As I write this article the 2008 FOSDEM (www.fosdem.org/2008/) (Free and Open Source software Developers European Meeting) is about to start. Of course, by the time you read this the meeting will be long over (that's the name of the game with publishing deadlines). I will not be attending, but several members of Sun's OpenJDK (http://openjdk.java.net/) team are gathering in Brussels to meet with the movers and shakers of the free and open source software world. This suggested the topic for this month's column, in which I will explore the relationship between open source and open standards.

First let's define our terms. The Open Source Initiative (www.opensource.org/) (OSI) informally defines Open Source as "a development method for software that harnesses the power of distributed peer review and transparency of process. The promise of open source is better quality, higher reliability, more flexibility, lower cost and an end to predatory vendor lock-in." The OSI goes on to point out that open source is not just about access to the source code. The terms under which the code is licensed must comply with 10 separate criteria in order to qualify for their Open Source Initiative Approved trademark. These criteria (I encourage you to read them for yourself at www.opensource.org/docs/osd) address issues such as the right to redistribute and to create derivative works without discriminatory restrictions.