BRIDGING THE OPEN SOURCE- OPEN STANDARDS DIVIDE

It's easier to focus on what separates open source and open standards rather than on what they have in common. But it's more useful to talk about how the two processes could work together better.

Open standards must be fixed in order to be useful, but open source software is constantly evolving. And while open standards can prevent vendor lock-in, open source licensing terms guarantee vendors the ability to achieve that end. Is there a way to have the best of both worlds? The answer is yes, and the Free Standards Group is proving it.

As the battle heats up between the OpenDocument Format (ODF) standard and the Microsoft XML Reference Schema (now called "Open XML" by Ecma), there's more and more press coverage. And that's not necessarily a good thing.

Fifty years ago a humble, standardized commodity product first went into action - and rapidly changed almost everything about global shipping.

Updated information on this follow-up to last-year's landmark meeting between representatives of the consortium and accredited standards development communities.