Interoperability

From OpenEGov

The e-Government Interoperability Framework (e-GIF) defines the minimum set of technical policies and specifications governing information flows across government and public sector. A corresponding European Interoperability Framework was released in December 2004. This is concerned with interoperability across national borders.

e-GIF Version 6 states:

The ultimate test for interoperability is the coherent
exchange of information and services between systems. If 
this is achieved, then the system can be regarded as truly
interoperable. Furthemore, it must be possible to replace
any component or product used within an interface with another
of a similar specification while maintaining the functionality
of the system. To be e-GIF compliant, a system should satisfy
both these requirements.

This paragraph shows signs of having been a political football, with the 'furthermore' clause tagged on after objections. All the same, the current status is definitely that interoperable systems must satisfy both requirements. For example, an interoperable system cannot be built round a wordprocessing package which is incapable of exporting its layout information in formats which can be understood by other systems.

Some proprietary software companies prefer to talk in terms of interoperability as a 'pragmatic' alternative to Open Standards, especially since the European Union via the EIF made it clear that use of open standards could not require payment of fees.