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Raleigh, NC
Melanie Chernoff | As Public Policy Manager for Red Hat, Inc., Melanie monitors, evaluates, and works to influence U.S. and international legislation and government regulations affecting open source technologies and open standards. She also serves as chair of the company's Corporate Citizenship committee, coordinating Red Hat's charitable activities.
Authored Comments
Great article and summation of issues happening in Europe right now. Many of us in the States have long felt European countries to be leaders in the area of open standards. Not just b/c of ODF adoption, as you mentioned, but because of the very positive language about open standards in the first EIF.
With the current drafts of EIFv2 and other documents floating around, the commitment to "open standards" has taken a very sad turn. In particular, I believe we need to fight to keep "royalty-free" as an essential component of any standard that claims to be open. Charging money to implement an open standard is completely antithetical to the ideal of having standards in the first place.
What's saddest to me is that many government leaders are listening to the interest of a few companies rather than what's in the best interest of the entire industry and consumers. By refusing to define open standards, I think Europe is losing its respected position as a thought leader in this policy area.
Update from Simon Phipps, one of the Board of Advisors for Open Source for America, at http://webmink.com/2010/03/12/osfa-ustr/