OPEN STANDARDS PRINCIPLES: For software interoperability, data and document formats in government IT specifications

Use the link to access the full text document issued by the UK Cabinet Office.  The Foreword reads as follows: "Government IT must be open - open to the people and organisations that use our 

services and open to any provider, regardless of their size. We currently have many small, separate platforms operating across disconnected departments and IT that is tied into monolithic contracts. We need to have a platform for government that allows us to share appropriate data effectively and that gives us flexibility and choice. Already we have started to make progress and there is activity right across government that demonstrates our commitment to achieving the change we need.The Government Digital Service has launched GOV.UK - a simpler, clearer, faster and common platform for government's digital services, based on open source software. The whole site is designed around the needs of the user. GDS has also developed the online petitions system for the UK Parliament to enable people to raise, sign and track petitions.  It was developed by SMEs and is built on open standards. Another site legislation.gov.uk – the online home of legislation – was designed around open standards so more participants could get involved. It connects with inhouse, public and private sector systems and has allowed The National 

Archives to develop an entirely new operating model for revising legislation. The private sector is investing effort in improving the underlying data. Companies then reuse the source code for processing the data and are including this in their own commercial products and services.

But we can do more. The publication of the Open Standards Principles is a fundamental step towards achieving a level playing field for open source and proprietary software and breaking our IT into smaller, more manageable components.  We are being open and transparent in how we implement this new policy. We believe that with your ongoing involvement we can achieve better services for our taxpayers. We encourage you to continue to challenge us to deliver affordable, open IT for government - IT that works for you."