OpenStand: Affirmation of the Modern Paradigm for Standards
A joint statement on principles for open, global standards development.
Housley, R., Mills, S., Jaffe, J., Aboba, B., and L. St.Amour, "Affirmation of the Modern Paradigm for Standards", RFC 6852, DOI 10.17487/RFC6852, January 2013, <https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6852>.
@misc{rfc6852,
series = {Request for Comments},
number = 6852,
howpublished = {RFC 6852},
publisher = {RFC Editor},
doi = {10.17487/RFC6852},
url = {https://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6852},
author = {R. Housley and S. Mills and J. Jaffe and B. Aboba and L. St.Amour},
title = {{Affirmation of the Modern Paradigm for Standards}},
pagetotal = 5,
year = 2013,
month = jan,
} RFC text
Contents
Internet Architecture Board (IAB) R. Housley
Request for Comments: 6852 IETF Chair
Category: Informational S. Mills
ISSN: 2070-1721 IEEE-SA President
J. Jaffe
W3C CEO
B. Aboba
IAB Chair
L. St.Amour
ISOC President and CEO
January 2013
Affirmation of the Modern Paradigm for Standards
Abstract
On 29 August 2012, the leaders of the IEEE Standards Association, the
IAB, the IETF, the Internet Society, and the W3C signed a statement
affirming the importance of a jointly developed set of principles
establishing a modern paradigm for global, open standards. These
principles have become known as the "OpenStand" principles. This
document contains the text of the affirmation that was signed.
Status of This Memo
This document is not an Internet Standards Track specification; it is
published for informational purposes.
This document is a product of the Internet Architecture Board (IAB)
and represents information that the IAB has deemed valuable to
provide for permanent record. It represents the consensus of the
Internet Architecture Board (IAB). Documents approved for
publication by the IAB are not a candidate for any level of Internet
Standard; see Section 2 of RFC 5741.
Information about the current status of this document, any errata,
and how to provide feedback on it may be obtained at
http://www.rfc-editor.org/info/rfc6852.
Copyright Notice
Copyright (c) 2013 IETF Trust and the persons identified as the
document authors. All rights reserved.
This document is subject to BCP 78 and the IETF Trust's Legal
Provisions Relating to IETF Documents
(http://trustee.ietf.org/license-info) in effect on the date of
publication of this document. Please review these documents
carefully, as they describe your rights and restrictions with respect
to this document.
1. Introduction
On 29 August 2012, the leaders of the IEEE Standards Association, the
IAB, the IETF, the Internet Society, and the W3C signed a statement
affirming the importance of a jointly developed set of principles
establishing a modern paradigm for global, open standards. These
principles have become known as the "OpenStand" principles.
Section 2 of this document describes the five OpenStand principles.
Section 3 of this document contains the text of the signed
affirmation of the five OpenStand principles. Section 4 contains a
call for others to support the five OpenStand principles.
2. Modern Paradigm for Standards
Over the past several decades, the global economy has realized a huge
bounty due to the Internet and the World Wide Web. These could not
have been possible without the innovations and standardization of
many underlying technologies. This standardization occurred with
great speed and effectiveness only because of key characteristics of
a modern global standards paradigm. The affirmation below
characterizes the principles that have led to this success as a means
to ensure acceptance of standards activities that adhere to the
principles.
We embrace a modern paradigm for standards where the economics of
global markets, fueled by technological advancements, drive global
deployment of standards regardless of their formal status.
In this paradigm standards support interoperability, foster global
competition, are developed through an open participatory process, and
are voluntarily adopted globally. These voluntary standards serve as
building blocks for products and services targeted at meeting the
needs of the market and consumer, thereby driving innovation.
Innovation in turn contributes to the creation of new markets and the
growth and expansion of existing markets.
Participation in the modern paradigm demands:
1. Cooperation. Respectful cooperation between standards
organizations, whereby each respects the autonomy, integrity,
processes, and intellectual property rules of the others.
2. Adherence to principles. Adherence to the five fundamental
principles of standards development:
* Due process. Decisions are made with equity and fairness among
participants. No one party dominates or guides standards
development. Standards processes are transparent and
opportunities exist to appeal decisions. Processes for periodic
standards review and updating are well defined.
* Broad consensus. Processes allow for all views to be considered
and addressed, such that agreement can be found across a range
of interests.
* Transparency. Standards organizations provide advance public
notice of proposed standards development activities, the scope
of work to be undertaken, and conditions for participation.
