Nowadays we no longer communicate with each other but we interact, and such a change was mostly due to the advent of the internet.
The world-wide-web boasts close to two billion users or roughly 29 per cent of the world’s population. In developed countries, the penetration of internet is close to 60 per cent.
Vinton Cerf, widely known as one of the “fathers of the internet”, firmly believes that the internet has proliferated to this extent thanks to the creation of “freely” available (free to use) specifications which did not have a predisposition for specific technologies or particular vendor products. The need to solve common technical problems spurred this collaborative and inclusive development process, resulting in open standards that established the building blocks of the internet. This encouraged software and hardware manufacturers to support these specifications in their own systems.
Calling a standard as “open” makes a clear distinction against the so-called “closed”, “de facto” or “proprietary” standards which may favour a single vendor or a small group of vendors only. Open standards are usually subject to full public assessment and can be used without constraints in an equally available manner.
The market is not only made up of “open” or “closed” standards; some standards, for example, may require purchase of the specification, restriction to certain fields of use and royalty payments to intellectual property owners. Common types of intellectual property include patents, copyrights and trademarks and may apply differently according to the relevant legal jurisdiction.
Earlier this year, the European Commission launched its 10-year Digital Agenda, Europe’s strategy for a flourishing digital economy by 2020. Among others, the strategy proposes to increase the quantity and quality of standards recognised and developed in Europe and promotes a better use of such standards. The strategy also states that in the absence of standards, there should be effective interoperability between IT products and services.
Furthermore, the European Commissioner for the Digital Agenda, Neelie Kroes, has voiced her inclination towards open standards on a number of occasions. Recently, during the Open Forum Europe 2010 Summit, she stated that the choice to use standards which are publicly available without restrictions is “obvious”.
The Malta Information Technology Agency, the central driver of information and communication technologies in government in Malta, is leading an initiative to disseminate the culture of open standards within government and the local ICT industry. The adoption of open standards will result in a number of tangible benefits. Vendor lock-in and dependency on specific hardware and software will be reduced. Integration between ICT systems will be easier and existing ICT resource will be re-used efficiently. There will also be improved access to public information.
Recently, through the National Information Society Advisory Council, MITA presented a series of policies which it had already introduced with the aim of informing and guiding all government entities in their procurement process for ICT solutions.
The intention of the agency is to create a level playing field so that vendors can fairly compete on the feature set, price and performance levels of their products. Such a competitive environment will also ensure that government obtains the best value from its investments. Such initiatives are important in the Agency’s goal of establishing a more open and effective government both in theory and in practice.
The detailed definition of open standards as proposed by MITA, together with the Open Standard Policy and Directive, are available from the GMICT Policy Framework website http://ictpolicies.gov.mt .
Mr Cuschieri is enterprise architect at the Malta Information Technology Agency.