Today, the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) announced a Technology Reference Model for Japan's government procurement. The approach builds on open standards. The announcement also makes the close cooperation between Japan and the EU on using open standards for procurement official. For those of us who have been following the developments for a while, the publication is a milestone in the work to make IT procurement fair and hence the software market more sustainable, globally.
For those who are lucky enough to read more than the occasional Japanese, the full version, all 241 pages, is available online as the Technology Reference Model (TRM) for the Procurement of Information Systems 2008.
What will follow, as I understand it, is the elaboration of a more detailed Common Assessment Method for Standards and Specifications (Japan-CAMSS), modelled on the European one (CAMSS) that I have covered in previous blog posts.
