News & Views
Open standards the way of the future
 “By
2012 more than 90% of all enterprises will be using open source
software in one way or another.”
That’s the word from IT commentators Gartner, according to
Graham Taylor, chief executive of Open Forum Europe, a
non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the use of open
source software in business and government.
“Strangely enough,” says Taylor, “Gartner were the ones who at
one time said open source was not going to be significant, but
recent developments show they were wrong. Open source is no
longer the anti-software establishment, it is the software
establishment.”
Speaking on the global perspective of open source and open
standards, particularly in reference to the eGovernment context,
Taylor said it was not only a different licensing model but also
a different business model.
“Open source is not in opposition to commercial, proprietary
software,” he said, “but rather it requires different thinking.
It needs a culture of collaboration and a services-driven
strategy.”
However, he said it was imperative to understand the difference
between ‘open source’ and ‘open standard’, as the terms are not
interchangeable. “In all cases, the software must be
royalty-free,” he said, “but open standards can include
commercial software that is maintained by a recognised
organization, but which avoids locking you in to the vendor.”
Taylor said that all over the developed world companies are
moving towards open standards as part of an integrated solution.
In Europe, research done last year for the European Commission
reinforced the perception that 50% of organisations are already
using it. What was even more interesting, he said, was how the
shift in spending was happening and how open standards usage in
Europe could reach 35% of the overall market. “That translates
to 5% of total European GDP,” he said, “which is a significant
amount.”
Denmark has been the first country to publish a formal strategy
on open standards, in which it states the concept is to be made
mandatory, albeit with gradual implementation. Sweden has a
similar exercise in progress. In 2007 the Netherlands introduced
a set of statistics covering both open source and open
standards. All of these countries have used the common
definition with the emphasis on open standards.
The practice of using open standards has resulted in significant
savings in research and development for the industry. Taylor
says this is due to the fact that existing development code can
be built upon and integrated to form high-level solutions. “This
provides hope for a re-growth of the software industry focused
on the SME aspects,” he says. “We are seeing this thinking
starting to come through in places like Brazil, where countries
are growing local skills for entry into international markets.”
Companies need an integration strategy in order to benefit from
the ‘interoperability’ of open standards, says Taylor, but they
have to join the community and participate in the ongoing
development to really reap the rewards.
“Just think what the internet would have been without open
source,” he says. “If it had never existed, the web as we know
it wouldn’t exist either. The software enabled free access to
everybody, and this allowed innovation and competition to occur
where it was needed.”
The impact of open standards on eGovernment can be significant,
says Taylor. “The lower costs can help increase services on
offer, and its use is a great opportunity to encourage local
business. In Brazil open standards are being used to encourage
local businesses, and it encourages a sharing culture as well as
faster development timeframes.”
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