Easily accessible records of decisions and the materials used in
reaching those decisions are provided. Public comment periods
are provided before final standards approval and adoption.
* Balance. Standards activities are not exclusively dominated by
any particular person, company or interest group.
* Openness. Standards processes are open to all interested and
informed parties.
3. Collective empowerment. Commitment by affirming standards
organizations and their participants to collective empowerment by
striving for standards that:
* are chosen and defined based on technical merit, as judged by
the contributed expertise of each participant;
* provide global interoperability, scalability, stability, and
resiliency;
* enable global competition;
* serve as building blocks for further innovation; and
* contribute to the creation of global communities, benefiting
humanity.
4. Availability. Standards specifications are made accessible to all
for implementation and deployment. Affirming standards
organizations have defined procedures to develop specifications
that can be implemented under fair terms. Given market diversity,
fair terms may vary from royalty-free to fair, reasonable, and
non-discriminatory terms (FRAND).
5. Voluntary adoption. Standards are voluntarily adopted and success
is determined by the market.
3. Affirmation
We embrace a modern paradigm for standards where the economics of
global markets, fueled by technological advancements, drive global
deployment of standards regardless of their formal status.
In this paradigm standards support interoperability, foster global
competition, are developed through an open participatory process, and
are voluntarily adopted globally. These voluntary standards serve as
building blocks for products and services targeted at meeting the
needs of the market and consumer, thereby driving innovation.
Innovation in turn contributes to the creation of new markets and the
growth and expansion of existing markets.
By signing this statement, we affirm our support for and adherence to
these principles.
Lynn St.Amour
President and CEO
Internet Society
Russ Housley
Chair
Internet Engineering Task Force
Bernard Aboba
Chair
Internet Architecture Board
Jeff Jaffe
CEO
W3C
Steve Mills
President
IEEE Standards Association
4. Call for Endorsement
We invite other standards organizations, governments, corporations
and technology innovators globally to support these principles. You
can publicly show your support at <http://www.open-stand.org>.
5. Security Considerations
Nothing in this document directly affects the security of the
Internet.
6. IAB Members at Time of Approval
Internet Architecture Board Members at the time this document was
approved were:
Bernard Aboba
Jari Arkko
Marc Blanchet
Ross Callon
Alissa Cooper
Spencer Dawkins
Joel Halpern
Russ Housley
David Kessens
Danny McPherson
Jon Peterson
Dave Thaler
Hannes Tschofenig
Authors' Addresses
Russ Housley
EMail: housley@vigilsec.com
Steve Mills
EMail: s.mills@ieee.org
Jeff Jaffe
EMail: jeff@w3.org
Bernard Aboba
EMail: bernard_aboba@hotmail.com
Lynn St.Amour
EMail: st.amour@isoc.org
AI ELI5
On this page
§1The OpenStand Affirmation
On 29 August 2012, the leaders of five major standards organizations signed a joint statement: the IEEE Standards Association, the Internet Architecture Board (IAB), the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), the Internet Society (ISOC), and the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). They affirmed a set of principles for how modern, global standards should be developed. These principles became known as OpenStand.
The affirmation recognizes that the internet's explosive growth and success came from standards that were developed openly, with broad participation, and voluntarily adopted based on technical merit.
The big leaders of internet standards organizations sat down and agreed on the right way to make standards: openly and fairly.
§2The Five Principles
The OpenStand framework rests on five principles that standards organizations should follow:
Due process: Decisions are made fairly, with no single party dominating, processes are transparent, and there are ways to appeal. Standards are reviewed and updated on a schedule.
Broad consensus: All views are considered so that agreement can be found across different interests.
Transparency: Organizations announce their work in advance, make decisions publicly, and allow comment periods before final approval.
Balance: No single person, company, or interest group exclusively controls standards activities.
Openness: Standards processes are open to all interested and informed parties.
A sixth commitment, voluntary adoption, means standards succeed based on market demand, not mandate. Standards must also be available to implement under fair terms—ranging from royalty-free to fair, reasonable, and non-discriminatory licensing.
Good rules are made when everyone can speak, nobody dominates, everything is transparent, and people are free to use them or not.
§3The OpenStand Commitment
RFC 6852 published the signed affirmation as a permanent record. The five signatory organizations committed to building standards that drive global competition, enable innovation, and support interoperability across the internet ecosystem. The statement invited other organizations, governments, and corporations worldwide to publicly endorse the principles at open-stand.org.
They promised to follow these ideas, and invited everyone else to promise the same.