Public domain

Most professions are governed by a set of best practices that are not only well known but in many cases the law of the land, Doctors, Lawyers and Engineers do not sell or hide the rules that constitute the foundation of how they do their job.

A new medical procedure is peer reviewed and though the technology and the procedure are patentable one does not have to license the information to demonstrate, practice or write about the procedure.

A rising tide lifts all ships, and a rising quality of work in most professions is shared.

The recent discussion on the ITSkeptic website brings the ownership of ITIL into sharp focus, all the content though seemingly freely given to the OGC by vendors, consultants and organisations is not public domain. The training materials derived from the ITIL published materials is licenced.

Now, I am no expert in what it takes to create or manage ITIL or how the APMG or the OGC do business, but it would seem to me that the wider the information can be spread the better. I understand there needs to be controls around the quality of any "standard" but does this have to come with such a heavy hand?

In my opinion ITIL should be "by the people for the people", it would seem to already be "by the people" we just need it back. (preferably at cost)