1. Welcome & Introduction
Standards, open standards and Interoperability
ETSI, Sophia Antipolis, 26 May 2005
Welcome & Introduction
Effective cross-border services,
steady goals, evolving means? 
Karsten Meinhold, Chairman of the General Assembly,
Karl Heinz Rosenbrock, DG ETSI

2. ETSI Focus A not-for-profit association, created in 1988
637 Members worldwide
ICT Standards making and associated services
Track record of global standards/interoperability
Focus
Global focus, roots in Europe
Infrastructures > Middleware > Applications
Convergence (telecom/IT/MM; Fixed/mobile)
Partnerships
Interoperability (profiling, testing, standards Integration)

3. Setting the scene: ICT environment
ICT traditionally R&D dependent
ICT industry increasingly software intensive
Convergence Telecoms/IT/Broadcast/entertainment
ICT standardization > From few to many
Interoperability is the name of the game,
getting much more complex to engineer

4. Setting the scene: questions to address
Can interoperability be context dependent?
Does “usage driven standardization”
request new interoperability schemes?
What is “open”?
What are the impacts of open source on ICT standardization?
How to stimulate and reward innovation
without hindering market entry and competition?
Is openness IPR policy dependent?
IPR policy: can one size fit all?

5. Why ETSI embarks on this initiative (1)
ETSI  637 Members from industry, policy makers,
regulators, administrations, trade associations, users
ETSI, a track record of industrial hits based on open standards
ETSI, an arena to discuss and progress together
ETSI, an IPR policy that has proven effective and efficient.
In a rapidly changing environment, a need to adapt?

6. Why ETSI embarks on this initiative (2)
Current debates show
Common overall objective (INTEROPERABILITY)
some fundamental misunderstandings
Current debates involve industry, policy makers,
regulators, administrations, trade associations, users
A responsibility to be pro-active and propose solutions
We believe in dialogue and cooperation between open minds

7. Today’s special Specify issues and set priorities
Identify elements of response in today’s presentations
and discussions
Launch joint work on such key topics as appropriate
Another hearing foreseen to gather additional viewpoints
and to address remaining issues (WTO, DG Comp, Asia Pacific SDOs, global fora, ISO/IEC…)
21 October 2005

8. Most important than a dogmatic worldview – nothing more constraining,
Nothing is more dangerous
than a dogmatic worldview –
nothing more constraining,
more blinding to innovation,
more destructive of openness to novelty.
Stephen Jay Gould
Evolutionary biologist

9. The alternative: 2004 Palme d’or of best
complexity analysis
“There are no knowns. There are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns - that is to say, there are things that we now know we don't know but there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we do not know we don't know.
So when we do the best we can and we pull all this information together, and we then say well that's basically what we see as the situation, that is really only the known knowns and the known unknowns. And each year we discover a few more of those unknown unknowns”