NewsForge: The Open Group Calls for More Support of Open Standards
Jul 26, 2002, 07:00 (12 Talkback[s])
(Other stories by Jack Bryar)
"Do you agree with Tim Berners-Lee? Is it time for proprietary
software developers to join forces with the Open Source community?
Is it time for both Open Source and proprietary software developers
to formally 'out' big vendors who declare proprietary 'standards'
that they own and control? Is it time for the software community to
quit hiding behind 'intellectual property rights?' Is it time for
software developers to commit to meaningful open standards that
guarantee interoperability? Is it time for a 'Constitutional
Convention' of software developers and a pledge to sacrifice some
individual vendor independence for the common good?
"According to attendees at the 'All-User' Web Services
Conference in Boston this week, it is well past time. Without a
change in behavior and a commitment to common standards, the few
new initiatives exciting anyone about high tech are at risk of
stalling out, or being hijacked by you-know-who. These initiatives
include the next generation of Web services and mobile computing
offerings.
"That has been the theme of the conference, sponsored by The
Open Group, a consortium of equipment and software vendors who own
the UNIX trademark (and who have been involved in some UNIX domain
name disputes recently). Berners-Lee spoke before the group earlier
this week. He and other speakers said that vendors need to refocus
least some of their development efforts to create a royalty-free
commons of software standards that don't trap developers with
unnecessary patent claims, licensing fees and other intellectual
property burdens. According to Berners-Lee, the future of the Web
and Web services depend on Web standards that can be implemented
without fee mongering and other attempts to control or subvert open
standards..."
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