[#]: author: (Ankush Das https://itsfoss.com/author/ankush/)
IEEE Standards Association Launches an Open Source Collaboration Platform
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_**Brief: IEEE Standards Association has announced a GitLab-based open source collaboration platform. Read how is it different and what advantages it has.**_
[IEEE][1] is the world’s largest technical professional organization dedicated to advancing technology. The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) is an organization within IEEE that develops global standards in a broad range of industries.
The IEEE Standards Association (SA) has come up with an open-source collaboration platform i.e [IEEE SA Open][2].
It is technically a self-hosted GitLab instance combined with [Mattermost][3] (a [slack alternative][4]) and [GitLab Pages][5]. To describe it further, the [official blog post][6] mentioned:
> The platform enables independent software developers, startups, industry, academic institutions, and others to create, test, manage, and deploy innovative projects in a collaborative, safe, and responsible environment.
### How is it different or useful?
The main key attraction for this platform would be IEEE’s members’ network, technical expertise, and resources.
IEEE President, [Robert Fish][7], also mentions in brief (during an interview with Radio Kan) how it’s different and why IEEE wanted to go with it:
> Today, much of the world’s infrastructure is run by software, and that software needs to comply with standards in communications networking, electrical grids, agriculture, and the like.
It makes sense – if we want to improve standardizing technologies, it highly depends on the software. So, this definitely sounds like something to standardize innovative open-source projects to gear them up for potential capital opportunities as well.
IEEE also clarified that:
> As software becomes increasingly prevalent in the world today, ethical alignment, reliability, transparency, and democratic governance become must-haves. IEEE is uniquely positioned to endow open-source projects with these attributes.
While this sounds good, what exactly the open-source platform by the IEEE offer? Let’s take a look at that:
### IEEE SA Open: Quick overview
![][8]
To start with, it is open to all and completely free to use. You just need to create an [IEEE account][9] and then [sign in to the open-source platform][10] to get started.
Along with the benefits associated with IEEE’s extensive network of Members, you can also expect guidance support from their open-source community managers or community members.
![Ieee Gitlab][11]
The platform presents use cases for both standard and non-standard projects, so you can give it a try.
For its choice to go with GitLab combined with Mattermost and Pages, you get a couple of useful features, they are:
* Project planning and management features
* Source code management
* Testing, code quality, and continuous integration features
* Docker container registry and Kubernetes integration
* Application release and delivery features
* Integrated Mattermost chat forum w/slash commands; (Android and iPhone apps are fully supported)
* Capable of bridging the gap between Standards development and open source communities to allow for the advancement of nimble and creative technical solutions at a faster pace
* A safeopen space with an enforced code of conduct
### Wrapping Up
It’s obviously a good thing to have more platforms to potentially amplify the exposure of open-source projects – hence, IEEE’s initiative sounds promising to start with.
What do you think about it? Let me know your thoughts!
