“We reject kings, presidents and voting. We believe in rough consensus and running code.” – IETF
Proposal : Social Web Standards Principles
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Collaborative Effort
Respectful collaboration among open source standards organizations, each acknowledging and respecting the autonomy, integrity, processes, and intellectual property rules of the others Standards work should be free from fees or financial barriers to entry. -
Commitment to Foundational Principles
Adherence to the five fundamental principles of open source standards development:-
Due process: Decisions are reached equitably, ensuring fairness among participants. No single party dominates or drives the development of standards. Processes are transparent, with clearly defined opportunities for appeals. Standards review and update procedures are well outlined and routinely undertaken.
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Broad consensus: Processes are designed to consider and address all viewpoints, fostering agreement across a diverse range of interests.
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Transparency: Standards organizations provide public, advance notice of proposed standards development activities, detailing the scope of work and conditions for participation. Records of decisions, including the materials used in making those decisions, are easily accessible. Public comment periods are provided before final approval and adoption of standards.
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Balance: No individual, company, or interest group holds exclusive dominance over the standards activities.
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Openness: Standards processes are accessible to all interested and informed parties.
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Collective Empowerment
A shared commitment from the open source standards organizations and their participants towards collective empowerment, striving for standards that:-
are selected and defined based on technical merit, as judged by the expertise contributed by each participant;
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enable global interoperability, scalability, stability, and resilience;
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foster global competition;
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serve as the foundation for further innovation; and
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contribute to the formation of global communities, benefiting humanity.
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Availability
Standards specifications are made freely available to all for implementation and deployment. The organizations affirming these standards have well-defined procedures for developing specifications that can be implemented under equitable terms. Taking into account market diversity, equitable terms may vary, but the commitment is to ensure base protocols are royalty-free, which also safeguards against charging royalties through the pre-sale of author minted tokens.
- References: Open Stand Principes
I’ve proposed a set of principles to guide social web standards work. Open Stand Principles are signed up to by the W3C and IETF. I’ve updated it to align to free and open source software, and the modern climate of royalty free, open standards. The final paragraph may need some work to ensure open, royalty-free standards. I used to believe standards bodies stuck to these principles. But far too often they are ignored. I believe socialhub can not only match existing standards bodies, but go further and better. With this structure it could be possible to improve activity pub, create drafts for new work, while respecting the autonomy of existing bodies, and the ongoing issue tracking and documentation.