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 © 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