Open Documents and Democracy: A Political Basis ..

[Lodahl]

“Open Documents and Democracy: A Political Basis for Open Document Standards”

The Information Society Project (http://isp.law.yale.edu/) at Yale Law School has published a new document by Laura DeNardis and Eric Tam called “Open Documents and Democracy: A Political Basis for Open Document Standards” http://isp.law.yale.edu/static/papers/O ... ocracy.pdf

From the Introduction:

This paper employs democratic theory as a method of political and ethical inquiry into the implications of openness in information and communication standards. Our account describes four ways in which standards can have political implications:

1. Standards can have implications for other democratic processes;
2. Standards can affect the broader social conditions relevant to democracy;
3. The content and material implications of standards can themselves constitute substantive political issues; and
4. The internal processes of standards-setting can be viewed politically.

Thanks to Bob Sutor for this hint http://www.sutor.com/newsite/blog-open/index.php