What is a word? and what's it to you?
Again, Jay of The Mows has succinctly expressed an issue in the open world of source and standards.
And there are some real issues here.
I was reading Consortiuminfo.org (as I always do when it updates). Andy Updegrove, who kept many of us informed on the machinations with OOXML, posted "Words, Standards and Torture: What's in a Name", which I highly recommend you read. No, it's not about how standards meetings are torture, but it is about how words are the tools we use to define standards. And sometimes those words mean different things to us all. Or get redefined. Or as best put by Indigo Montoya in "The Princess Bride"; " "You keep using that word, I do not think it means what you think it means." Too often we honestly or deliberately choose to redefine meanings of words, like open or free.
Now, I have my opinions, and so do thousands (millions?) of others. We hear high visibility types like Richard Stallman talk about open versus free. We hear Jim Zemlin discuss the multidimensional intertwinings of open and free. And you know what? It only means what you think it means.
Words do have power. They have the power you give them (or society gives them, in the form of laws or cultural pressures). I favor open source, and it should be my freedom to choose such. Yes, open source doesn't mean necessarily free (as in beer) nor necessarily free (as in speech), but I do expect to be free to make up my own mind.
To me, free is the ability to implement what I want when I want. (and yes, anarchy is the only form of government that works the way it was designed... extra credit to the first person identifying the source of that paraphrase). To me, my freedom should not impinge on yours, but yours shouldn't impinge on mine. I don't like people saying " Ooo, your's is cool, give it to me". I do like saying "Here, try this".
Open standards should be about the freedom to implement. It shouldn't be about me giving you my implementation for free. While that can lead us into the messy area of patents, copyrights, the new "hate phrase" of intellectual property, I should be able to build to a truly open standard without impact.
There should be no winners or losers in the openness game. Not knowing the meaning isn't a path to winning.
Asking questions until we reach a mutual, freely derived agreement is winning for both sides.