If your organization is considering sponsoring Spec-Ops, you probably have a lot of questions. We have a lot of answers - some of which are below. The most important thing you need to know about sponsorship is that you are not buying approval of your technology as a standard. Spec-Ops Standards Champions are assigned their work at the direction of the Project Leadership Committee - informed by input from the sponsors. The Champions then participate in the work of the designated groups, helping to accelerate the development and adoption of that group's work. Dedicated and expert, these Champions are there to help ensure the work gets done. Faster. If your organization has a technology that it feels is ripe for standardization, you should submit it to the appropriate standards organization and put your people in the room to advocate for it. Your people are the experts, and if it is the right technology at the right time, it will likely be adopted.
Just to be clear, you cannot buy your product's way into becoming a standard through Spec-Ops. That's not what we do.
What problem are we trying to solve?
- The pace at which computing technology evolves continue to increase.
- Private organizations are developing tools and interfaces that would benefit everyone if they were widely available.
- There are groups in the community where these tools and interfaces could be socialized, matured, and ultimately standardized.
- But there aren't enough organizations with the financial or staff resources to work together and ensure that the critical pieces of the environment can get the attention they need to remain open and available to all.
Why would solving the problem benefit the community?
- Critical infrastructure that is standardized quickly speeds implementation and deployment while at the same time reducing development costs.
- Working directly with the relevant standards bodies and the implementation community helps ensure stability of the environment.
- Stable and standardized interfaces and services get picked up and used by developers more quickly - improving the portability of the developers and the code they develop.
- You would have a voice in deciding which standards get "Spec-Op'd".
- You would get increased visibility into the standards process without spending valuable staff time actually participating and/or weeding through the deluge of emails and documents to see the data that is relevant to your bottom line.
- You would be helping standardize something you need. Now.
- Your organization would be prominently featured as a key driver of the standards we accelerate.
- The management team has (cumulatively) more than 100 years of experience working with all manner of standards organizations - we know the players, the rules, and the best way to work within them to help drive consensus.
- The team is also made up of people with real world experience deploying and developing to standards - you won't be relying upon people who have been living in an "ivory tower" to help make your organization's requirements turn into reality.
- Spec-Ops, as part of Software Freedom Conservancy, is a 501(c)(3) organization (filings available) so your donations are tax deductible!
Why wait? The future needs your help, and we're ready to start working with you today!