The Polish Ministry of Interior and Administration is considering to weaken the definition of open standards in its new Information Technology Development Act (ITDA). 'Open source standards' is to be replaced by a vague concept of 'technological neutrality', Polish open source news sites report.

In an earlier version the policy document defined that public administrations in Poland should always use open standards if they exist for the technology being considered. The current proposal proposes that administrations use whatever the technology vendor provided: "since any demand to use only open standards restricts a free market."

"Open standards have been removed from the latest draft", reports 7th Guard, a Polish open source community web site. "The ministry is taking a big step back", writes the Polish social news site OSnews, commenting on the report by Seventh Guard.

According to the two news sites, the ITDA has never had a clear definition of open standards. The text sometimes includes commonly used but proprietary formats, yet in other parts refers to the European Interoperability Framework, a set of guidelines drafted by the European Commission.

Polish open source users and advocacy groups hoped the ITDA would include a good definition of open standards. A few months ago, an earlier draft included guarantees on the full openness of standards.

However, in the new version, public administrations will not be bound to implement open standards. The provisions regarding open standards are to be replaced by the provisions on the 'technological neutrality'.

"Unfortunately it is not the neutrality that guarantees everyone an equal access to the data possessed by the public authority", reports 7thGuard. "In this draft, the neutrality means an equal treatment of technologies and products by public authorities. It may sound good in theory but in brief it can be read as the prohibition of the introduction of the requirement to apply open standards by the public administration."

"The policy maker responsible for this change is a very dedicated supporter of the free market", one open source enthusiast explains. "I have spoken with him several times, but it seems impossible to make him understand how only open standards guarantee free and fair competition."

More information:

Draft Information Technology Development Act(in Polish)

7thGuard news item (in Polish)

OS news item (in Polish)