Our public policy activities to promote open computing have focused on information and communication technology (ICT) standards, open source, and open file formats. ICT standards provide the technical underpinnings for interoperability, which affects access to and participation in the network. The technical design decisions that are encoded in ICT standards affect almost every aspect of a consumer's experience, capabilities, and choices, and therefore have important implications for public policy.
A critical battle is raging over the proprietary aspects of many ICT standards. Sun supports open standards — standards that don't pose any legal, business, or technical constraints to widespread interoperability — because they enable the greatest diffusion of technology, the most equitable and affordable access to the network, and the most innovation, competition, and consumer choice. In fact, Sun has led by example by issuing several patent nonassertion covenants for its standards work, such as the OpenDocument Format (ODF), to ensure full, free use of technologies necessary to interoperability, network participation, and information access.
Sun is also an ardent supporter of open source. We believe that open standards and open source together provide an extraordinary foundation for innovation and consumer choice. We work with governments to ensure equal treatment of open source applications and to explain the positive role open source development models and communities can play in economic development and access to knowledge. For more on Sun's work with open source, see the Open Source section in "The Network."
We've continued to promote open file formats through our support for ODF, an open standard for electronic office documents — such as spreadsheets, charts, presentations, and word processing documents — that enables users to access such documents independent of the applications with which they were created. This is especially important to governments as they seek to ensure that they, and their citizens, have adequate access to government documents now and long into the future. Adopted as an international ISO standard in 2006, ODF has now been implemented in both proprietary — including Sun's StarOffice suite — and open source applications. Pro-ODF government policies have been adopted in Belgium, Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, Japan, Norway, and elsewhere, and ODF is being implemented globally in municipal, regional, and national governments. For more information, visit the ODF Alliance Web site.
Sun is also active in ensuring that open computing is used as a tool to increase accessibility for persons with disabilities. For more details, see the Accessibility section in "The Network."
Examples of Sun activity in fiscal 2007:
- Active in OpenForum Europe, promoting openness in ICT standards and source code
- Active participation in the European Union (EU) ICT Sector Competitiveness Task Force (initiated to help enable the EU to achieve its competitiveness goals by 2010), providing principle recommendations such as our view of the relationship between intellectual property, ICT standards, and interoperability
- Member of the interim steering committee of the United Nations (UN) Internet Governance Forum's Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards
- Participated in the OpenDocument Format conference of the German EU Presidency addressing eAccessibility
- Sponsored a conference with Georgetown University in the U.S. that brought policymakers and stakeholders together to explore the relationship between standardization and innovation
- Sponsored a conference with the People's Republic of China and other Chinese ministries to discuss the problems posed by intellectual property to interoperability
- Worked with European Interoperability Forum to educate European policymakers
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By open computing, Sun means:
- Enabling interoperability — compatibility among different operating systems
- Enabling participation
- Enabling the widest possible availability and access to information and choice
- Enabling implementation by open source applications
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Paragraph 44 of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Declaration of Principles states: "Standardization is one of the essential building blocks of the Information Society. There should be particular emphasis on the development and adoption of international standards. The development and use of open, interoperable, non-discriminatory, and demand-driven standards that take into account needs of users and consumers is a basic element for the development and greater diffusion of ICT standards and more affordable access to them, particularly in developing countries. International standards aim to create an environment where consumers can access services worldwide regardless of underlying technology."
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Industry association memberships and other partnerships include:
- ChangFeng Open Standards Platform Software Alliance — People's Republic of China (PRC)
- China Open Source Software (OSS) Promotion Union
- Co-Create Software League — PRC
- European Committee for Interoperable Systems (ECIS)
- European Information & Communications Technology Industry Association (EICTA)
- Free Software Foundation Europe (FSFE)
- Knowledge Ecology International (KEI)
- OpenForum Europe (OFE)
- OpenDocument Format (ODF) Alliance
- Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS)
- VITA Standards Organization (VSO)
- World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)
Public engagements include:
- Belgium Federal Public Service of Information Technology & Communication (FEDICT)
- China Electronic Standardization Institute
- China National Institute of Standardization
- Commonwealth of Massachusetts
- European Commission
- Ministry of Commerce — PRC
- Ministry of Information Industry — PRC
- Ministries of various EU member states
- Standardization Administration of China
- State Council Information Office — PRC
- State of California
- UN Internet Governance Forum's Dynamic Coalition on Open Standards
- U.S. Antitrust Modernization Commission
- U.S. Department of Justice
- U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
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