The word 'open' has no commonly accepted meaning in the phrase 'open standard.' For many organizations, 'open' means that they aren't the only organization that supports the advancement and development of a given technology. However, this is an all-too-b

The word 'open' has no commonly accepted meaning in the phrase 'open standard.' For many organizations, 'open' means that they aren't the only organization that supports the advancement and development of a given technology. However, this is an all-too-broad definition that puts Microsoft's .NET in the same camp as Java – since there are millions of developers for each of those platforms. For others, a standard is open only if a vendor-neutral third-party organization (or even governmental body) creates and manages it. However, this definition is too strict in that it excludes the term 'open source' from its meaning. Finally, many organizations consider a standard to be 'open' if the specification has merely been published for review.