Interoperability is the ability of products, systems, or agents to work toward a common task. The term can be defined in a technical way or in a broad way, taking into account social, political and organizational factors.

=Telecommunications=

In Telecommunication, the term can be defined as:

#The ability of systems, units, or forces to provide services to and accept services from other systems, units or forces and to use the services so exchanged to enable them to operate effectively together. #The condition achieved among communications-electronics systems or items of communications-electronics equipment when Information or services can be exchanged directly and satisfactorily between them and/or their users. The degree of interoperability should be defined when referring to specific cases.

Source: from Federal Standard 1037C and from the Department of Defense Dictionary of Military and Associated Terms in support of MIL-STD-188.

=Software=

With respect to Software, the term interoperability is also used to describe the capability of different programs to read and write the same file formats and utilise the same protocol#Use in computings. The word carries a strong flavor that the described product or products come from different sources, because this sort of interworking is not taken for granted in the non-standards-based portion of the computing and EDP world.

These definitions focus on the technical side of interoperability, while it has also been pointed out that interoperability is often more of an organizational issue. In other words, interoperability frequently has a major impact on the organization concerned, including issues of ownership (do people want to share their data), staff (are people prepared to undergo training) and useability. Furthermore, standardization is often seen in the context of interoperability.

Interoperability can have important economic consequences, such as network externality. If competitors products are not interoperable (due to causes such as patents, trade secrets or coordination failures), the result may well be monopoly or market failure. For this reason, it may be prudent for governments to take steps to encourage interoperability in various situations. In the United Kingdom, for example, there is an eGovernment-based interoperability initative called e-GIF.

= Interoperability as a question of power and market dominance =

Interoperability tends to be regarded as an issue for experts and its implications for daily living are sometimes underrated. The case of Microsoft vs. the European Commission shows how interoperablity concerns important questions of power relationships. In 2004, the European Commission found that Microsoft had abused its market power by deliberately restricting interoperability between Windows PCs and non-Microsoft work group servers. By doing so, Microsoft was able to acquire a dominant market position for work group server operating systems, the heart of corporate IT networks. Microsoft was ordered to disclose complete and accurate interface documentation, which will enable rival vendors to compete on an equal footing (the interoperability remedy). As of June 2005 the Commission is market testing a new proposal by Microsoft to do this, having rejected previous proposals as insufficient.

Interoperability has also surfaced in the Software patent debate in the European Parliament (June/July 2005). Critics claim that because patents on techniques required for interoperability are kept under RAND (reasonable and non discriminatory licensing) conditions, customers will have to pay licence fees twice: once for the product and, in the appropriate case, once for the patent protected programme the product uses.

= See also =