[Foundation-l] Re: Request for approval for a wiki for standards

Mon Jan 9 13:51:17 UTC 2006

On Sat, Jan 07, 2006 at 07:38:13AM -0700,
 Robert Scott Horning <robert_horning at netzero.net> wrote
 a message of 77 lines which said:

> I want to add that there is a huge need for open and free (as in
> speech as well as beer) standards.  Even modestly priced standards
> from groups like ANSI or ISO can cost more than $200 a piece,

[First, let's talk about free beer]

Not all SDOs (Standard Definition Organizations) charge for the access
to standards. World-Wide Web consortium (http://www.w3.org/), Oasis
(http://www.oasis-open.org/) and of course the IETF
(http://www.ietf.org/), which launched the trend, do not.

[Now, free speech]

I know what is free [as in free speech] software and there are written
definitions of it. I do not know yet what is a free [as in free
speech] standard. The IETF is busy discussing it (in its IPR working
group). Advices are welcome, and so are attemps to put down in writing
the Definition of Free Standard (once you'll try to do it, you may
discover that it is not so obvious).