IBM looks to open standards

IBM today declared its love for open standards and interoperability.

The aim is to encourage quality and transparency, in addition to letting emerging markets get a foot in the door, according to the tech giant.

IBM will start by rolling out a new corporate policy, which includes beginning or ending participation in standards bodies based on their openness, encouraging the adoption of open global standards and looking to improve governance in standards bodies to keep decisions and dispute resolutions independent.

With that in mind, IBM said it would review its membership in standards organisations and encourage participation in countries where it does business.

"Common, open and consensus-based technology standards from reputable standards bodies help ensure that each of us can easily purchase and interchangeably use computing technology from multiple vendors," said Bob Sutor, IBM vice president of open source and standards.

IBM added that open technical standards can help in many areas, including letting governments deliver services, improving business practices and even helping with disaster relief and health care on a global scale.

"The ways in which they are created and adopted provide reasonable assurances that disparate products will work with one another, and withstand the test of time," Sutor added.

Microsoft and the International Standards Organisation (ISO) have both been criticised following the adoption of OOXML as an international standard - which Microsoft has previously accused IBM of trying to sabotage.