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On Wednesday, I introduced The Hague Declaration to those that visit this blog, promising to write again shortly to introduce the new organization that created the Declaration. That organization is called the Digital Standards Organization (Digistan, for short), and I’m pleased to say that I am one of its founders. In this entry, I’ll give you my perceptions of what Digistan is all about, and what I hope it will accomplish.

You’ll notice that I just used the words “my perceptions.” This is for a number of reasons, the first being that this is still a very young organization that has taken shape, primarily via a listserv. I was welcomed onto the founders listserv on November 12, bringing the total number of participants to 13. Since then, that list has grown. As of today, there are 19 individuals that have agreed to publicly associate themselves with the organization as founders, and it would be fair to say that there is a broad range of views (from conservative to radical) represented in this cross section of experienced professionals. Together, we have been reaching consensus on various pieces of the still-incomplete and evolving puzzle, adding them to the Digistan site as sufficient agreement is reached to make them public, while still allowing the pieces to change to reflect continuing discussion.

The result is that the organization, to an extent, is not unlike the story of the five blind men touching the proverbial elephant, but with a twist. It would be more accurate to say that each of the blind men has arrived on the scene not to find a strange new creature, but rather bearing a piece of the elephant. Today, we are still completing the process of putting the beast together. For this reason, what I write in this entry should be regarded as my perceptions alone, and the rights of the other founders to describe their piece of the elephant, and their vision of the final product, must be preserved.

With all that said, what is innovative new animal we call “Digistan?” Here’s how it feels to me.

What is Digistan’s Mission? First and foremost, it must be acknowledged that Digistan is the result of the vision and tireless (but tactful) energy of Pieter Hintjens (I’ll return to Pieter’s contribution later in this post). That vision incorporates and channels the work of many others who have spoken out in the past in favor of “openness” in general, and in some cases on the intersection of openness and human rights (Digistan founder Alberto Barrionuevo being an example of the latter). Pieter’s vision, as it has evolved in discussions with the other founders, is now instantiated in the Mission statement, which you can find in full here. It reads in part as follows:

The Digital Standards Organization (Digistan) seeks to promote customer choice, vendor competition, and overall growth in the global digital economy through the understanding, development, and adoption of free and open digital standards (”open standards”).

In concrete terms, we seek to:

1. Educate industry and government about the socioeconomic benefits of open standards;
2. Advocate legislative and regulatory backing for open standards;
3. Help standards developers produce high-quality open standards;
4. Help standards authorities understand, qualify, and enforce open standards.
5. Defend the open standards community, small and large, against capture by vendors.

Digistan is active in, and welcomes active support, in all these areas.

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• Andy Updegrove

  

  Andy Updegrove is a partner and founder of Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a Boston-based technology law firm, and has represented and helped structure more than 80 worldwide standard setting, open source, promotional and advocacy consortia over the past 20 years. He has also represented hundreds of both emerging as well as established technology companies, and is the founder and editor of both the popular website http://www.consortiuminfo.org and the widely-read Standards Blog

• Karen Copenhaver

  

  Karen Copenhaver is a partner in Choate, Hall & Stewart LLP ‘s Business & Technology practice focusing on technology transfer and licensing of intellectual property with a specific emphasis on open source business models. Most recently, Copenhaver was executive vice president and general counsel at Black Duck Software, Inc.