I enjoy to read the announcement made by IBM, making public its new “IT Standards Policy”.

I think that it’s very important to publish such a policy, because from now on, the decisions made and actions taken by the company in the field of standardization may be more clearly understood and analyzed. Moreover, it is up to us who participate in international standardization discussions, to audit the conduct of IBM representatives in committees.

I also enjoyed the comments made by Andy Updegrove about the announcement. As did Andy, I was also a member of the  group that discussed the issue for weeks. It was a very productive and constructive discussion and I expect that more should come from it. It was a heterogeneous group and was an honor for me (and a great learning) to be part of it.

One of the main points which I argued during the discussions was the transparency (and the damage caused by the lack of it). I think that I did my little contribution, and I do hope that the announcement that the “degree of openness” of standardization committees will be taken into account when IBM decide to participate or to withdraw from them, will serve as a message to the ones that has a strong affair with the false protection of confidentiality (you know who you are … okay?).

Apparently the age where standards were developed behind closed doors, sometimes using honest people to legitimize decisions and mask interests is coming to an end. It is a great pity that people still insist on this old and broken model, even here in Brazil (to not miss the joke, but the friend, developing standards worthy of the “famous Brazilian telenovela“:)).

I really hope that this announcement is only the first in the market, which increasingly needs to be transparent and have companies with clear positioning.

For me, transparency is a holy medicine (bitter and not orally ingested by many people :)).