FYI [asia related]
Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, April 05, 2004
On April 3, the first China-Japan-S.Korea IT ministers' conference for
OSS (Open Source Software) was held in Beijing. It was jointly sponsored
by China Ministry of Information, Ministry of Economy, Trade and
Industry and Ministry of Public Management, Home Affairs, Posts and
Telecommunications of Japan, and Ministry of Information and
Communication of ROK. The three countries signed "the Memo for
Cooperation on Opening Source Code".
Sources concerned said that as the three nations were heading for the
same goal of promoting the cooperation on and development of open source
software and pushing forward the campaign of opening source code in the
northeast Asia, they agreed to exchange information on open source
software, share research results, and make joint efforts on developing
open source software of next generation based on the software with
freely available source code represented by Linux.
According to the Memo for Cooperation on Opening Source Code, the three
nations have reached the consensus that global cooperation would be
necessary for the development of open source software, open source
software would favor the fast and healthy development of the software
industry and help to prevent possible risks of information security.
China, Japan and ROK all agreed to begin their cooperation in this
aspect with Linux as Linux operating system was regarded as one of the
most typical open source software. The three parties vowed to adhere to
the principle of opening source code and make joint efforts to give
contribution to the global open source software community.
China, Japan and ROK all recognized the problem either in sharing
information and technologies or in marketing of open source software
because of the scattered development resources and inadequate
compatibility between various Linux systems based on different standards.
The Memo for Cooperation on Opening Source Code constitutes a framework
in which China, Japan and ROK will work together on Linux standards
acceptable among them to realize the information exchanges and research
results sharing between them. The trio expressed their willingness to
encourage and support the development of open source software, promote
the application of Linux on a market-oriented basis, create a amiable
environment for the application and industrial development of open
source software and offer favorable policies for the industry.
China, Japan and ROK will jointly make research on certification system
for open source software, build testing environment for the compliance
and compatibility of Linux software standards, and evaluate and certify
the quality and performance of products. The trio is also ready to make
cooperation on fostering talents on software R&D and application.
China, Japan and ROK all stressed to give high priority to intellectual
property rights protection to guarantee legal rights and interests of
individuals and businesses.
By People's Daily Onlien