Relevant link of today: Adjusting EU ICT standardisation policy to the realities of 21 century

This is the European Commission press release to the whitepaper on ICT standardisation I blogged about yesterday: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/09/1085&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=fr

In this press release the Commission stresses again the need for the proposed changes in order to better cope with the needs and challenges of Europe in the globalised world so that innovation, competitiveness and growth can best be achieved. Interoperability is key as well as the ability to be well positioned for responding to "changing societal, market and policy needs", as Vice-President Verheugen put it.

At the beginning of the press release the Commission highlights:

"The landscape for ICT (Information and Communication Technology) standardisation has dramatically changed over the last decade. Alongside the traditional standard stetting organisations, specialised and mostly global fora and consortia have become more active and several have emerged as world-leading ICT standards development bodies, such as those responsible for the standards covering the internet and the World Wide Web."

Read the full press release at the Commission website.

Major EU Commission move towards modernising the European standardisation system

End of last week the European Commission adopted and published a whitepaper on “Modernising ICT Standardisation in the EU - The Way Forward”. The document is available on the Commission website.

This whitepaper is a first step towards a reform of the European standardisation system. It focusses on Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), and the proposed reform steps might best be described as means for making Europe better equipped to benefit from and operate within the global ICT standardisation ecosystem – to the benefit of innovation, competitiveness and growth in Europe.

I am very supportive of the whitepaper and the proposals therein. In my opinion the Commission tackles the right issues and makes many good suggestions that go into right direction. Some highlights:

1. The Commission recognises the need for a process for collaborating with global open standards development organisations like W3C, OASIS, IETF, etc. Under the current legal framework these organisations are outside of the European standardisation system and their specifications can not directly be used and referenced in support of EU policies or in public procurement. The proposals in the whitepaper aim for a major improvement in this respect;
   
   
2. The Commission introduces a set of criteria (called attributes in the whitepaper) for ensuring openness of the specifications used and referenced in the public sector. This is the right approach towards ensuring best quality standards – even though there might still be some glitches in the wording of one or the other attribute definition. The criteria are closely derived from the WTO criteria for best practices in standards development. And the Commission's list will ensure that no closed, proprietary standards will be used in the public sector. What is extremely important, in my opinion, is that the criteria include the aspect of implementation – good, open standards need to have been implemented in several, competing implementations.
   
   
3. The Commissions looks at improving the relation between research and development (R&D) and standardisation and the transfer of R&D results into standardisation. This is particularly important for R&D activities on the level of infrastructures and architectures. Every action to facilitate the transfer of such R&D results into open standards will be helpful – for making such work available for open ecosystems design and innovation on top of these results.
   
   
4. The Commission makes an excellent analysis of the current status regarding the intersection of standards and intellectual property rights (IPRs) recognising that new approaches regarding IPR policies in standards organisations are under way and are needed for better fostering innovation and the exploitation of technologies for the benefit of competitiveness and growth. The actual proposals made by the Commission go into the right direction, but probably need to be extended and made more concrete, e.g. regarding industrial policy for fostering innovation and regarding the improvement of certainty regarding terms and conditions and the availability of patents for licensing.
   
   
5. The Commission lays down the importance for standards based public procurement and, at the same time, enables public procurement to directly reference global open standards.
   
   
6. The Commission proposes to implement a High Level Strategy Platform as an advisory committee to the Commission on ICT standardisation. This will improve communication and cooperation around ICT standardisation. The list of tasks for this platform as described in the whitepaper is excellent. It will be important for the Commission to ensure that all stakeholders are properly represented in the platform.

What is important next is that the proposals made in the whitepaper will be implemented into EU legislation fast. This means, first of all, that Council Decision 87/95 will be revised – or, more likely, be replaced by a new Council Decision. In addition, some of the ideas and proposals should further be taken up in the context of an overall revision of the European standardisation system (concerning Directive 98/34) and within competition law, patent law as well as in industrial policy in general.

To summarise: I am positive of the benefits of the proposals made by the Commission. This whitepaper responds to urgent needs of many stakeholders, be it industry, SMEs, users, and, above all, the public sector iteself. It is a major step towards gaining a leadership position for Europe in ICT in the globalised world. The whitepaper deserves strong support.

Relevant link of today: London Stock Exchange to abandon failed Windows platform

See Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols' blog at Computerworld:

"It's not often that you see a major company dump its infrastructure software the way the LSE is about to do. But, then, it's not often you see enterprise software fail quite so badly and publicly as was the case with the LSE. I can only wonder how many other Windows enterprise software failures are kept hidden away within IT departments by companies unwilling to reveal just how foolish their decisions to rely on archaic, cranky Windows software solutions have proven to be.

