EC comes out for open source

THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION has come out solidly behind increased use of open source as a means to boosting interoperability and improving procurement throughout the Eurozone.

At the Open Forum European Summit, Neelie Kroes, the European Commission vice-president for the Digital Agenda, said that with improved interoperability comes improved competition, and, she added, competition is good for the European economy. However, she admitted that open source still has some way to go until it will be fully accepted.

She made the case for open source as one not of ideology but of practicality and lower costs. "Let's imagine two competing standards that are both technically excellent for a certain task but differ in the level of constraints for implementers. Which of these two standards do you think will see more implementation and use, including for unforeseen purposes? The one that you can download from a website and that you can implement without restrictions? Or the other one which you have to buy, which is restricted to certain fields of use and which requires royalty payments for embodied intellectual property rights (IPR)? The answer is obvious. And that is why everybody who cares about interoperability should care about the financial conditions for the use of standards as well as the indirect constraints imposed on third parties: the fewer constraints the better."

"I am still a big fan of open standards. I believe in openness, and I believe in practising what one preaches," she said. "Some observers think 'open standards' is a tainted term that should not to be used in the absence of a generally recognised definition. Whatever the labels, what matters is the substance. I would urge all stakeholders to focus on the content of the package rather than the wrapping."

In order to remove any barriers to its adoption, and equally, barriers to interoperability, Kroes proposed five key actions for the EC, which she said would lead to more and better recognised standards being developed in Europe, or improve interoperability in the absence of standards.

First on the agenda is how IT standards are dealt with in Europe, which she added was badly in need of reform. Kroes plans to reform the system and later this year will release a package of proposals for doing this. Kroes would like to see a Euro equivalent of the standards bodies W3C or Oasis, which would be able to fast track IT standards approval and compete on a level footing.

Next up are rules surrounding the disclosure of licensing rules and intellectual property rights. "I have nothing against intellectual property being brought to the standard-setting table, but it must be disclosed," Kroes added. "Transparency is therefore in everyone's interest - the alternatives are not. Why risk the litigation? Why set a standard in ignorance of the costs of implementation?"

IT buyers will be assured by the third point on Kroes' agenda, which concerns tender specifications. Kroes said that the EC would draw up detailed guidance on analysing technology requirements to use when tendering for deals, "in order to make the best use of ICT standards".

Kroes explained that this would save organisations, particularly public authorities from getting locked into the use of proprietary technology 'for decades'.

Fourth on the agenda was a new framework for interoperability. Although there is already a European Interoperability Framework in existence Kroes said it should be revisited and updated. Details here were scarce.

Lastly Kroes promised to hunt down and throw the full weight of the law at any firms that don't make interoperable products. However, she added that she hoped she would not have to repeat earlier efforts.

"You no doubt remember that I have some experience with reticent high-tech companies: I had to fight hard and for several years until Microsoft began to license missing interoperability information", she said. "Complex anti-trust investigations followed by court proceedings are perhaps not the only way to increase interoperability. The Commission should not need to run an epic antitrust case every time software lacks interoperability. Wouldn't it be nice to solve all such problems in one go?"

In order to tackle this, Kroes is suggesting that certain types of IT products be required to abide to certain criteria, specifically that they offer the required information for licensing.

The EC has a lot of work ahead of it, and no one is more aware of this than Kroes, who added, "We can't change all of this in one year, and there will be plenty who try to stop change. But I still want that change, and I will keep coming back and speaking to you until we achieve it." µ