ajay open source 2

Introduction to Open Source & Open Standards; &

OSS Development Methodology

AJAY SINGH 1Dept of CIT-IBM

“Open Standard”

IBM’s definition of an open standard.

An Open Standard is more than just a specification. The principles behind the standard, and the practice of offering and operating the standard, are what make the standard Open.

AJAY SINGH 2Dept of CIT-IBM

What Is an Open System? Key Concepts and Terminology

• Today, open systems offer an interoperable, seamless, scalable, and reusable approach to system development. Potential benefits include:

• • Vendor independence;• • Reduced development costs;• • Standard user interface;• • Reduced development time;• • Reduced training costs;• • Enterprise networking.

AJAY SINGH Dept of CIT-IBM 3

Open System Standards

• Using standards-based products for system development is a step toward reducing problems with portability and compatibility.




Open System Standards. A system is considered open if it contains components that conform to specifications that are defined and maintained by group consensus (typically a standards body or consortia); those specifications are available to the public; and the interfaces are fully defined. When these conditions are satisfied, then public specifications become open system standards.



the heart of an open system is a computing environment that supports• interoperable,• portable, •and scalable -Applications through standard services, interfaces, data formats, and protocols.

Interoperability refers to the ability of system components to readily exchange data and interoperate. Portability is important because as computer platforms rapidly become outdated and obsolete, it becomes necessary to move (or port) system software to newer computer platforms. Scalability addresses the need for systems to expand without degraded performance, providing more complex capabilities and access to larger amounts of data.



Open Standard. An open standard is a public specification developed and maintained by consensus of a recognized standards body that defines interfaces and services for a computer system to perform, and that is made available to review and implement.

IEEE- Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers (U.S.) W3C- World Wide Web Consortium

Promise of Open Systems Standards


The number of companies developing software and hardware has grown exponentially as the market has expanded to include computer applications for home appliances, automobiles,mobile phones, televisions, ATM machines, laptops, personal data assistants (PDA), and the list goes on.

Global Positioning System (GPS) to obtain their geographic location and display to the driver the location of their automobile on amap of the area.

Promise of Open Systems Standards


Today’s standards emphasize software because software components require standards for the same reasons as hardware—compatibility, modularity, and integrated plug-in/plug-out functionality.

HyperText Markup Language (HTML) used to implement Internet Web browsers, the Extensible Markup Language (XML) used to implement more sophisticated Web browsers, and the unix standard used for implementing unix operating systems.

Areas where standards developmentsare occurring:


•. Application service providers (ASP);

•• Mobile networking;

•• Business-to-business (B2B);

•• Storage area networks (SAN);

•• World Wide Web.

Vendors recognize the need to develop commercial products based

on openstandards


•Open standards keep users from being locked into one vendor’s solution.

•Open standards define an interoperable infrastructure that can reduce costs

•Open standards keep users from being locked into one vendor’s solution.

Challenges of Open Systems


•selecting which standards to use for an enterprise.

•finding suitable standards-compliant commercial products

•choosing standards that keep pace with technology innovations.

Open Standards


UNIT-02 COVERED

ajay open source 2

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