Proposed changes to the Federal Information Processing Standards being recommended by the US Department of Commerce will drive another nail into the coffin of Open Systems Interconnection technology. If adopted, the changes – now open to a period of public comment – mean there will no longer be a requirement for government procurement agencies to specify Gosip Government Open Systems Interconnections Profile protocols according to Federal Information Processing Standards 146-1 and 179 when buying communications and networking kit. Although government systems will still have to be Posix-compliant under other Federal standards, the Department is effectively saying that agencies can use whatever communications and networking protocols are appropriate, including recommended Internet standards. It will not, however, be mandating any particular mechanism under the proposed arrangements. Specifically, regulation 146-1 will be replaced with 146-2, or Profiles for Open Systems Interconnection Technologies. Federal standard 179, the Government Network Management Profile, will simply lose its mandatory Gosip requirement. Observers say that only an unprecedented public outcry in support of Gosip will prevent the changes and that, in any case, the majority of Open Systems Interconnection technology bought under government requirements was simply left in its wrapping. At the beginning of this year the US Federal Internetworking Requirements Panel issued a report calling for an end to the government protocols, saying the four-year-old project to solve interoperability issues between different government departments had failed in its mission. The comment period on the proposals runs to October 27.
