We need your help to set standards for software interoperability, data and document formats in government IT.
These will follow open standards principles and will be applied across government to make services better for users and cheaper to run. Get involved in any of the 4 stages of the process for determining the adopted standards.
The Process
1. Suggestion stage
We need you to suggest areas where users of government services face problems that might be solved by open standards. We'll assess suggestions as they come in, look at their possible benefits and read other users’ comments on them.
How you can get involved:
visit the issues page where you can...
- read and comment other people’s suggestions
- make a suggestion
2. Response stage
A panel of technology experts will choose some suggestions to become challenges and appoint a [[challenge owner|Challenge owners]] to act as a champion for each. We’ll publish those here so users can respond to them by recommending standards or approaches that might solve them.
How you can get involved:
- read current challenges other people’s responses
- make or comment a response (offer a solution)
3. Proposal stage
The [[challenge owner|Challenge owners]] will evaluate responses and draw on them to create proposals for solving each challenge. You can comment on these proposals, which will help the challenge owner and standards panel to assess them and identify one that they will submit to the Open Standards Panel for review.
How you can get involved:
Become a [[Challenge owner|Challenge owners]].
4. Solution stage
The [[Open Standards Board]] will review the proposal and decide whether its approach to solving a challenge and the open standard or collection of standards involved should be adopted across government.
You can read "[[How we select standards]]" for the full details.
Accepted Standards
GOV.UK maintains a list of approved Open Standards.
On-Hold Standards
The Open Standards Board
The [[Open Standards Board]] is made up of [[Board members]] who are appointed. They are expert users and drawn from government and not-for-profit organisations as well as volunteers from academia and industry.
The board has specific [Terms of Reference](Open Standards Board Terms of Reference) and all board members must abide by the [[Terms and Conditions for Appointment as Open Standards Board Member]]
Meetings
Minutes of previous meetings
We maintain minutes of all previous meetings.
The most recent meeting was: