Standards and Specifications at the Linux Foundation

Supporting specification development and adoption from ideation to international standard.

Open source-inspired collaboration methods meet the due process of standardization in our unique approach to specification development.

Projects benefit from having the flexibility and structure to change as their goals are advanced and refined. Start small or start big - collaboration begins in different ways. Right-sized governance models, support programs, tools, and access to expertise are critical for ensuring projects move forward quickly and correctly. Projects can choose from multiple IPR and funding modes, and optionally take advantage of the Linux Foundation’s best-in-class services. 

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Joint Development Foundation

For projects who want to set up a traditional standards development activity, JDF provides the legal umbrella and widely-accepted document templates to get work underway quickly and efficiently. JDF Project Series have the option to advance work for international acceptance through our ISO/IEC JTC1 PAS submitter status.

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Community Specification

Community Specification provides the licenses, git-friendly development workflows, and best practices guidelines for projects who want to develop specifications in the same place they develop reference implementations, documentation, test suites and more. Community Specification projects scale from small group problem-solving to multi-vendor collaborations.

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WEBINAR

Writing a Formal IT Specification

Join us for a presentation that outlines a number of considerations involved when creating a formal IT specification, in general, and for software, in particular, such as a programming language or library.