Q&A with William Parducci

William Parducci was recently honored as a 2024 OASIS Distinguished Contributor. Since beginning his journey with OASIS in 2000, Bill has been a key player in advancing open standards and open source solutions. In this Q&A, Bill reflects on his experiences, the challenges of fostering voluntary adoption of open standards, and his vision for the future of the industry.

What inspired you to get involved with OASIS and contribute to open source and open standards?
I joined OASIS in 2000. At the time, I was working on some large, open enterprise projects where my team was trying to introduce Linux and Apache as the basis for a solution. Despite the resistance to open source software back then, it was clear to me that openly developed, community-driven technology could dramatically increase adoption by making these solutions more accessible.

I discovered OASIS while working on an automotive industry initiative to standardize XML as a data transmission protocol. Seeing that need overlap with the “open source” philosophy—particularly for security—really resonated with me.

Can you share a defining moment or achievement in your work at OASIS that you’re especially proud of?
The release of XACML 1.0 is something I’m particularly proud of. There was significant involvement from major technology companies, but at the same time, there was a lot of hesitation toward open source and a strong desire to protect intellectual property. Our ability to address those concerns and still create a specification that laid the groundwork for robust authorization policies demonstrated the feasibility of developing meaningful open standards while respecting the IP concerns of all stakeholders.

What challenges have you encountered in advancing open standards, and how have you overcome them?
The most significant challenges I’ve faced involve voluntary adoption. In scenarios where conformance to a specification is mandatory, the process is more straightforward; however, when adoption is voluntary, it requires greater foresight and buy-in from management.

To address this, I’ve demonstrated how open standards can reduce future integration costs, streamline migrations between products, and deliver long-term business value. Over the years, I’ve learned that simply having a standard in place isn’t always sufficient to convince upper management—rather, it’s often seen as an expense that must be justified before it’s fully accepted.

How do you see the role of open standards evolving in the next five to ten years?
I’m optimistic on many fronts. Government agencies and international cooperatives will continue to benefit from open standards because there are countless areas—almost endless, really—where a common lingua franca is generally advantageous.

However, in the “identity” space, I’m slightly less optimistic. For instance, I’m a huge fan of SAML and often advocate for its elegant, consistent approach in corporate environments. But in the “public” space, I see OAuth variants continuing to grow as identity management consolidates around the largest technology providers. While OAuth is “open,” implementations have forked, with each provider customizing it for their own needs.

What advice would you give to new contributors looking to make an impact in the OASIS community?
Focus on something you’re passionate about that goes beyond your immediate work requirements. In my experience, those who contribute in this way tend to come up with the most inspired and innovative solutions—and often spot potential flaws that others miss.

Beyond your work with OASIS, what other projects or innovations in technology are you passionate about?
Although I’m passionate about security-related technologies, my time in the market research industry sparked a keen interest in semantic analysis. That interest has only grown with the rapid advancement of AI. In just a few years, we’ve gone from locally implementing open source tools such as Gensim on our own machines to leveraging 100B+ parameter models through simple API calls. It’s been incredible to witness.

What does receiving this Distinguished Contributor award mean to you personally and professionally?
Professionally, I’m honored to be recognized for my efforts to promote open solutions. On a personal level, it’s gratifying because it acknowledges the time and effort I devoted to the TC, even when my corporate responsibilities lay elsewhere.

Is there anything else you’d like to share with the OASIS community?
I have really enjoyed my time working with the OASIS team as well as those on the TCs. To say that it’s a varied set of characters would be an understatement, then to see the common desire to create something that is meaningful emerge as the work begins is what fuels my passion for this work.