Technology Standards for Interoperability: Islands or Bridges? Benoît Müller Director, Software Policy (Europe) Business Software Alliance 26 May 2005

Technology Standards Key role in fostering healthy and competitive IT ecosystem Interconnectivity, interoperability, sharing among hardware, software and IT services eGovernment: better communication with citizens, businesses and among administrations

Benefits of interoperability Increased consumer choice New markets Enhanced communication Technological progress Increased value of IT systems Lisbon objectives

Technology standards and interoperability Interoperability comprises organisational, semantic and technical interoperability Technology standards (= technical specifications) facilitate technical interoperability Organisational and semantic interoperability as important and often the real challenge

Standards and Innovation Voluntary, supplier-led standards are effective Marketplace responds best to consumer demands Government mandated standards May have unintended consequences Freezing technology development and inability to benefit from fast evolving technologies Disadvantaging certain market competitors Hindering market acceptance and penetration Precluding multi-faceted competitive environment → Justified only when indispensable for major public policy objectives (e.g. pubic safety and health)

A result-oriented approach Method of development is not critical factor that determines acceptance Different ways that technology standards come about Does the standard solve the problem it is intended? Open standards: increasingly popular Also role for standards developed by consensus in the market place

Open Standards Characteristics Published in sufficient detail for implementation Available publicly without cost or for reasonable fee for adoption and implementation by anyone Patent rights necessary to implement available on reasonable and non-discriminatory terms (with or without reasonable royalty or fee) Developed, maintained, approved or ratified by consensus in a market-driven standards-setting organisation; standards can also develop by consensus in market place

Open Standards - Open Source Software To distinguish: Open Standards – a specification Open Source Software – an implementation

Promoting interoperability and innovation Support open standards where they (1) exist and (2) are broadly supported by the market (whether RAND or RF-RAND based) Policies promoting innovation and interoperability - rather than policies that inadvertently discourage development and adoption of standards Recommending vs. mandating standards: see Global Standards Collaboration Resolution in favour of RAND and against mandating royalty free Supporting standards not broadly supported, or lacking to support broad-based standards, is counter-productive to achieving interoperability Maintain incentives to participate

Standards and eGovernment Interoperability between Administrations, Businesses and Consumers requires a horizontal approach to technical interoperability and technology standards Semantic and organisational interoperability may require specific features for eGovernment - not technical interoperability

Standards and eGovernment (cont.) Result-oriented approach to standards: reaping the full benefits of existing standards that have proven their contribution to interoperability - support whether RAND or RF-RAND based Government / industry / standards organisations partnerships to promote existing solutions and cooperate on solving gaps to successful eGovernment deployment and effective interoperability between A, B and C

It’s all about bridges… Bridges between administrations, businesses and consumers, based on technologies broadly available in the market place… …but also bridges between governments, industry and standards organisations based on a shared objective to make eGovernment succeed Let’s not confuse different types of bridges – we need them both!

THANKS FOR YOUR ATTENTION Benoît Müller Email: benoitm@bsa.org