There are increasing calls for online services to provide a set of guidelines that allow for more universal standards that protect individual rights and the freedom to move data where and when people wish.

There is also the need for interoperability and easier, standard ways to allow for data portability. I’d also add user rights to that list. No one should have to go through what people like Thomas Monopoly have experienced. Monopoly is the guy who I wrote about yesterday who raised the conversation about Google and its increasingly poor record for respecting users and their data.

Thats why I have to applaud the Open Cloud Initiative (OCI), which launched yesterday at OSCON with the purpose of defining the concept of the open cloud and creating a legal framework for its scope.

Why do I like this group? The people behind it are top-notch. And it’s apparent there is a focus on the individual, not a particular industry consortium.

Instead it’s a community driven effort, inspired in part by the Open Source Initiative, which advocates for the benefits of open source and to build bridges among different constituencies in the open source community.

The OCI organizers, which include a number of well-known cloud personalities, will spend the next 30 days seeking input which will then be used to create a non-profit that will be the vehicle to push forward open cloud efforts.

The group will follow its Open Cloud Principles which it says are designed to ensure user freedoms without impeding the ability of providers to do business. It will drive for interoperability with he intent to avoid barriers to entry or exit, ensuring technological neutrality and forbidding discrimination.

What this means, for me, at least, is tearing down walled gardens. It might be fun and all to post pictures and engage in a game of gestures. Thumbs up, thumbs down – it’s all about your data. You provide the value but the owner of the walled garden keeps it and can lock you out of the information that you had personally curated.

To develop a network of open services,  OCI will seek to create cloud standards with a focus on royalty free copyrights; universally available patents; trademarks that do not discriminate and implementations that have at least one open-source component.

Sam Johnston is the founder and will serve as president of the organization and on the board of directors.

“The primary purpose of the Open Cloud Initiative (OCI) is to define “Open Cloud” by way of community consensus and advocate for universal adoption of Open Standard formats and interfaces” Johnston said.  “Inspired by the Open Source Initiative (OSI), we aim to find a balance between protecting important user freedoms and enabling providers to build successful businesses.”

Board members include Rick Clark, Marc Fleischmann, Shanley Kane, Noirin Plunkett, Evan Prodromou, Sam Ramji, Thomas Uhl, John Mark Walker and Simon Wardley.

Here’s a bit of what the organization hopes to accomplish:

• Be proponents for a cloud of clouds – an “intercloud” – interconnected by open standard interfaces exchanging open standard formats.
• Find a balance between cloud computing users and providers by deriving a community consensus “Open Cloud” definition and advocating its universal adoption.
• Develop a certification process. Create certification marks in association with open cloud products and services.

Services Angle

This effort is one of a number of initiatives that are emerging with a focus on the open cloud. The most well-recognized has to be OpenStack which continues to grow in scope and interest.

OpenStack provides the storage and compute for people to build their own cloud infrastructures. But we also need open practices so the individual feels welcome and is treated respectfully, in particular as it concerns the data they create and curate.

Why businesses should care is clear. We see a lot of people resist using cloud services because they are concerned that the environment is just not the right place for sensitive data.  As individuals we can force services to make it less risky for us to provide the everyday information we need to work and live. That seems to be the direction for OSI.  It’s a good fight.

Sam Ramji says the tipping point is here. There is more information going into online services than is already there. The weight of the digital world is bearing down.  It’s time to create open standards so that heavy data can move freely without encumbrances. If we can do that then business will move faster in its adoption and the individual will have a few more assurances that their rights will be protected and interoperability is a reality not a pipe dream.