Compared to v2.4, which was widely criticized by open source organizations, this is a vastly improved policy.
Venky On Wed, May 19, 2010 at 2:33 PM, Pranesh Prakash <[email protected]>wrote: > Dear all, > A new draft of the National Open Standards Policy (labelled v1.1) is now > up for review on the egovstandards.gov.in website. > > http://j.mp/crlk1x [pdf] > > There is also a (new, as far as I'm aware, though labelled v1.1) draft > manual for implementation of the policy: > > http://j.mp/96vFL8 [pdf] > > Under "Mandatory Characteristics", it states: > 4.1.2 > The patent claims necessary to implement the Identified Standard shall > be available on a Royalty-Free basis for the life time of the Standard. > If such Standards are not found feasible then in the wider public > interest, Fair, Reasonable and Non Discriminatory terms and conditions > (FRAND) or Reasonable and Non Discriminatory terms and conditions (RAND) > *with no payment* [emphasis added] could be considered. > > 4.2 deals with non-availability of appropriate open standards. 4.2 talks > of 'interim standards', with a definition provided in Annexure I. Under > 4.3 (non-availability of standard meeting functional requirements), the > first preference is for an appropriate option (as an interim standard) > which has "Specifications as per proven open source reference > implementation". > > Under "Exceptions for Selecting One or More Additional Open Standard in > an Area": > 5. > GoI shall endeavour to adopt Single and Royalty-Free (RF) Open Standard > for an Area. However, in view of the sufficient technical justification > and in the wider public interest, additional standard(s) in the same > domain may be considered by GoI based on the recommendations of the > Designated Body. Such standard shall be compatible and bi-directionally > interoperable with the already existing selected Standard. > > There is now a definition of "interim standard": > Annexure I (i): > Interim Standard: A standard temporarily adopted by relaxing mandatory > characteristics, until an appropriate standard is identified, which > meets all the mandatory requirements. > > In the Implementation guidelines: > 4.7 > All future Request for Proposals (RFPs) of e-Governance projects shall > include the guidelines for ensuring compliance to Open Standards as per > this Policy. > > > All in all, it seems (after a quick glance) to be mostly > unobjectionable. Do others think otherwise? > > -- > Pranesh Prakash > Programme Manager > Centre for Internet and Society > W: http://cis-india.org | T: +91 80 40926283 > > > > > _______________________________________________ > network mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in > >
_______________________________________________ network mailing list [email protected] http://lists.fosscom.in/listinfo.cgi/network-fosscom.in
