The following is intended to open discussion on what is meant by computer
interoperability. (01)
There are a variety of conditions that might relate to the term
"interoperability". In order to analyze and consider options to increase
interoperability it would be useful to more clearly define the type of
interoperability we desire to improve. The following is a list of a few
types of computer interoperability in an attempt to narrow down the specific
type(s) of interoperability we are trying to promote in the context of CDSI.
- CPU interoperability: CPU's that execute the same instruction set can run
the same machine-level code programs.
- Low-level System interoperability: Low-level system programs, such as
system communications programs, can provide computer interoperability. At
one point, about twenty years ago, Unix machines, PC's and Mac's could not
interact due to their unique system communications programs. Now almost all
computers use TCP-IP and Ethernet protocols to communicate via the Internet,
Intranets, or a classified version of the Internet such as SIPRNET.
- Applications interoperability: Many computer applications are designed to
support interoperability. Although there are many different email programs,
almost all of them read and send email messages that are interoperable with
one another. Word processing applications are mostly interoperable with
Microsoft Word (the de facto standard), although in some cases unique
formatting may be lost. Microsoft Excel supports the input and execution of
spreadsheets developed on very different computer hardware. There are a
large number of computer music players but they all support playing MP3
music files.
- Data sharing interoperability: Many computer applications share common
data sources. Sometimes the common data sources are accessed directly at the
data element level from an external data base, file or some other type of
data storage. In other cases the application can only input a complete data
file and convert it to some other internal format for further processing.
Some applications can not only passively share static data but can also
dynamically modify the common data. A very distributed version of the static
data sharing model is the World Wide Web.
- Direct application to application interoperability: In this situation the
data output from one application is provided directly to another application
as input to some process. (02)
The few, out of many, examples of successful interoperability types
mentioned above all rely of the use of standards such as TCP-IP, Ethernet,
Web standards, email standards, computer music standards or even standards
imposed by the use of a common operating system and applications, such as
those by Microsoft. I suspect a more exhaustive compilation of successful
interoperability examples will support the contention that the use of
standards is essential. So, it would be useful for us to determine the
specific types of computer interoperability we are shooting for and then
determine the standards that are required to ensure success. The next, and
hardest step, is to enforce those standards. Enforcement is best
accomplished through market forces. If your computer music player won't play
MP3 files you probably aren't going to sell many copies of it even if your
proprietary music file format is superior. (03)
John (04)
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