OASIS Open Europe Foundation – Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

What is OASIS Open Europe?

OASIS Open Europe is an independent not-for-profit legal entity. OASIS Open Europe leverages the global experience of OASIS Open. It was established in December 2020 as a not-for-profit foundation based in Utrecht, the Netherlands.

What is the mission of OASIS Open Europe?

The OASIS Open Europe foundation was created to provide a strong and dedicated European focus in setting standards for open collaboration. OASIS Open Europe aims to engage in European activities to promote, to progress and to adopt OASIS Open technologies, to provide methodologies and services, to participate in collaborative projects, to provide services and to organize and to participate in events.

In what sectors/topics does OASIS Open support standards and related work?

OASIS Open works on standards and related projects in a broad range of areas – for more details see here.

Is OASIS Open Europe a subsidiary of the international OASIS Open organization?

OASIS Open Europe is an independent organization. However, its mission is closely aligned with the international OASIS Open organization. Several members of the OASIS Open Europe Board also serve on the international OASIS Open Board. The two organizations are complementary and both support the global OASIS Open community of developers, users and supporters of open technologies.

Who governs OASIS Open Europe?

The Foundation has its own Governing Board, responsible for setting the strategy and the oversight of its activities. The Board brings together a remarkable range of talent from the business and academic world across Europe, with strong experience in ICT standards, Open Source projects, innovation, research, and development.

Will OASIS Open Europe have members?

No, OASIS Open Europe is a foundation (a “Stichting” under Dutch law). A foundation does not have members. This is a difference between foundations and associations.

Will the OASIS Open Europe host OASIS standards work?

We believe standardization in information technology is best done at the global level, and the OASIS Open association provides an international well-proven process for standardization. OASIS Open supports a community of members that participate in technical committees using established policies and procedures. However, OASIS Open Europe will support standardization from a European perspective, involving European stakeholders and will provide related activities and services in Europe.

OASIS standards and specifications have been used in some very large, highly visible initiatives in Europe and OASIS has a well-established place on the EU’s high-level advisory committee, the Multi-Stakeholder Platform for EU ICT Standardisation (MSP).

Does OASIS Open Europe intend to work on open source?

Yes, this was one of the key motivations to set up the foundation. Open source has become increasingly important as a complement or alternative to traditional standardization. There are open source implementations for most OASIS standards and several OASIS standards are based on technology initially developed in open source implementations. The international OASIS Open organization is already hosting open source work in areas like cyber security and blockchain. OASIS Open Europe aims to support open source initiatives that prefer to operate in Europe with European stakeholders under EU law.

How about Open Data?

Open data is an emerging area of interest in the OASIS Open community, especially in Europe, due to Europe’s lead in areas such as data protection and its legislation. Like open standards, open data is a key contributor to the Digital Single Market that will benefit from new products and services based on data. Data is also a critical asset for future development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). OASIS Open Europe will position the OASIS Open community as a global player in the international/ European data space area, leveraging its reputation in areas of security and privacy.

What is the legal status of OASIS Open standards in Europe?

OASIS Open standards are recognised throughout Europe and benefit from broad implementation and participation from many European organisations, Member State public administrations, and EU industry and academic experts. OASIS, alongside a few others, was nominated by the EU to serve as a founding member of the Multi-Stakeholder Platform on ICT Standardisation (MSP-ICT) which was created as part of European Standardisation reform in Regulation 1025/2012. As a result, many OASIS standards and ongoing projects are catalogued in the annual ICT Standards Rolling Plan.

In addition to listing these works in its Plan catalogue and highlighting their use by European and Member State agencies, the EU also officially extends recognition to two other classes of consortia standards: those that have been co-approved as international standards by de jure bodies (such as ISO and ITU) and those that have been “identified” for broad government use by a Commission Decision. In the first case, there are about 20 OASIS standards that also have been designated as ISO, ITU or ISO/IEC standards since 2004. The OASIS Common Alerting Protocol (CAP) emergency management standard, for example, is adopted as ITU-T Recommendation X.1303 and X.1303bis. Additional OASIS works have been contributed into and concepts adopted as part of larger ongoing ISO, IEC and ITU projects. In the second case, a number of OASIS consortium standards have been placed on the European Commission’s procurement identification roster for widespread adoption, including the cybersecurity standards STIX and TAXII.

The European Commission also provides active assistance and support to selected consortium standardisation efforts in other ways. Some EU-funded research projects are designed to implement and enhance our OASIS standards, such as the PEPPOL.eu programme that developed open source software and invoicing methodology for OASIS UBL. (UBL is one of our “identified” standards, used by a majority of EU Member States for digital single-market invoices.) The Commission also supports the participation by European experts in global standards committees, including OASIS Open, though the StandICT.eu programme.

How do I get in touch?

For further information, please contact OASIS Open Europe.