Interoperability

Abstract

Interoperability describes the ability of systems to share services and resources with other systems. It is used in many fields -in the law, in communications and payments systems, in healthcare systems and in military alliances, to name a few -and describes a large number of characteristics from technical standards, to information architecture, to organisational governance. This glossary entry presents a topology of interoperability layers and presents some of the key economic and socio-technical concerns faced by interoperable systems. Issue 2This article belongs to the Glossary of decentralised technosocial systems, a special section of Internet Policy Review.