IBM announces a new open standards policy

BIG BLUE on Tuesday announced its new corporate policy to guide IBM's behaviour in helping to create open technical standards and promote their global adoption by industry.

As only befits the establishment of an important policy by one of the largest and most influential multinational high technology companies, IBM has obviously put a lot of thought into this, as its announcement explains:

"IBM's principles were inspired by the results of an online conversation facilitated by IBM during the summer of 2008, in which 70 independent, forward-thinking experts across the globe -- from academia, standards-setting, law, government, and public policy -- debated the question of whether standard setting bodies have kept pace with today's commercial, social, legal and political realities. Actionable suggestions to modernize their processes were offered during the six-week discussion, with an eye toward increasing standards transparency, fairness, and quality. "

IBM's policy statement is clear, concise and direct. Its business motivation to contribute meaningfully to open technical standards deliberations is stated explicitly at the outset:

"Such standards enable electronic devices and software programs to interoperate with one another.

"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."

The company characterises its new corporate open technical standards policy as follows:

"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."

IBM obviously is concerned by the recent standards-setting travesty perpetrated by the International Standards Organisation (ISO), with Microsoft's undue influence, in forcing the fast-track adoption of the Vole's Office Open XML (OOXML) as a document standard.

IBM's intentions become even clearer in its statements of a couple of its policy principles:

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

"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 also said it will hold an invitational summit at Yale University in November that will "flesh out recommendations from the online discussion and begin steps toward improving the standards-setting environment."

IBM is taking a serious interest in the world's open technical standards setting processes, as this policy announcement makes clear. Those who might consider exerting illegitimate, corrupting influences on future technology standards deliberations ought to take heed, as should arrogant officals of standards bodies, because IBM has just put them on notice. µ

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