Words like standard, de-facto, de-jure and open are frequently used and abused in our industry. The reality is that few people really understand what these words actually mean or how these ideas effect their own professional lives in the long and short term.

This session aims to clear the air on some of these terms and outline why open standards like Jakarta EE are critically important to you today and in the future. We will explore these concepts in the context of well-established economic theories on competition, monopoly power, the network effect, innovation, open source and open standards - in true Freakonomist style!