Open Standards Panel
The Open Standards Panel oversees the process to select open standards for software interoperability, data and document formats.
This group has closed
The Open Standards Panel was set up to oversee and help with the selection open standards for government. The process of selection has changed and uses the open standards community. With this change in process, there is no longer a need for this group.
Terms of Reference
The Open Standards Panel replaced the Technical Panel and Data Panel and combined their expertise. The panel advised challenge owners leading the work to adopt open standards and on the state of the current standard landscape. It also evaluated proposals to make evidence-based recommendations to the Open Standards Board.
The group aimed is to use a fair, open and transparent process to:
- consider and evaluate open standards recommendations relating to government IT - such as software interoperability, data and document formats
- advise challenge owners on how to investigate proposals - for example identifying stakeholders and setting up workshops or working groups
- report on how the standards are currently implemented and on related work being carried out in government departments
Meeting dates
The panel met 2-3 times a year to review and evaluate proposals put forward by challenge owners. Working groups were sometimes set up to support challenge owners.
Meetings between panel members were either be face-to-face or by tele/video-conference and would normally last no more than two hours. The timing of the meetings were agreed with members.
Membership
There was a maximum of 14 members at each Panel meeting, with approximately 4-6 voluntary positions available on each. Meetings with over 60% attendance were considered quorate.
The panel had a core membership of:
- expert users from government or not-for-profit organisations
- experts who volunteer by contacting the Open Standards team
- experts asked to participate by the Open Standards team
Other members included a rolling group of volunteers from other organisations who joined for a minimum six-month period.
The volunteer members come from:
- business
- not-for-profit organisations
- charities
- academic organisations