desired purpose, subject to certain conditions of use. Although open formats are generally preferable for digital preservation purposes, just because a format is open it does not necessarily mean that it is good. A good indicator of the quality of an open format is the extent of adoption of that format by organisations and members of the community. Open formats and proprietary formats are explained further below. Open format Open proprietary Closed proprietary format format Examples Portable Network MP3 Microsoft Microsoft Word Graphics (PNG), Office Open XML (DOC), Microsoft – OpenDocument eg Docx (OoXML, Outlook, Excel Format (ODF), JPEG, also issued as (XLS), PowerPoint Extensible Hypertext ECMA standard 376 (PPT), Photoshop Markup Language and ISO 29500 (PSD), Microsoft (XHTML), Tagged transitional). Access, RAW image Image File Format formats, WAV audio (TIFF), Free Lossless format. Audio Codec (FLAC), Portable Document Format (PDF) - ISO 32000. What is it? Publicly shared Privately-owned Privately-owned intellectual property, intellectual property. intellectual property. usually maintained by a standards organisation. Availability of Specification Specification may be No specification the format published without any made available with publicly accessible. specification restrictions. restrictions. How is it The format is The format is The format is developed? developed through a developed and developed and publicly visible, marketed by marketed by community-driven companies which companies which process. control the way the control the way the technology is used, technology is used, to improve their to improve their market position. market position. How can it be Can be used and Licence holder has License holder has used? changed by anyone exclusive control of exclusive control of without restrictions, the technology to the technology to except for licensing the (current or the (current or conditions that may future) exclusion of future) exclusion of limit development of others. others. commercialised versions of software.
desired purpose, subject to certain conditions of use. Although open formats are generally preferable for digital preservation purposes, just because a format is open it does not necessarily mean that it is good. A good indicator of the quality of an open format is the extent of adoption of that format by organisations and members of the community. Open formats and proprietary formats are explained further below. Open format Open proprietary format Closed proprietary format Examples Portable Network Graphics (PNG), OpenDocument Format (ODF), JPEG, Extensible Hypertext Markup Language (XHTML), Tagged Image File Format (TIFF), Free Lossless Audio Codec (FLAC), Portable Document Format (PDF) - ISO 32000. MP3 Microsoft Office Open XML – eg Docx (OoXML, also issued as ECMA standard 376 and ISO 29500 transitional). Microsoft Word (DOC), Microsoft Outlook, Excel (XLS), PowerPoint (PPT), Photoshop (PSD), Microsoft Access, RAW image formats, WAV audio format. What is it? Publicly shared intellectual property, usually maintained by a standards organisation. Privately-owned intellectual property. Privately-owned intellectual property. Availability of the format specification Specification published without any restrictions. Specification may be made available with restrictions. No specification publicly accessible. How is it developed? The format is developed through a publicly visible, community-driven process. The format is developed and marketed by companies which control the way the technology is used, to improve their market position. The format is developed and marketed by companies which control the way the technology is used, to improve their market position. How can it be used? Can be used and changed by anyone without restrictions, except for licensing conditions that may limit development of commercialised versions of software. Licence holder has exclusive control of the technology to the (current or future) exclusion of others. License holder has exclusive control of the technology to the (current or future) exclusion of others.
RGGT18_tcm50-74713.docx