ETSI SUMMIT ONSTANDARDIZATION AND OPEN SOURCE
ECMA INTERNATIONAL:STANDARDIZATION AND OPEN SOURCESOME EXPERIENCES
ECMA INTERNATIONAL:Standardization and Open Source ‐Some Experiences
Dr. István SebestyénSecretary GeneralEcma International
Who are we?
Ecma International is a not‐for‐profit association under Swiss Law/Geneva, established in 1961 by major multinational computer hardware manufacturers present at that time in Europe. Originally “ECMA” stood for “European Computer Manufacturers’ Association”.
In 1994 the “brand name” was kept, but the name changed to simply “Ecma”: “International” was added because membership has changed to globalBroad scope of standardisation topics including hardware, software, communications, consumer electronics, media, storage, environmental subjects, etc…
Track record: 519 ECMA standards / TRs: Ecma publications are free of charge and can be freely downloaded from the Ecma website www.ecma‐international.org.
Many of them were submitted to fast‐track to ISO/IEC JTC1 (e.g. 190 lately between 2000‐2015), and many (67) joint standards also with ETSI.
Ecma’s “business model”
Try to fill in the “holes” in standardization:‐High speed‐High efficiency‐Flexible procedures‐Own expert teams in harmony and co‐operation with other SDOs
Ecma Standards development process
drafts TechnicalCommittee
FinalDraft
General Assembly
accept
1st draft
review
Revisions,contributions
consensusvote
ECMA-XXX
approve
Work item proposal
Ecma Process
Fast TrackSubmission
submit
Work ItemDevelopmentin a Technical
CommitteeFinal Draft
Vote in theGeneral
AssemblyECMA-xxxIn short:
Ecma publication
Supported by min.3 members
E.g. ISO/IEC JTC1
Editor
Approval:Between 4 monthsand 9 years(average 1 year)
In case of Open Source drivenstandardization projects
drafts TechnicalCommittee
FinalDraft
General Assembly
accept
1st draft
review
Revisions,contributions
consensusvote
ECMA-XXX
approve
Work item proposal
Ecma Process
Fast TrackSubmission
submit
Work ItemDevelopmentin a Technical
CommitteeFinal Draft
Vote in theGeneral
AssemblyECMA-xxxIn short:
RespectiveOpen Source Community
IPR Policy that takes into account needs of Open Source
Ecma IPR policy has several components (which is more extensive than the « classical » SDO policies)
(http://www.ecma-international.org/memento/Ecma%20IPR%20policies.htm):Copyrights:
Ecma International grants a non-exclusive, royalty-free license to obtain(on paper or per download), reproduce and use the information containedin its standards. On Software Copyright in Ecma standards a policy withRoyalty Free BSD like license is in force
Patents: Basic policy: FRAND, similar to the patent policies of other SDOs (ITU-T / ISO/ IEC/ ETSI,..)Optional policy: Royalty Free (RF) Patent Policy (this is important to someOpen Source Project communities such as related to basic web standards)
How does the RF Patent Policy Optionwork?
Proposal of an Ecma Technical Committee (TC) for a RF standardization projectUpfront decision by the Ecma General Assembly (GA) on the RF standardization projectCreation of a RF Task Group (RF TG) within the relevant TCFormal registration of participating Ecma members into the RF TG (i.e. legal commitment for RF contributions)At well‐defined points in the standardization project possibilities of RF TG members to “Opt out” (leave) from the RF draft standardIn the end RF guarantee by at least those who are driving the standardization process.
Example 1:ECMAScript Standardization
ECMA‐262 (ECMAScript): The standard for the "JavaScript" programming language which is built into every web browser.It is a RF standardization projectBeing developed by Ecma TC39 with a very strong link to the Open Source Community outside of Ecma, but Ecma‐only standard publication (later also fast‐tracked to ISO/IEC JTC1). No single dominate contributor. Publicly available drafts.Use of familiar open source tools (e.g., public discussion lists, GitHub). Mirroring most important information into TC39 documents (for archival purposes)
TC39 accepts non‐member contributions (many are software based) from the open source community. Those contributors have to fulfill the same legal requirements than an Ecma TC39 RF member TC39 constantly informs the outside world about the status of the standardization project, promotes discussion and feedback, encourages contributions. TC39 acts as a “filter” of what gets into the standard and what not.
Parallel standardization and implementation (e.g. in Browsers)
Example 2:Dart StandardizationECMA‐408: Dart is an open‐source, scalable programming language, with robust libraries and runtimes, for building web, server, and mobile apps.It is also a RF standardization projectIt is a “turbo speed” standardization project with Ecma standard approval of new Editions every 6 months. Parallel approval and implementationBeing developed by Ecma TC52 with a very strong link to the Dart community (https://www.dartlang.org/) outside of Ecma. This is a open standard but is primarily based upon work from a single major contributor. Publicly available draftsUse of external tools. Mirroring most important information into TC52 documents (for archival purposes) Parallel synchronized publications of the Ecma Dart standard and the Dart Specification (e.g. ECMA‐408 Ed 3 = Dart Language Specification 1.9 – not every Dart version is approved and published by Ecma). No fast‐track to ISO/IEC JTC1
Conclusions and questions
Ecma International can embrace the requirements of Open Source communities and collaborate with open source standardization projects (The extended Ecma procedures and working style support that)
Question: Are those procedures and working style Ecma specific or transferable to other SDOs?
A strong link between Ecma and the external open source community is needed, which makes it more challenging than classical standardization projects. Many open source contributors don't understand or appreciate the traditional purpose, rules, and procedures of SDOs. (Similarly, SDOs often don't understand open source). Addressing this requires two‐way communications and accommodations.Current Ecma open source standardization projects require a RF patent policy.
Question: Is that purely incidental or is that a general requirement for open sourced standardization projects?
Thank you!
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