Anopen standardis a standardthat is publicly available and has various rights to use associated with it, and may also have various properties of how it was designed (e.g. open process). There is no single definition and interpretations vary with usage. The main features of open standards are
- Availability – The source code should be made available to all
- No Royalty – The software should be made totally free to implement. Certification may/may not involve a fee, it is totally subjective to the developer.
- No Discrimination – There should be no discrimination against any of the people implementing it.
- Extensions – The code can be extended or modified to add or improve the existing functionality of it.
- Maximize End User Choice -Open Standards create a fair, competitive market for implementations of the standard. They do not lock the customer in to a particular vendor or group.
sflc.in helps an author, startup, or organization adopt open standards, and also helps in the tough battle of keeping open standards open, if other parties try to thwart or willfully try to jeopardize its adoption.
