“Our world has big problems to solve,” says Guy Martin, executive director of OASIS Open, and finding solutions will require open source and open standards communities to work together.
In a recent article at TechCrunch, Martin describes the differences between open source and open standards but also examines their similarities and common goals, such as interoperability, innovation, and choice.
“Open source describes software that is publicly accessible and free for anyone to use, modify and share. It also describes a collaborative, community-oriented software development philosophy, with an open exchange of ideas, open participation, rapid prototyping, and open governance and transparency,” he says.
By contrast, Martin writes, “the term ‘standard’ refers to agreed-upon definitions of functionality. These requirements, specifications and guidelines ensure that products, services and systems perform in an interoperable way with quality, safety and efficiency.”
Martin shares a story from his experience as a volunteer firefighter to illustrate the importance of standards and mentions other areas in need of standards as well, including telemetry data and the software bill of materials. “There are many areas of our lives that could significantly benefit from a better integration of standards and open source,” and, he says, it’s time to step up.
Read the complete article at TechCrunch.
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