Open Standards Data Formats

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

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• Open Standards: Principles and Practice - Illustrates the principles behind format standardization and the practice of promoting formats interoperability.
  
• Open Standards Repository - Archive of standards relevant to the Open Source community, including licenses, public standards, protocols, RFCs.
  
• Build Systems, Not Companies, on Open Standards - Without standards, every job is a one-off, and vendor lock-in is assured after the first project. Open standards are the beating heart of e-Business, without which concepts like intranets and business-to-business commerce would not be practical on a mass
  
• Sincere Choice - Intercommunication and file formats should follow standards that are sincerely open for all to implement, without royalty fees or discrimination.
  
• Please don't send me Microsoft Word documents - A discussion of the problems of MSWord as a document exchange format and what alternatives are available. Suitable for a non-technical audience.
  
• The Principles of Open Standards - Ken Krechmer analyzes the distinct issues behind advocacy for non-proprietary formats.
  
• Attachments in Proprietary Formats Considered Harmful - Explains the risks of exchanging data in non-public format and suggests the main alternatives.
  
• Burn All GIFs - 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.
  
• LinuxLab - Open Standards - Argues in favor of patent-free standards and suggests recommended formats for different kinds of content.
  
• Business Case for Open Standards - Paper investigating economical issues related to the diffusion of public standards.
  
• Open Data Format Initiative - 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 - 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.
  
• MS-Word Is Not a Document Exchange Format - Explains the appropriate use of document formats and argues against the use of Word attachments.
  
• OpenStandards.net - A not-for-profit organization connecting people to open standards and the bodies that build and foster their growth.
  
• Document Freedom Day - 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.
  
• Content Management and Edit Data Exchange - Article on formats interoperability in audio and video content.
  
• Avoid E-Mail Attachments, Especially Microsoft Word - Short document with instructions to MS-Word users on alternatives they can use for document exchange.
  
• Linux Standard Base - The goal of the Linux Standard Base (LSB) is to develop and promote a set of standards that will increase compatibility among Linux distributions and enable software applications to run on any compliant Linux system.
  
• Open Standards - The Only Option - Internet technologies and the economical challenge of open protocols.
  
• Open Standards - What is a standard, what is an open standard, and why use open standards on the Internet.
  
• Cover Pages: Patents and Open Standards - Investigates the effects of patent proliferation and criticizes reasonable and non-discriminatory license terms (RAND) for patented technologies.
  
• W3C 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.
  
• Openformats.org - Collaborative documentation projects on why use public standards and open formats and why avoid proprietary formats in data exchange.
  
• Why Not Word! - Why not using Word, Excel or any other proprietary format to communicate.
  
• Open Media Now! Foundation - Supports free ways to create, to distribute and display digital content by actively developing cross-platform solutions, such as Gnash.
  
• Streaming media: A case for open standards - Benefits of the development of open specifications for audio and video formats. By Rich Mavrogeanes.
  
• Software versus Protocol (or file format) Standards - Essay by Erik Fair explaining how open standards may help mitigate or prevent "customer lock-in" strategies.
  
• No Proprietary Binary Data Formats - Why not use proprietary formats and what are the main open alternatives.
  
• Why There Are Not GIF Files on GNU Pages - 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.
  
• We Can Put an End to Word Attachments - Richard Stallman's arguments against the use of proprietary formats in document exchange.
  
• Open Source versus Open Standards - Draws a distinction between open source advocacies and the promotion of public standards, warning against the confusion of these two initiatives.
  
  

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