The UK government is asking the IT community to engage in defining what ‘open standards’ should mean in government ICT in a new open source consultation process.

Open Standards: Open Opportunities, Flexibility and Efficiency in Government IT will focus predominantly on defining open standards for software interoperability, data and document formats, and will include the meaning of mandation, international alignment and cross-border interoperability, as well as the effects that compulsory standards could have on government departments, delivery partners and supply chains.

Liam Maxwell, director for ICT futures in the Cabinet office is a long-time open source enthusiast. He comments that “It’s vitally important we get as much feedback from the IT community as possible,” said Maxwell. “There was a great response to the UK Government Open Standards Survey we ran last year and we’ve proposed a policy that takes on board what people said. Some questions remain however, so this formal consultation is taking place so that we can stimulate a transparent debate and gather further evidence.

“There’s a lot of strong opinion on this subject – so I’m urging people to take this opportunity and let us know what they think.”