I'm sure the LSE management couldn't tell Linux from Windows without a techie at hand. They can tell, however, when their business comes to a complete stop in front of the entire world."

Ralf Dahrendorf died

I recently added a blog entry about Ralf Dahrendorf when he celebrated his 80th birthday. Today the news communicate that Ralf Dahrendorf died yesterday - see for instance the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung (FAZ) and Spiegel online. This is very sad news. I - we all will miss a great thinker, intellectual and liberal, a great European citizen. For me, Ralf Dahrendorf was a fixed part in my political socialisation. I hold him and his work in high regard.

Excellent example for the threat to the openness of the internet

Were you ever worried that the internet could be controlled by single vendor technology? That there is certain information that you can only see and get when using one specific browser? That interoperability is at risk?

You are certainly not paranoid if you have such worries. Microsoft Australia now gives an example for what is possible and done by offering the chance to get $10,000 by finding information on some website - WHICH CAN ONLY BE VIEWED USING INTERNET EXPLORER 8 !!

Here's what is announced on the Microsoft Australia website: http://www.microsoft.com/australia/ie8/competition/

As you can see in the picture - for me using Firefox the following statement is included right away: "But you'll never find it using that browser. (So get rid of it, or get lost)."

With this competition called "TenGrand" Microsoft provide an excellent example for the risks the internet is facing today: proprietary control over information and data in the internet. Unless you use one specific vendor's software you are excluded from access to information.

There is a role for public authorities here to ensure that full interoperability is kept and that the internet will be kept open.

For those who are interested in more details I also recommend a recent position paper from ECIS, the European Committee for Interoperable Systems, on the topic.

PS: Thanks to my colleague Arnaud for drawing my attention to that.

Firefox is in Germany ahead of Internet Explorer

The German consulting and market research company Fittkau & Maaß published the results of a recent study yesterday which shows that Firefox has become the preferred web browser in Germany and surpasses Internet Explorer.

According to the study, Firefox 3 is used by about 40% of all users of the internet while Internet Explorer 7 and 8 reach together about 38%. In the study taken in April and May this year 120000 people were interviewed.

Only if also legacy versions of the Internet Explorer are added, as well, is there a slight lead for Internet Explorer. But in the direct comparison of the latest versions Firefox 3 is used by 40,2% of internet users in Germany compared to 30,6% for Internet Explorer V7. This is gigantic.

In its analysis of these results the German news magazine "Der Spiegel" concludes that people who have a choice prefer the free open source product Firefox over Internet Explorer. Best evidence is that user rates for Firefox increase at weekends when people use internet from home and from their home computers, while on workdays, when people are bound to corporate and organisational policies, Internet Explorer prevails dominant - see the respective article in the online edition of "Der Spiegel":

"Wer die freie Wahl hat, bewegt sich lieber mit dem Gratisbrowser durch die Weiten des Netzes. Was vor allem am unterschiedlichen Nutzerverhalten an Arbeitstagen und an Wochenenden erkennbar wird: In der Woche hat der Internet Explorer die Nase vorn, da sitzen die meisten im Büro und verwenden die von ihren Arbeitgebern vorinstallierten Programme. Am Wochenende aber schnellen die Firefox-Werte nach oben, wenn die Netzgemeinde freiwillig und auf eigene Rechnung unterwegs ist."

Bottom line: It is time for companies and administrations to open up their IT rules and policies and allow for efficient and effective open source and freeware technologies to be used. There is a huge potential to increase productivity and reduce cost. Go ahead, explore Linux, explore OpenOffice or Lotus Symphony, explore Firefox. The future is open...

FYI: I am totally on Linux since beginning of this year, have used Firefox for ages now, use Lotus Symphony and OpenOffice as office suits and am a happy camper throughout.

Relevant link of today: NY Times - I.B.M. to Help Clients Fight Cost and Complexity

Very interesting article in the New York Times (NYT) on IBM's stance on cloud computing as THE future paradigm for industry and governments to run and optimise their datacenters. Read the full article online in the NYT. Just a glimpse at the beginning of the article below:

"In 2000, the Linux operating system was a hot technology, but it had not spread much beyond scientists, researchers and computer programmers. Then I.B.M. declared that it would back Linux with investment, research and marketing, and the technology moved swiftly into the corporate mainstream.

"The same thing happened with the personal computer in the early 1980s, when I.B.M. endorsed that upstart technology and entered the market.

"Starting this week, I.B.M. is returning to the same playbook, introducing some initial products and services and a roadmap for its stable of corporate and government customers to comfortably embrace cloud computing."