[via Kim Cameron’s Identity Weblog » Microsoft’s Open Specification Promise ]:

Today marks a major milestone for Mike Jones and myself.

Microsoft announced a new initiative that I hope goes a long way towards making life easier for all of us working together on identity cross-industry.

It’s called the Open Specification Promise (OSP). The goal was to find the simplest, clearest way of assuring that the broadest possible audience of developers could implement specifications without worrying about intellectual property issues - in other words a simplified method of sharing “technical assets”. It’s still a legal document, although a very simple one, so adjust your spectacles:

This is a big step for Microsoft, and so far the details look good. The OSP covers a raft of web services specs, including a few that are important for digital identity. The promise extends not just to spec implementors but down the distribution chain, which is essential to being open source friendly, and there's no registration or notification of Microsoft required.

In the coming days, I am sure more legally savvy folks will look the document over, but so far Larry Rosen and Mark Webbink [Deputy General Counsel at Redhat] believe (via the Microsoft OSP FAQ) that the OSP is compatible with FOSS community requirements.