developer communities
to ensure that open software interoperability standards
are freely available and implementable.



IBM Standards Principles: Implementability

 This is consistent with the software interoperability pledge that IBM
made in June, 2007.

 More than that, it’s making sure that standards developers and
software implementers, be it for open source or proprietary
software, share requirements and work together to maximize use
of the highest quality standards that will do well in the market.

 It also means that the right policies need to be in place and well
understood by everyone.



IBM Standards Principles: Better IPR Policies

Help drive the creation of clear, simple and consistent
intellectual property policies for standards organizations,
thereby enabling standards developers and implementers
to make informed technical and business decisions.



IBM Standards Principles: Better IPR Policies

 If there were fewer licenses, they would be better understood, and
approval to participate in standards efforts would become simpler.

 We would better understand how standards licenses lined up with
open source licenses.

 Where appropriate, we also need to employ ex ante, the early
notification of intellectual property that applies to a standard.



Example Actions Based on the Principles

 IBM will
– Review and take necessary actions concerning its
membership in standards organizations.
– In the regions and countries where we do business,
encourage local participation in the creation and use of
standards that solve the problems and meet the
requirements of all affected stakeholders around the
world.




 IBM will
– Advocate governance policies in standards bodies that
encourage diverse participation.
– Work for process reform in standards organizations so
that proxies or surrogates cannot be used in standards
creation and approval.




 IBM will
– Collaborate with standards organizations and
stakeholders to streamline and consolidate intellectual
property licenses and policies, with a focus on enabling
software applications to become more easily
interoperable by the use of open standards.



Summary

 These principles demonstrate IBM’s continued and
expanded support for open standards, as well as the
importance they hold for our customers.
 IBM believes that open standards are good for
customers since they provide more options, better
products, and insurance against being locked in by
any one vendor or provider.
 We are strengthening our commitment to open
standards and the value they bring to all.


IBM Standards Principles

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

Similar to IBM Standards Principles

Similar to IBM Standards Principles (20)

More from Robert Sutor

More from Robert Sutor (13)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

IBM Standards Principles