Is the open standards movement as significant a development as open source? Does it translate in opportunities for you, or is standards work a barrier to free software development? Are standards-development bodies the right places to engage in software development? Should you get involved, or are standards forums a waste of time, slow and bureaucratic, and a distraction from open source development opportunities?

The participants on this panel will share with you their diverse practical experience with open standards and open source development, and they will welcome an animated exchange of opinions. Bring your questions and comments, engage with the experts, and judge for yourself how open standards can help to move technology forward.

Standards in the Real World

What are standards and why are they important? How are they created? How do standards affect you, not just as a software developer but also as a citizen? How can you participate in their development?

This track will address these and related questions through a panel discussion and four short presentations touching on many aspects of the standards-development process. From human to computer languages, currency and measurement to food and drink, laws and statutes to voting and elections, website design and equality of access to archeology, digital imaging, and file formats, standards touch our lives every day.

These sessions will inform and engage you, and will present standards in a new light.

Who Needs Standards in an Open Source World?

Standards make the world go round. It would be impossible to mail a package or send an email message, drive a car or take an airplane trip, shop for food in a supermarket, obtain medical treatment in a hospital, watch TV or movies, enjoy a sports game, or do any of the other things the modern world offers without standards.

The Java platform is built on standards, and its success is directly attributable to the community-driven process through which the language and platform evolve: the Java Community Process program. The acceptance and success of open-source development methodologies pose both a challenge and an opportunity for the JCP program.

Are standards necessary in an open-source world?

On November 4th, did your vote count? Or is it déjà vu all over again? After the 2000 election, Americans needed assurance that their votes counted and were recorded accurately. Questions of voting system integrity, usability, and security arose. Existing voting standards were inadequate and outdated – in need of revision to reflect advances in the state of the art in both voting systems and in the underlying information technology.

The 2002 Help America Vote Act (HAVA) was passed by Congress to address these concerns. The goal of HAVA is to ensure that every eligible American has an equal opportunity to cast a vote and have that vote counted. Assuring the reliability, usability, accessibility, and especially, security of current and future voting systems required a new voting systems standard and certification process. HAVA has given The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) a key role in helping to realize nationwide improvements in voting systems with the development of a new voting systems standard.

This presentation will highlight the events leading up to the development of this new voting systems standard and provide details of the standard and how it will improve overall voting systems performance for the next generation of voting systems.