I often have had, over the years, discussions about open standards versus open source, and whether you can consider them the same. Last week, I talked about an open source implementation of EJB3 from JBoss. In that case, EJB3 could be considered an open standard (some people don't consider the Java Community Process a true standards organization), and certainly JBoss implementation is open source.
While open standards and open source are certainly not the same, you have to ask yourself if the two are synonymous from the standpoint of their intent. Open standards are intended to bring interoperability to multiple implementations of the same technology. Open source is all about freedom, and one of the freedoms that is inherent in open source is interoperability. I say that, because if you want to create an interoperable implementation, it cannot be any easier than creating an interoperable implementation with the access to the source code of what you are trying to interoperate with!
I have had many experiences with closed source software that was standards based, but did not implement the standard in an interoperable way. Therefore, when you try to makes things work, you get stuck with some incompatibility that breaks something. Typically, standards do not have a compatibility test, or requirement, so vendors will play an interesting game. They can claim that they are standards compliant, without the customer being able to actually realize the benefits!
Over the past four or five years, I have come to the conclusion that an open source implementation is as good, or better than a closed source implementation of an open standard, and I have elevated open source to be considered equal to anything that implements an open standard. Specifically, I feel this way based on the ease in which you can actually achieve interoperability with the solution. Of course, open source implementations, and open standards are not mutually exclusive, as the JBoss EJB3 example shows. Also, Jabber and the IETF standard for XMPP are another good example, and Google's adoption of this will no doubt fuel true interoperability for the instant messaging market.
While open standards and open source are certainly not the same, you have to ask yourself if the two are synonymous from the standpoint of their intent. Open standards are intended to bring interoperability to multiple implementations of the same technology. Open source is all about freedom, and one of the freedoms that is inherent in open source is interoperability. I say that, because if you want to create an interoperable implementation, it cannot be any easier than creating an interoperable implementation with the access to the source code of what you are trying to interoperate with!
I have had many experiences with closed source software that was standards based, but did not implement the standard in an interoperable way. Therefore, when you try to makes things work, you get stuck with some incompatibility that breaks something. Typically, standards do not have a compatibility test, or requirement, so vendors will play an interesting game. They can claim that they are standards compliant, without the customer being able to actually realize the benefits!
Over the past four or five years, I have come to the conclusion that an open source implementation is as good, or better than a closed source implementation of an open standard, and I have elevated open source to be considered equal to anything that implements an open standard. Specifically, I feel this way based on the ease in which you can actually achieve interoperability with the solution. Of course, open source implementations, and open standards are not mutually exclusive, as the JBoss EJB3 example shows. Also, Jabber and the IETF standard for XMPP are another good example, and Google's adoption of this will no doubt fuel true interoperability for the instant messaging market.
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