Gold INGOT Unit 1 - Finding out about Open Standards

Aim

The aim of this lesson is to begin to understand Open Systems and their relationship with intellectual property.
By the end of the lesson you need to know the terms open standard‚ de facto standard, ISO standard‚ interoperability‚ BSI‚ ANSI.

INGOT assessment criterion - I understand the term interoperability

Observation
This is an exercise in observation. Use the links and watch the video clips about open standards. Write down as much as you can about Open Standards. Don`t worry if it doesn`t make much sense yet. Standards make it easier for people to use technology because they are presented with things that are familiar and they help different technologies work together. Open means that no-one can hide how the standard operates from other people or stop other people from using the standard.

(If your site blocks "You Tube" you can use a web browser to go here and download and use the video locally. You should consider any copyright issues associated with any work you use)

Why Open Standards Matter
Open Standards Promote Access to Knowledge
The Social and Political Implications of Open Standards
Work in groups of 6 and put together 3 key questions about Open Standards that you would like to ask as a result of watching the video clips. Appoint a spokesperson and be ready for that person to ask your questions to the rest of the class. (alternatively join the Open Standards Forum and contribute there)

Make notes of answers to questions and things that you learnt about Open Standards from the questions and the videos. In your e-portfolio, make a title Open Standards. Write down what you think Open standards are and why they are important.

Standards in the IT industry are agreed so that information can easily pass between different technological systems. This free transfer of information between technological systems is called interoperability.

An Open Standard is a standard that everyone can use without paying the owner of the standard or being afraid of legal action for using the standard against the wishes of the owner of the standard. Open standards are clearly explained so that anyone with knowledge in the area of the standard can understand how the standard works and can implement it in their own work or products. A good example is HTML, the language used to develop web pages.

The opposite of an Open Standard is a Closed Standard sometimes referred to as a Proprietary Standard. Closed standards are kept secret and can be implemented so as to prevent a company's competitors from getting into a market that the company dominates. For example, if a company owned the railway lines they could prevent anyone they didn't approve from running a train service because they would own the key standard for running trains. The .doc format in MS Word is a good example from the world of IT.

Usually the most Open Standards are maintained by committees with no particular commercial interest in the standard or the industries supported by the standard. Standards that are effectively owned by one company or cartel of companies that benefit commercially from the standard are generally termed Proprietary Standards and are kept secret to benefit the owner of the standard. Popular proprietary standards are called De Facto standards because they are standards only because of common use, not because they have been agreed by official standardisation bodies or organisations. The .doc word processor format is a de facto standard, html is an open standard. The Flash video standard is a de facto standard, jpeg is an open standard. Can you find some more open and closed standards?
The international ISO standards committee generally maintains standards approved by the national standards committees of many countries and so ISO Standards tend to be accepted as fully open. British standards are a national version as are American Standards (BSI - British Standards Institute, ANSI – American National Standards Institute). Some standards will be British and ISO standards, others just one or the other. The same is true for other national standards organisations. There are many standards bodies and committees that are independent of countries and so it's quite confusing as to what the word standard actually means. Companies are very keen to use the term standard to support market confidence in their products. The term industry standard is often used to promote such confidence and to justify choice of popular proprietary brands, often by people that don't really understand the difference between open and closed standards.
Why does all this matter?
An important consideration is whether a standard promotes competition in a particular market or prevents it. This will determine the quality and price of the technological products you use. The worst case is when control of a single standard affects many other technologies and standards. A user that is locked into a proprietary standard will end up paying more and innovation and quality are likely to be reduced.
Now try the Open Standards Quiz by clicking here.

Extension work
Read the two articles here and here. They are critical of Microsoft for not supporting Open Standards. Can you find examples of where Microsoft does support Open Standards? As the current MS Office file formats become obsolete, is the company justified in developing its own new document formats when there is already an agreed international open standard? Why do you think it is or it isn`t? Summarise what you think for presentation to the rest of the group.