UK government pulls open standards recommendation

The H Open - The UK Government has withdrawn the procurement guidance it issued in February which defined open standards for public sector use as royalty free. The government issued the procurement policy note (PPN) PPN03/11 which committed the government to implementing open standards in the public sector, but more significantly, defined open standards as being royalty free. Now, though, in a newly issued PPN, PPN09/11, the government says it stands by its commitment to open standards but says that a survey it held to "gather views on the definition of the term open standard" and select particular standards has "raised many questions that need to be investigated in more detail".