Openness of Standards

The ProSTEP Association together with PDES, Inc. and further organizations associated by the International Industry STEP Center (ECOM, USPI-NL, EMSA, ...) prepared a definition for open standards.

In order to be considered as open, a standard has to fulfil the follwoing criteria:

• The open standard (including the data model) is described according to widely available, non-proprietary practices (e.g., object modeling methods using UML or EXPRESS) and includes defined semantics.
• Format and services implementing the data are explicitly described (e.g., STEP Part 21 or XML, PLM services, binary/text formats, etc.) and documentation of the format and services is readily available.
• Use of the standardized data and documentation is freely available (e.g., processing of the data is not “controlled” by patents on algorithms).
• The updating process of the associated components is described and well-accepted by the community of involved parties (e.g., STEP ISO ballot procedures, OMG and W3C consortium procedures).
• All organizations are able to participate in the ballot process.
• Responsibility for maintaining the standard is clearly defined and held by a responsive organization.
• The open standard (including the data model) and its documentation are not restricted by royalties, patents, or other IP restrictions, are publicly available*, and, if copyrighted, are available at reasonable cost.

* Independent of citizenship or membership in a specific organization or community.