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Thinking The Unthinkable Interoperability Through Open Standards! Really?Brian KellyUKOLNUniversity of [email protected]

UKOLN is supported by:

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/cetis-2006/http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/conferences/cetis-2006/

About This TalkThis talk explores some of the areas in which open standards are limited and invites discussion on JISC’s “Interoperability though open standards” approach.

About This TalkThis talk explores some of the areas in which open standards are limited and invites discussion on JISC’s “Interoperability though open standards” approach.

This work is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence (but note caveat)

Resources related to this talk are bookmarked in del.icio.us using the ‘cetis-2006-conference-unthinkable' tag


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Contents

• Why do we need standards?• But standards don’t always work!• What are open standards anyway? • Examples of the problems• Alternatives to open standards• So what should we do?• Questions• Group discussion


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Why Do We Need Standards?

Standards

Application-Independence

DeviceIndependence

Avoidance of vendor lock-in

Minimise costs

Interoperability

Long-term preservation

Architectural integrity

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A summary of the open standards message I’ve been giving during 10 year at UKOLN

A summary of the open standards message I’ve been giving during 10 year at UKOLN


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Open Standards Are Great …

JISC's development programmes:• Traditionally based on use of open standards to:

Support interoperabilityMaximise accessibilityAvoid vendor lock-inProvide architectural integrityHelp ensure long-term preservation

History in UK HE development work:• eLib Standards document (v1 – 1996, v2 – 1998)• DNER Standards document (2001)

which influenced:• NOF-digi Technical Standards• ..

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… But Don't Always Work There's a need for flexibility:

• Learning the lesson from OSI networking protocols

Today:• Is the Web (for example) becoming over-complex

"Web service considered harmful" The lowercase semantic web / Microformats

• Lighter-weight alternatives being developed• Responses from the commercial world

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Other key issues• What is an open standard?• What are the resource implications of using them?• Sometimes proprietary solutions work (and users

like them). Is it politically incorrect to mention this!?

Other key issues• What is an open standard?• What are the resource implications of using them?• Sometimes proprietary solutions work (and users

like them). Is it politically incorrect to mention this!?


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Open Standards: an EU View

European Interoperability Framework for pan-European eGovernment Services defines open standards as:

• The standard is adopted and will be maintained by a not-for-profit organization

• The standard specification document is available either freely or at a nominal charge

• The intellectual property of the standard is made irrevocably available on a royalty free basis

• No constraints on the re-use of the standard.

Taken from W3C’s Technologies and e-Government talk by Ivan Herman at Workshop on E-Government, Edinburgh, May 2006

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What is an Open Standard?

Which of the following are open standards?• XHTML 1 PDF Flash• Java MS Word RSS (1.0/2.0)

UKOLN's "What Are Open Standards?" briefing paper refers to characteristics of open standards:

• Neutral organisation which 'owns' standard & responsible for roadmap

• Open involvement in standards-making process• Access to standard freely available• …

Note these characteristics do not apply equally to all standards bodies e.g. costs of BSI standards; W3C membership requirements; …

Note these characteristics do not apply equally to all standards bodies e.g. costs of BSI standards; W3C membership requirements; …

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Compliance Issues

What does must mean?• You must comply with HTML standards

What if I don't? What if nobody does? What if I use PDF?

• You must clear rights on all resources you digitise

• You must provide properly audited accounts

What if I don't?

There is a need to clarify the meaning of must and for an understandable, realistic and reasonable compliance regime

There is a need to clarify the meaning of must and for an understandable, realistic and reasonable compliance regime

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JISC 5/99 programme ~80% of project home pages were not HTML compliant

JISC 5/99 programme ~80% of project home pages were not HTML compliant


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Is RSS An Open Standard?

Is RSS an open standard ("are RSSs open standards")?RSS 1.0 (RDF Site Summary)

• XML application using RDF model• Developed by Aaron Schwarz

RSS 2.0 (Really Simple Syndication)• XML application using simpler model• Developed by Davey Winer

Note that RSS is a widely used and popular application; with usage growing through its key role in Podcasts

Issues:• Are these open standards?• Are they reliable and robust enough to build

mission-critical services on?• Is there a clear roadmap for the future?

Issues:• Are these open standards?• Are they reliable and robust enough to build

mission-critical services on?• Is there a clear roadmap for the future?

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RSS – Governance Issues

Governance Issues:• RSS 1.0 specification maintained by Aaron Schwartz:

"Aaron Swartz is a teenage writer, hacker, and activist. He was a finalist for the ArsDigita Prize for excellence in building non-commercial web sites at the age of 13. At 14 he co-authored the RSS 1.0 specification, now used by thousands of sites to notify their readers of updates.“ (Web page now changed)

• RSS 2.0 specification developed by Dave Winer:"Winer is known as one of the more polarizing figures in the blogging community. … However .. there are many people and organizations who seem unable to maintain a good working relationship with Dave."

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RSS 1.0 – Roadmap Issues

But it is no longer being developed:• Draft technically good (addressed ambiguities &

interoperability flaws) but political reaction apathetic• RSS 2.0 has (a) better acronym and (b) momentum

(through Podcasting)• And RSS 2.0 sounds newer• RSS 3.0 (joke?) proposal has caused confusion

and arguments on Slashdot and elsewhere

RSS 1.1:• In Jan 2005 RSS 1.1 draft released:

"[we] expressed our mutual frustrations with 1.0 …, we decided that rather than lauch (sic) ... another … diatribe against the quality of the RSS 1.0 spec, … [we would] simply write a new specification ourselves. "

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RSS 2.0 – Roadmap Issues

RSS 2.0:• Spec published by Harvard Law School with a

Creative Commons licence• RSS-Board YahooGroups used for governance body• Many arguments (most recently on proposal to

expand board in April 2006):

Note Wikipedia has useful links to the history and politics of RSS

Note Wikipedia has useful links to the history and politics of RSS

"Winer has now decided that the board doesn't exist and never had authority over the RSS specification, even though it has published six revisions from July 2003 to the present. I don't agree, but now that the board's fully public, we're in a position to make his wish a reality."

