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Open Standards

/ˈoʊ • pən • ˈstæn • dərdz/ Technical protocols available to the public without restriction.
Definition The bedrock of digital resilience. File formats and protocols (like HTML, CSS, RSS, JPEG) that are publicly documented, non-proprietary, and implementable by anyone. They are the only defense against "Format Rot" and "Vendor Lock-in."

The Common Tongue

An Open Standard is a language that belongs to everyone. Because no single company owns HTML, no single company can kill it. This makes artifacts built on open standards "Antifragile"—they survive the death of platforms, browsers, and even operating systems.

In contrast, Proprietary Standards (Flash, Silverlight, RealAudio) are languages owned by a king. When the king dies (or loses interest), the language dies, and every artifact written in it becomes a Petribyte.

The Archaeologist's Guide

For the Digital Archaeologist, Open Standards are the difference between reading a text and needing to decipher a lost script. An HTML file from 1993 is still readable in a 2025 browser. A Word Perfect file from 1993 requires forensic emulation.

Stratigraphy (Related Concepts)
Resilient Format Petribyte Vivibyte Dependency Risk