Tertiary Wiki ~ Education Sector Architectural Framework | Main / Open Standard

Open standard: a published standard that is possessed by no one and used by all. HTML is an open standard; it is managed by the World Wide Web Consortium and they see to its dissemination and evolution. But they do not own it. No one does. Anyone can inspect, criticize, or suggest enhancements to an open standard and any changes must be made by consensus.
Proprietary standard: typically owned by a corporation. Its internals cannot be inspected. Its use is licensed by its owners. It can be changed at will.