"Winer has now decided that the board doesn't exist and never had authority over the RSS specification, even though it has published six revisions from July 2003 to the present. I don't agree, but now that the board's fully public, we're in a position to make his wish a reality."

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Podcasting

Lots of interest (recording lecturers; student created Podcasts; marketing; …)

A simple enhancement to RSS 2.0 (syndication sound/movie file, and not just text)

<itunes:author>Henry Rzepa</itunes:author>

<description>Wiki Workshop</description> …<itunes:category text="Education"><itunes:category text="Higher Education"/></itunes:category><itunes:keywords>Chemistry, …

</itunes:keywords><itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>

<itunes:author>Henry Rzepa</itunes:author>

<description>Wiki Workshop</description> …<itunes:category text="Education"><itunes:category text="Higher Education"/></itunes:category><itunes:keywords>Chemistry, …

</itunes:keywords><itunes:explicit>no</itunes:explicit>

But:• Syndicates MP3

(Ogg, who cares?)• Proprietary Apple

extensions

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RSS – Summary

What can be learnt:• We thought RSS was a great lightweight

syndication technology• It was – but competing alternatives were

developed• No clear winner (RSS 1.0's extensibility & W3C's

support versus RSS 2.0's simplicity and take-up in Podcasting, iTunes, etc)

Conclusions• Life can be complex, even with simple standards• Technical merit is never enough – market acceptance can

change things• RSS can still be useful, and interoperability can be provided

by RSS libraries supporting multiple formats

Conclusions• Life can be complex, even with simple standards• Technical merit is never enough – market acceptance can

change things• RSS can still be useful, and interoperability can be provided

by RSS libraries supporting multiple formats

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Isn’t Slideshare Good Enough?

Slideshare.net is a good example of a digital repository for slides, which is easy-to-use and supports community discussion, folksonomies, etc.

How does this compare with the traditional JISC approach (see Andy Powell’s Blog ).

http://slideshare.net/lisbk/profilehttp://slideshare.net/lisbk/profile

Note:• The slides can be embedded• PowerPoint & ODF supported

- but not XML or PDF!NB looking for other slides about “standards” finds Stephen Downes critique of standards

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/talks/metcalfe/

http://www.ukoln.ac.uk/web-focus/events/workshops/webmaster-2006/talks/metcalfe/


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VRVS vs SkypeOct 2004 – Andy Powell’s Ariadne article on benefits of VRVS.

Same time Brian Kelly uses Skype at events, with colleagues, ..

AP: You should use/promote VRVS: it’s standards-based, Access Grid, JISC ’approved’ BK: Terrible Interface; users love Skype; …

24 Oct 2006: “At the time, Brian Kelly at UKOLN asked me why I was promoting a tool with such a poor user-interface. Looking back, he was absolutely right”


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IT Development vs IT as a Commodity

Web 2.0 is bringing IT as a commodity:

• Amazon provide disk storage, CPU, applications, …

• Google & Yahoo provide many application services

If IT becomes a commodity, who cares about the production processes?

Open standards = ethical electricity?

Slideshare.net uses Amazon to serve files – SOA to serve proprietary formats?

http://www.amazon.com/ …http://www.amazon.com/ …


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Standardistas – Good or Bad?

If standards are great:• Why are

‘standardistas’ getting a bad name?

• Why are there so many Blogs about conflicts in W3C?

• …

http://www.molly.com/2006/02/23/how-to-sniff-out-a-rotten-standardista/

http://www.molly.com/2006/02/23/how-to-sniff-out-a-rotten-standardista/

Are standards like New Labour? We thought it was all great in 1997, but we’re now disillusioned – although we sometimes recognise it’s better than the alternative!

Are standards like New Labour? We thought it was all great in 1997, but we’re now disillusioned – although we sometimes recognise it’s better than the alternative!

XHTML 2 or HTML5? W3C vs WHAT WG!XHTML 2 or HTML5? W3C vs WHAT WG!


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Issues For Discussion

Some possible areas to discuss:• Is there a limited scope in which open standards are

critical (cf. “open source is best for middleware; IBM took on MS in the office environment and lost”)

• Standardisation is often an intensively political process – so is it surprising if open standards can be so flawed?

• User-focussed or standards-based development: how do we respond if they’re in conflict?

• Why are development projects deliverables often perceived as inferior?

• “Interoperability through open standards” Is this the correct message to give? If not, what should we say?


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A Final Thought

Are open standards like democracy?

You wouldn’t dream of arguing against either but if Sinn Fein or Hamas are democratically elected, or proprietary standards demonstrate similar appeal to a wide user community, everyone goes quiet and tries to avoid the issue.

The open standards elephant in the room?

Proprietary formats can be inter-operable & open standards may not work!

JISC JISC

Adapted from Washington Post cartoon


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Discussion Groups

In your groups:• Are the arguments given reasonable?• What additional criticisms can be made?• How can the concerns be best addressed?• What recommendations should we make to JISC,

CETIS and the wider community?

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