Draft of IOSN FOSS: Open Standards Primer Published

Khairil Yusof writes “Many public institutions like government agencies and civil society organizations are obliged by new legislation to place information in the public domain. Unfortunately many of them are using proprietary formats which require members of the public to purchase or illegally copy proprietary software. This primer provides an overview of standards setting bodies and FOSS software and tools to create new content as well as migrate to solutions based on Open Standards.

The primer provides existing case studies on the polices and initiatives of governments implementing open standards policies. It also covers current patent and licensing issues with Open Standards implementations.

This IOSN Primer is an initiative of UNDP Asia-Pacific Development Information Programme and supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC)

This pre-publication version is made available for public review and feedback. Please do not cite or quote.

Download the primer: http://www.iosn.net/open-standards/foss-open-stand ards-primer

Feedback and comments are welcome and should be received by 5th September 2005. Please send feedback to info@iosn.net

This publication is released under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 license. For full details of the license, please refer to the following: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.5/legalco de

Contact:
Sunil Abraham and Khairil Yusof
info@iosn.net
Tel: (66-2) 288-1234

About UNDP-APDIP International Open Source Network The International Open Source Network (IOSN – http://www.iosn.net) is a Centre of Excellence for Free/Open Source Software in the Asia-Pacific Region. IOSN is an initiative of the Asia-Pacific Information Development Programme (APDIP – http://www.apdip.net), which has been supporting the strategic and effective use of Information Communication Technology (ICT) for poverty alleviation and sustainable human development in the Asia-Pacific region since 1997. Via a small secretariat, the IOSN is tasked specifically to facilitate and network Free/Open Source Software advocates and human resources in the region.

About the International Development Research Center (IDRC) The IDRC is a Canadian public corporation that works in close collaboration with researchers from the developing world in their search for the means to build healthier, more equitable, and more prosperous societies. For more information please see http://www.idrc.ca.”