The Open Group, along with IBM, has published a 500-word, two-sentence document that it hopes developers will endorse. The “Developer Declaration of Independence” enjoins corporations, governments, organizations, and individuals to adopt and protect open standards in order to promote interoperability among all vendors and give IT customers freedom of choice.

"The Declaration is a call to action for software developers, business and industry, and all levels of government to publicly promote and defend open standards against the threats posed by proprietary architectures," said Open Group CEO Allen Brown. "We hope everyone who has a stake in the success of open standards will sign the Declaration and make their voices heard on one of the most important issues facing the future of the IT industry."

IBM GM of ISV and developer relations Buell Duncan said, "Open standards are at the heart of the next computing wave - where disparate systems and platforms are integrated across the enterprise and externally with customers, suppliers, and other partners. This end-to-end integration simply won't be possible without multi-vendor interoperability through open standards."

The document is available online, along with a form that can be used to “sign” it.

The Open Group promotes the POSIX open standard and sells compliance testing to OS vendors, including embedded and real-time OS vendors. The Boston-based company does not yet appear to have organized a Boston IT Party, however.

 
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