Building an open common language
We do not want to reinvent the wheel. We just want to publicly discuss and build shared foundations for this new world.
This is only possible by developing open source platforms and open standards as an alternative to the myriad of proprietary hardware and software platforms developed by all the big players.
Several definitions of “open standard” exist, often neglecting the conditions that the user must undergo to read and to implement it, for example mentioning the possibility of "reasonable terms and conditions".
We do not consider "reasonable" a fee that could be up hundreds of US$ per person reading the single document. Furthermore, a "reasonable" participation fee for discussing the standards that can amount up to thousands of US$ per year is not feasible in our opinion. In addition, the "reasonable conditions" of usage mean that copying and sharing the standard definition is forbidden, which is contrary to our believes.
Our idea of "open" is much more similar to what the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) has been doing since 1986: allowing the widest freedom in accessing both the standards and the discussions for their definition. You can download and freely distribute the standard, and simply join a mailing list to participate in its definition, all without fees.
These are the open standards we advocate for, with minimal bureaucracy and driven by practical needs, as inspired by the motto:
"We reject kings, presidents and voting.
We believe in rough consensus and running code"
We believe that the wind industry is sorely lacking these aspects, and the moment to promote this renovation has already come. This is one of the reasons that moved us to write the Internet of Wind Manifesto.
