Interoperability: Difference between revisions
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One of the most crucial problems of technology is when machines or software don’t know how to talk to each other, because of many overlapping potential reasons: proprietary and closed implementations, inability of humans to agree on standards, deprecated or obsolete protocols that limit the scope of what it is now possible to do… | One of the most crucial problems of technology is when machines or software don’t know how to talk to each other, because of many overlapping potential reasons: proprietary and closed implementations, inability of humans to agree on standards, deprecated or obsolete protocols that limit the scope of what it is now possible to do… | ||
[[ | [[Image:Xkcd -927- Standards.png|thumb|alt=[Caption above the panels:] How Standards Proliferate (See: A/C chargers, character encodings, instant messaging, etc.) [A text-only panel.] Situation: There are 14 competing standards. [Cueball and Ponytail stand facing each other.] Cueball: 14?! Ridiculous! We need to develop one universal standard that covers everyone’s use cases. Ponytail: Yeah! [Another text-only panel. The word “Soon:” appears in its own box at the upper left of the panel.] Soon: Situation: There are 15 competing standards.|[https://xkcd.com/927/ xkcd #927: Standards]]] | ||
The challenge remains: interoperability among tools can be associated with confabulation among human beings. It may not be the fastest, most efficient, and most <q>productive</q> way of achieving a goal, still, it is the most accepting, inclusive, communal. | The challenge remains: interoperability among tools can be associated with confabulation among human beings. It may not be the fastest, most efficient, and most <q>productive</q> way of achieving a goal, still, it is the most accepting, inclusive, communal. | ||
Latest revision as of 11:25, 11 March 2026
One of the most crucial problems of technology is when machines or software don’t know how to talk to each other, because of many overlapping potential reasons: proprietary and closed implementations, inability of humans to agree on standards, deprecated or obsolete protocols that limit the scope of what it is now possible to do…
![[Caption above the panels:] How Standards Proliferate (See: A/C chargers, character encodings, instant messaging, etc.) [A text-only panel.] Situation: There are 14 competing standards. [Cueball and Ponytail stand facing each other.] Cueball: 14?! Ridiculous! We need to develop one universal standard that covers everyone’s use cases. Ponytail: Yeah! [Another text-only panel. The word “Soon:” appears in its own box at the upper left of the panel.] Soon: Situation: There are 15 competing standards.](/mediadesign/File:Xkcd_-927-_Standards.png)
The challenge remains: interoperability among tools can be associated with confabulation among human beings. It may not be the fastest, most efficient, and most productive
way of achieving a goal, still, it is the most accepting, inclusive, communal.
Even if interoperability was not conceived as a fundamental principle in the making of a tool, as hackers it is our imperative to crack things open, and bridge them!
We should also compel big tech to be at least a bit more fair by enforcing Adversarial Interoperability
[1]: ensuring that widespread closed technologies adopt open standards. A perfect example in the legislative domain is the European Union’s Digital Markets Act[2]
- ↑ Cory Doctorow, alt.interoperability.adversarial (2019)
- ↑ REGULATION (EU) 2022/1925 OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL of 14 September 2022 on contestable and fair markets in the digital sector and amending Directives (EU) 2019/1937 and (EU) 2020/1828 (Digital Markets Act): https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2022/1925/oj/eng