A ‘standard’ is an agreed set of definitions that describe specifications for the creation and implementation of a technology or process. Standards are usually created by international bodies or regional entities, such as the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) which developed the wireless GSM standard. See Jonathan Zuck, “Public Services Interoperability in Europe” (December 2005). Much of the functionality of the Internet is based on international standards developed by the Internet Engineering Task Force, the World Wide Web Consortium, and the Organization of Structured Information Standards (OASIS). In its e-GIF, the UK government identifies the criteria by which to measure the acceptability of a standard:
- Interoperability – only standards that are relevant to systems’ interconnectivity, data integration, e-services access and content management meta-data are specified
- Market Support – the specifications selected are widely supported by the market, and are likely to reduce the cost and risk of government systems
- Scalability – standards selected have the capacity to be scaled to satisfy changed demands made on the system, such as changes in data volumes, number of transactions, or number of users
- Openness- the standards are documented and available to the public
- International Standards – preference will be given to standards with the broadest remit, so appropriate international standards will take preference over EU standards, and EU standards will take preference over UK standards.
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