Directory of Open Standards Resources

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Initiatives, organizations and campaigns for the promotion of open standards and against the diffusion of proprietary formats in data exchange.

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Attachments in Proprietary Formats Considered Harmful

http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~chak/email.html
Explains the risks of exchanging data in non-public format and suggests the main alternatives.
Avoid E-Mail Attachments, Especially Microsoft Word

http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/attachments.html
Short document with instructions to MS-Word users on alternatives they can use for document exchange.
Burn All GIFs

http://burnallgifs.org/archives/
Campaign for replacing the (formerly) patent-encumbered GIF format by open standard graphics. Since the GIF formats has become patent-free, the site advocates against software patents.
Business Case for Open Standards

http://www.openstandards.net/viewOSnet1C.jsp?showModuleName=businessCaseForOpenStandards
Paper investigating economical issues related to the diffusion of public standards.
Content Management and Edit Data Exchange

http://www.edlmax.com/ContentManagement.htm
Article on formats interoperability in audio and video content.
Cover Pages: Patents and Open Standards

http://xml.coverpages.org/patents.html
Investigates the effects of patent proliferation and criticizes reasonable and non-discriminatory license terms (RAND) for patented technologies.
Document Freedom Day

http://www.documentfreedom.org/
Aims to educate the public about the importance of Free Document Formats and Open Standards in general. Coordinates activities that happen on last Wednesday of March, celebrated as the Document Freedom Day.
MS-Word Is Not a Document Exchange Format

http://goldmark.org/netrants/no-word/attach.html
Explains the appropriate use of document formats and argues against the use of Word attachments.
No Proprietary Binary Data Formats

http://www.podval.org/~sds/data.html
Why not use proprietary formats and what are the main open alternatives.
Open Data Format Initiative

http://odfi.org/
Initiative aiming to convince software companies to release data format documentation and to pass laws that governments can only store user data in open format. Presents its manifesto, forum, news, links to institutional resolutions.
Open Design Alliance

http://www.opendesign.com/
An association of CAD customers and vendors committed to promoting open, industry-standard formats for the exchange of CAD data. History, members, FAQs, and published papers.
Open Municipal Geodata (OMG) Standard

http://www.omgstandard.com/
Seeks to promote the free flow of information between government agencies and citizens by establishing a common set of technical standards for organizing and sharing public data.
Open Standards

http://www.wigglebits.com/standards.html
What is a standard, what is an open standard, and why use open standards on the Internet.
OpenStandards.net

http://www.openstandards.net/
A not-for-profit organization connecting people to open standards and the bodies that build and foster their growth.
Software versus Protocol (or file format) Standards

http://www.clock.org/~fair/opinion/open-standards.html
Essay by Erik Fair explaining how open standards may help mitigate or prevent "customer lock-in" strategies.
The Principles of Open Standards

http://www.csrstds.com/openstds.html
Ken Krechmer analyzes the distinct issues behind advocacy for non-proprietary formats.
W3C Patent Policy

http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy
Governs the handling of patents in the process of producing Web standards. The goal of this policy is to assure that Recommendations produced under this policy can be implemented on a Royalty-Free (RF) basis.
We Can Put an End to Word Attachments

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html
Richard Stallman's arguments against the use of proprietary formats in document exchange.
Why Not Word!

http://www.rfc1149.net/documents/whynotword.html.en
Why not using Word, Excel or any other proprietary format to communicate.
Why There Are Not GIF Files on GNU Pages

http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html
Advocates against the use of image formats that are protected by patents. Presents a brief history of the GIF format as well as its open alternatives.

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