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IBM today announced that, effective immediately, it is instituting a new corporate policy that formalizes the company's behavior when helping to create open technical standards. Such standards enable electronic devices and software programs to interoperate with one another.

The tenets of IBM's new policy are to:

* Begin or end participation in standards bodies based on the quality and openness of their processes, membership rules, and intellectual property policies.

An invitation-only summit is planned for November, under Yale University's auspices, that will flesh out recommendations from the online discussion and begin steps toward improving the standards-setting environment.