The following release was issued today by the IEEE Standards Assocation. This release really underscores the importance of open standards and open technology development – principles upon which OpenStand was founded.

On the observation of World Standards Day, now is an opportune moment to denote the importance of open standardization processes and the principles of OpenStand, the modern standards paradigm that has driven technological and economic advances in recent decades.

The observed current erosion of trust in the technical foundations of the Internet demands for a radical turn towards universally open and fully transparent standardization processes, in particular in the domain of cyber security. This is exactly what IEEE and the OpenStand principles represent. The principles of direct participation, independent of the passport or where one is domiciled, of due process, of broad consensus, of balance, of transparency and of universal openness from the very beginning of the standardization process are practiced by thousands of collaborative groups around the world, building a kind of global basis democracy in virtually all fields of technology.

The importance of the principles are noted below.

1. Direct participation means there are no intermediaries between a good idea and the peer group that decides the start of a new standardization project. Everybody, from anywhere can submit a proposal without permission by a government or a company or elsewhere.
2. Due process provides for a level playing field for all participants to understand the rules of engagement; the opportunity for equal participation; and provides a means for the definition of a standard based upon technical merit.
3. Broad consensus ensures that decisions are made by either a majority or supermajority of participants, so no single person or entity wields undue power in the definition of a standard.
4. Balance provides opportunity for a multitude of stakeholders to participate in the definition of a standard, resulting in global interoperability, scalability, stability, and resiliency. This, in turn, enables global competition and outputs that serve as building blocks for further innovation, thus contributing to the creation of benefit for humanity.
5. Transparency of the process and proceedings ensure that the policies and procedures under which the standard is defined are available so that participants understand the rules of engagement and so that appropriate audit trails are available for inspection upon emergence of an output.
6. Universal openness from the very beginning ensures that the appropriate notification to a global audience is provided for attendance at meetings and engagement in the definition of a standard. Combined with transparency, this creates the basis for a robust and trustworthy standardization process in all fields of technology, including for cybersecurity and privacy.

In times of uncertainty and volatility, rebuilding systemic trust is of paramount importance. While the OpenStand principles cannot ensure that all participants are acting in good faith, rigorous governance processes, run by standardization volunteers and professional staff of the involved standardization organizations, are designed and implemented to prevent a subversion of the principles or manipulation of the standardization process. Thus, by the very nature of the standardization processes built upon this paradigm, emergent outputs (standards) are standing with integrity.

Only the integrity of process and product as well as the empowerment of the open and global communities working under the OpenStand principles can re-establish the shaken trust to the Internet as a privileged platform to advance global prosperity as well as social and political emancipation.

On 29 August 2012, the leaders of IAB, the IEEE Standards Association, the Internet Society, and the W3C signed a statement affirming the importance of a set of principles for the development of global, open standards. These principles have become known as the “OpenStand” principles.  A year later, in the face allegations of interference by some governments in the standards development process, now is an opportune time to review the strengths of the modern paradigm captured in the OpenStand principles. Developing standards in accordance with the OpenStand principles offers the best known defense against interference by any actor.

While the OpenStand principles cannot ensure that all participants are acting in good faith, following the principles is the best way we know to decrease the risk that any participant can inappropriately manipulate the standards development process. We believe organizations that operate according to the OpenStand principles create the most robust basis for a trustworthy standards in all fields of technology, including security and privacy.

Today, we celebrate World Standards Day by standing with the global technology development community in support of open standards development principles.

 

 

This year’s theme, “Standards for a World at Work and Play”, focuses on how standards benefit businesses, governments, and humanity by helping create technologies that are more:

– Performant

- Efficient

- Safe

- Interoperable

- Scalable

- Sustainable

- Affordable

- Feature-rich

- Reliable

We are grateful for the sacrificial contributions of the hundreds-of-thousands of standards development participants as well as the standards development organizations that support global standards development.  We encourage the standards community to Stand With Us in support of open innovation.

This week marks the celebration of the 2013 World Standards Week.  World Standards Week is dedicated to raising global awareness of the importance of global standardization to the world economy and to promote its role in helping meet the needs of business, industry, government and consumers worldwide.  The week includes World Standards Day on October 3, 2013.   This year’s theme is “Standards for a World at Work and Play.”

We celebrate World Standards week with a tribute to the thousands of volunteers who participate and support standardization activities worldwide. We also thank the growing OpenStand community members for their advocacy in the promotion of open development principles. We believe our activities will help ensure an open future for the benefit of humanity.

We’re proud to support this week’s events and we encourage everyone to publicly Stand with the OpenStand Community this week.

Next week, the discussion around the future of innovation moves to Europe during Knowledge4Innovation’s (K4I) 5th European Innovation Summit. The Summit will be held at the European Parliament in Brussels from September 30th to October 3rd.

K4I writes, “The 5th European Innovation Summit will not only focus on the implementation of the new instruments, but also seek to identify the remaining barriers to innovation and how they can be overcome. In addition, the role of SMEs and regional innovation smart specialization strategies as drivers of innovation in Europe and the opportunity to set up a European Innovation Partnership in the area of transport will be discussed.”

During the summit, IEEE-SA President, and Sr. Director, Community Marketing, Synopsys, Karen Bartleson, will speak at a breakfast on the changing standards ecosystem and the future of open development. As a long-time OpenStand advocate, Bartleson will highlight the global market benefits of OpenStand Principles.

This is the right moment to discuss the future of innovation in Europe. We are enthusiastic about being featured in key discussions and eager to see the results of this summit.

We encourage participation and advocacy from the global OpenStand community in the presentation and discussion of innovative ideas at this summit and other industry events. We encourage members of the global technology development community to Stand With Us.