[odf-discuss] CompTia in Malaysia lobbying for votes

[Ian Lynch]

On Tue, 2007-06-12 at 23:01 +0800, Yoon Kit Yong wrote:
> Please read and comment! I will be writing an openmalaysiablog post
> soon:
> 
> http://star-techcentral.com/tech/story.asp?file=/2007/6/12/corpit/17896408&sec=corpit
> 
> 
> The most bizarre paragraph is of course this:
> 
> "And as counterintuitive as it might seem, standards should not
> exclude intellectual properties, and there should be more than one
> standard in any given area." 

Quite so.

Definition of a standard
A basis for comparison; a reference point against which other things can
be evaluated

So if you have several of them that have conflicts you inevitably get
conflicts in objective evaluation (communication, connection etc)

Let's have several standards for fitting plugs into power sockets so
everyone has to buy adaptors for no good reason other than having
diversity. Let's tie intellectual property into the standards so no
objective evaluation is possible because the IPR make the workings a
secret. 

National governments should be providing leadership in promoting open
standards unencumbered by IPR simply because that is the best situation
for their citizens. Anything else calls into question conflicts of
interest.

Ian
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