OpenStandards.net

A not-for-profit organization connecting people to open standards and the bodies that build and foster their growth.
http://www.openstandards.net/

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.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/gif.html

We Can Put an End to Word Attachments

Richard Stallman's arguments against the use of proprietary formats in document exchange.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/no-word-attachments.html

MS-Word Is Not a Document Exchange Format

Explains the appropriate use of document formats and argues against the use of Word attachments.
http://www.goldmark.org/netrants/no-word/attach.html

Open Standards: Principles and Practice

Illustrates the principles behind format standardization and the practice of promoting formats interoperability.
http://perens.com/OpenStandards/Definition.html

Sincere Choice

Intercommunication and file formats should follow standards that are sincerely open for all to implement, without royalty fees or discrimination.
http://sincerechoice.org/

No Proprietary Binary Data Formats

Why not use proprietary formats and what are the main open alternatives.
http://www.podval.org/%7Esds/data.html

Avoid E-Mail Attachments, Especially Microsoft Word

Short document with instructions to MS-Word users on alternatives they can use for document exchange.
http://bcn.boulder.co.us/~neal/attachments.html

We Can Put an End to Word Attachments - A Discussion

Forum on Richard Stallman's document against file exchange in proprietary format.
http://newsforge.com/article.pl?sid=02/01/10/1711238&mode=thread

Open Standards Repository

Archive of standards relevant to the Open Source community, including licenses, public standards, protocols, RFCs.
http://openstandards.org/

Business Case for Open Standards

Paper investigating economical issues related to the diffusion of public standards.
http://www.openstandards.net/viewOSnet1C.jsp?showModuleName=businessCaseForOpenStandards

The Free Standards Group

A non-profit corporation to increase the use and acceptance of open source technologies through the application, development and promotion of standards.
http://www.freestandards.org/

Open Source versus Open Standards

Draws a distinction between open source advocacies and the promotion of public standards, warning against the confusion of these two initiatives.
http://rss.com.com/2010-1071-995823.html

Cover Pages: Patents and Open Standards

Investigates the effects of patent proliferation and criticizes reasonable and non-discriminatory license terms (RAND) for patented technologies.
http://xml.coverpages.org/patents.html

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.
http://www.w3.org/Consortium/Patent-Policy

Open File Format Definition

Definition proposed and discussed on the Texas Open Source Initiative Mailing List, as part of an initiative to promote the use of such standards in government projects.
http://www.anansispaceworks.com/Documentation/BuildImage/Legal/tosi.openformatdef.2003.03.19.html

Burn All GIFs

Campaign for replacing the patent-encumbered GIF format by open standard graphics.
http://burnallgifs.org

Attachments in Proprietary Formats Considered Harmful

Explains the risks of exchanging data in non-public format and suggests the main alternatives.
http://www.cse.unsw.edu.au/~chak/email.html

Why Not Word!

Why not using Word, Excel or any other proprietary format to communicate.
http://www.rfc1149.net/documents/whynotword.html.en

Death to Proprietary Word Formats

Argues in favor of using HTML instead of proprietary word formats.
http://homepages.borland.com/ccalvert/Opinion/WordFormats.html

Open Standards

What is a standard, what is an open standard, and why use open standards on the Internet.
http://www.wigglebits.com/standards.html

The Principles of Open Standards

Ken Krechmer analyzes the distinct issues behind advocacy for non-proprietary formats.
http://www.csrstds.com/openstds.html

Software Standards versus Protocol Standards

How open standards may help mitigate or prevent "customer lock-in" strategies.
http://www.clock.org/~fair/opinion/open-standards.html

Open Standards-The Only Option

Internet technologies and the economical challenge of open protocols.
http://www.sdtimes.com/opinions/guestview_029.htm

Build Systems, Not Companies, on Open Standards

Without standards, every job is a one-off, and vendor lock-in is assured after the first project. Open standards are the beating heart of e-Business, without which concepts like intranets and business-to-business commerce would not be practical on a mass
http://intranetjournal.com/articles/200202/gb_02_20_02a.html

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, forum, news, links to institutional resolutions.
http://odfi.org/

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.
http://www.dfki.uni-kl.de/~miller/no-word

Streaming media: A case for open standards

Benefits of the development of open specifications for audio and video formats. By Rich Mavrogeanes.
http://news.com.com/2010-1025_3-5099118.html

Openformats.org

Collaborative documentation projects on why use public standards and open formats and why avoid proprietary formats in data exchange.
http://www.openformats.org/

LinuxLab - Open Standards

Argues in favor of patent-free standards and suggests recommended formats for different kinds of content.
http://linuxlab.dk/openstandards/