Open standards and interoperability consortium The Open
Group is calling on software developers and the IT industry at
large to declare their independence from proprietary technology, in
what the group is touting as a virtual call to arms against closed
standards.
The group announced a "Developer Declaration of Independence" at
its Enterprise Information Management conference in Boston, and has
posted the declaration on its website for visitors to sign
(www.opengroup.org/declaration/).
The declaration is a pledge to promote open, interoperable
technology and to give developers myriad choices in meeting their
software needs. It calls for businesses, governments and
individuals to adopt and protect open standards.
"The subjection - or 'lock-in' - of developers to single-vendor
technology constitutes a denial of self-determination, is
inherently monopolistic, limits choice, artificially raises prices,
stifles innovation and contradicts the underlying goals of an
inclusive IT industry: freedom of choice and independence for all,"
the declaration says.
IBM, which has long been active in promoting open standards,
supports The Open Group's campaign. While the debate surrounding
the development of proprietary and open standards has raged for
some time, IBM and The Open Group say this campaign is particularly
important because it seeks multivendor integration through open
standards when most IT environments are heterogenous.
IBM officials characterised The Open Group initiative as a
public stance in favor of open technologies and against proprietary
lock-in, casting Microsoft as a supplier with a lock-in
strategy.
"It's about where the market is moving and no company's going to
stand in the way of that - [not] Microsoft or anybody else," said
Buell Duncan, general manager of Developer Relations in the IBM
Software Group.
At least one software developer thought the initiative could
have a positive effect in raising awareness about who makes
technology decisions.
"Most technology decisions are decided from the top down and
sometimes these decisions are better made by the techies in the
trenches," said Warren Spencer, senior software engineer
at Associated Press.
Spencer added, however, that most developers are not that
interested in the political issues surrounding the debate. "We're
too busy making sure our systems work and hoping we don't get phone
calls in the middle of the night to patch something," he said.
Scarlet Pruitt writes for IDG News Service