IBM Standards Principles

IBM Open Source and Standards

© 2008 IBM Corporation

IBM Standards Principles

© 2008 IBM Corporation2 IBM Standards Principles


What did IBM announce on September 23?

A new corporate policy that formalizes the company's behavior when helping to create

open technical standards.



Why are such standards important?

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.



What are the main ideas in the new policy?

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.

The policy is expressed in five principles.



The Principles represent positive, constructive ideas

“create economic development platforms”

“deliver services to their citizens”

“quality and openness”

“adopt open and global standards”

“participate”

“advance”

“collaborate”

“clear, simple, and consistent”



Where did the principles come from?

They were written by IBM for IBM but were inspired by the results of an online conversation facilitated by IBM during the summer of 2008.

This brought together 70 independent, forward-thinking experts across the globe from academia, standards-setting, law, government, and public policy.

They debated the question of whether standard setting bodies have kept pace with today's commercial, social, legal and political realities.



IBM Standards Principles: Process Quality

Begin or end participation in standards bodies based on

the quality and openness of their processes, membership rules, and intellectual property policies.



IBM Standards Principles: Process Quality

IBM belongs to many, many fine standards organizations and it looks forward to long and productive relationships with them.

IBM will increasingly look more closely at issues like the openness and transparency of a standards organization, as well as the modernness and consistency of the processes and intellectual property rules.

IBM hopes to use its experience to help resolve problems that are found in a constructive and collegial way, before the situation becomes too dire.



IBM Standards Principles: Global Application

Encourage emerging and developed economies to both adopt open global standards and

to participate in the creation of those standards.



IBM Standards Principles: Global Application

Standards should take into account requirements coming from anyone who might use the standards, even if that person or organization is on the other side of the planet from you.

Conversely, the more countries or regions that use global standards instead of creating local silos, the better connected we all will be.

A standard that can be used with great success globally does not necessarily have to be an “international” standard.



IBM Standards Principles: Participant Independence

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 Standards Principles: Participant Independence

We get problems when decisions are reached in ways that don’t reflect real independence of the decision makers.

Open, transparent organization should help users and other stakeholders understand who voted how and why, and this is especially true for organizations that represent countries.

We must have and understand accountability.



IBM Standards Principles: Implementability

Collaborate with standards bodies and developer communities

to ensure that open software interoperability standards are freely available and implementable.



IBM Standards Principles: Implementability

This is consistent with the software interoperability pledge that IBM made in June, 2007.

More than that, it’s making sure that standards developers and software implementers, be it for open source or proprietary software, share requirements and work together to maximize use of the highest quality standards that will do well in the market.

It also means that the right policies need to be in place and well understood by everyone.



IBM Standards Principles: Better IPR Policies

Help drive the creation of clear, simple and consistent intellectual property policies for standards organizations,

thereby enabling standards developers and implementers to make informed technical and business decisions.



IBM Standards Principles: Better IPR Policies

If there were fewer licenses, they would be better understood, and approval to participate in standards efforts would become simpler.

We would better understand how standards licenses lined up with open source licenses.

Where appropriate, we also need to employ ex ante, the early notification of intellectual property that applies to a standard.



Example Actions Based on the Principles

IBM will– Review and take necessary actions concerning its

membership in standards organizations.

– In the regions and countries where we do business, encourage local participation in the creation and use of standards that solve the problems and meet the requirements of all affected stakeholders around the world.




IBM will– Advocate governance policies in standards bodies that

encourage diverse participation.

– Work for process reform in standards organizations so that proxies or surrogates cannot be used in standards creation and approval.




IBM will– Collaborate with standards organizations and

stakeholders to streamline and consolidate intellectual property licenses and policies, with a focus on enabling software applications to become more easily interoperable by the use of open standards.



Summary

These principles demonstrate IBM’s continued and expanded support for open standards, as well as the importance they hold for our customers.

IBM believes that open standards are good for customers since they provide more options, better products, and insurance against being locked in by any one vendor or provider.

We are strengthening our commitment to open standards and the value they bring to all.

IBM Standards Principles

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