Editing Open standard (section)

==== World Wide Web Consortium's definition ====
As a provider of Web technology [[Information and Communications Technology|ICT]] Standards, notably [[XML]], [[http]], [[HTML]], [[CSS]] and [[WAI]], the [[World Wide Web Consortium]] (W3C) follows a process that promotes the development of quality standards.<ref>[http://www.w3.org/2005/09/dd-osd.html Definition of Open Standards] World Wide Web Consortium</ref>

Looking at the result, the spec alone, up for adoption, is not enough. The participative/inclusive process leading to a particular design, and the supporting resources available with it should be accounted when we talk about Open Standards:

<blockquote>
*transparency (due process is public, and all technical discussions, meeting minutes, are archived and referencable in decision making)
*relevance (new standardization is started upon due analysis of the market needs, including requirements phase, e.g. accessibility, multi-linguism)
*openness (anybody can participate, and everybody does: industry, individual, public, government bodies, academia, on a worldwide scale)
*impartiality and consensus (guaranteed fairness by the process and the neutral hosting of the W3C organization, with equal weight for each participant)
*availability (free access to the standard text, both during development, at final stage, and for translations, and assurance that core Web and Internet technologies can be implemented Royalty-Free)
*maintenance (ongoing process for testing, errata, revision, permanent access, validation, etc.)
</blockquote>

In August 2012, the W3C combined with the IETF and IEEE to launch OpenStand <ref name="OpenStand"/> and to publish The Modern Paradigm for Standards. This captures "the effective and efficient standardization processes that have made the Internet and Web the premiere platforms for innovation and borderless commerce".