Resources pertaining Open Standards from our Data Formats category

Attachments in Proprietary Formats Considered Harmful - Explains the risks of exchanging data in non-public format and suggests the main alternatives.

Avoid E-Mail Attachments - Short document with instructions to MS-Word users on alternatives they can use for document exchange.

Build Systems - Without standards

Burn All GIFs - Campaign for replacing the patent-encumbered GIF format by open standard graphics.

Business Case for Open Standards - Paper investigating economical issues related to the diffusion of public standards.

Content Management and Edit Data Exchange - Article on formats interoperability in audio and video content.

Cover Pages: Patents and Open Standards - Investigates the effects of patent proliferation and criticizes reasonable and non-discriminatory license terms (RAND) for patented technologies.

Death to Proprietary Word Formats - Argues in favor of using HTML instead of proprietary word formats.

Hierarchical Data Format (HDF) home page - The HDF project involves the development and support of software and file formats for scientific data management.

MS-Word Is Not a Document Exchange Format - Explains the appropriate use of document formats and argues against the use of Word attachments.

No Proprietary Binary Data Formats - Why not use proprietary formats and what are the main open alternatives.

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

Open File Format Definition - Definition proposed and discussed on the Texas Open Source Initiative Mailing List

Open Source versus Open Standards - Draws a distinction between open source advocacies and the promotion of public standards

Open Standards - What is a standard

Open Standards Repository - Archive of standards relevant to the Open Source community

Open Standards-The Only Option - Internet technologies and the economical challenge of open protocols.

Open Standards: Principles and Practice - Illustrates the principles behind format standardization and the practice of promoting formats interoperability.

Openformats.org - Collaborative documentation projects on why use public standards and open formats and why avoid proprietary formats in data exchange.

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.

Sincere Choice - Intercommunication and file formats should follow standards that are sincerely open for all to implement

Software Standards versus Protocol Standards - How open standards may help mitigate or prevent "customer lock-in" strategies.

Streaming media: A case for open standards - Benefits of the development of open specifications for audio and video formats. By Rich Mavrogeanes.

The Free Standards Group - A non-profit corporation to increase the use and acceptance of open source technologies through the application

The Principles of Open Standards - Ken Krechmer analyzes the distinct issues behind advocacy for non-proprietary formats.

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.

We Can Put an End to Word Attachments - Richard Stallman's arguments against the use of proprietary formats in document exchange.

We Can Put an End to Word Attachments - A Discussion - Forum on Richard Stallman's document against file exchange in proprietary format.

Why Not Word! - Why not using Word

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.