This week I learnt of the concept of open-washing, labelling a project ‘open’ without any actual substantial openness. Mozilla responded to India’s IT ministry’s call for feedback about its Strategy for National Open Digital Ecosystems:
…the current white paper also leaves much to be elucidated on both the need and manner of implementation of such ecosystems before a national strategy can be finalized. In addition to a distinct lack of clarity on how governance mechanisms of NODEs would operate within existing and upcoming regulatory frameworks, the paper also creates the potential for ‘open-washing’ of projects.
because
The white paper leaves the definition of “open” vague and at the complete discretion of individual implementers. Consequently, implementers are not required to adhere to any minimum baseline of “open”. This risks empowering private parties to develop closed ecosystems that are only open in appearance while being closed in practice.
The response recommends that the ministry define
a clear minimum baseline for “openness,” guided by internationally accepted best practices and the Indian government’s own policies. Adherence to this minimum baseline should be made a mandatory criterion for a project to be considered a NODE.
Having read this, it sounded analogous to what I call Category Pollution.
This occurs when a company or its product runs a high-visibility awareness or distribution campaign claiming to be part of a new field, but in fact does only the bare minimum to qualify.
People who experience the product are inevitably let down, but it also sours them on even considering other players in this new fields whose product are in fact deserving of the new label. The company’s campaign has polluted the new term, the new category itself.
I have most recently seen this in the ‘wealth tech’ or ‘digital wealth’ space in India. Products that do little more than offer mutual funds claim to provide Wealth services. People who sign up for what they think is a new way to invest in a range of assets are disappointed and are unlikely to trust others truly different products in the space.