Is anything really open? Trade publications, including Infonomics, have been dealing with the topic of “open source” a lot lately. Open source provides many advantages, such as allowing anyone to use the technology however they want. However, open source cannot be what it is without open standards. In fact, open source and open standards go hand-in-hand.

Typically, standards can be classified into a couple of categories. They include standards that are developed according to an established process, or de jure standards; those that are market driven, or de facto— which, through adoption by the industry, become a standard; open standards, which are controlled by an organization and are typically made available for free or at a nominal cost; and organizational standards, which provide specific guidance to an organization. Some sources say that only open standards enable interoperability and the development of technology implementations. In actuality, all standards enable interoperability and interchangeability, which help to protect an organization’s technology investment. All standards, open or otherwise, serve to document agreed-upon requirements that enable technologies or parts of technology to work together.

The American National Standards Institute, ANSI (www.ansi. org), defines open standard as “a standard that may be copied, used and distributed for no fee and/ or whose embedded technology is irrevocably available on a royalty-free basis.” Most standards work is based on openness, which enables collaboration and the achievement of consensus where every member of the committee has an equal vote and all opinions may be expressed, regardless of the size of the organization that the individual is representing.

Characteristics of open standards
According to ANSI, some characteristics of open standards include:

• Consensus by a group of representatives of interested parties
• Public review and comment as well as consideration of comments on all ballots for draft standards •• I ncorporating the changes into the standard
• Ability to appeal a decision

Within standards work there is always the question of power, especially when large technology organizations begin to participate. The perception is that the big companies like to dominate or control the development or direction the standard takes. Openness within standards development enables all organizations to have the same power or control over the standard regardless of size.

AIIM initially entered into the open standards arena in 2000 by placing the work from the Document Management Alliance (DMA) and the Open Document Management API (ODMA) into open source under the name of DMWare. This transfer allowed more companies to implement the standard within their product and continue the maintenance and development of the standard.

“Open standards” does not mean “free”
Open standards does not mean that they are free. You may have to pay for the standard—the document—but you should not have to pay to use the standard or to incorporate it into your technology. Proprietary products support open standards, whereas some open source products do not. Therefore, open standards do not equal open source, but when teamed together they make a good product even better. A good open source project is based on open standards.

As the open source product is adopted in the industry, the open standard will gain adoption as well.

When evaluating open source products and open standards, it is important to understand if an open process was used in the development of both. If so, it means that anyone can participate and share ideas as well as develop products.

In our complex business world, it’s good to know that open standards are available and can be implemented royalty free by anyone who agrees to adhere to the requirements of the standard.

The next time you're evaluating technologies for your organization, look for products— open source or otherwise—that are based on standards. You will be protecting your technology investment by acquiring a product you can expand and change as needed to meet your ever-changing needs.

Betsy Fanning is AIIM’s director of Standards and Member Services.