Certified Open was initially jointly developed by OpenForum Europe (OFE) and the Institute of IT Training (IITT) within the Open Source Academy project in the UK, and by OFE within the TOF-E project. OSA was an eInnovations project funded by the UK Government's Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, aimed at encouraging and accelerating the use of OSS within UK Local Government. TOF-E is the consortium based market validation project part funded under the EC's eTEN programme, and is testing a network of community based portals supporting OSS, particularly in the SME sector.

Since that time significant further development work has continued on Certified Open, led by OFE but with notable involvement both by individuals (inc Shane Coughlan) and associated organisations (inc FSFE, FFII, Socitm SOSS, Open Ireland, Open Advantage). Certified Open is being launched as a pan European programme as part of the TOF-E announcements. This will involve a major launch event in Brussels and local announcements in each of the three initial participating countries – Denmark, Ireland and UK. Certified Open will continue to be trialled in these three countries from January to May 2007 before going General Release in June 2007.

Whilst the agreement is that all software and content within Certified Open will be made freely available under either the GPL or Creative Commons (or equivalent open licence), use of the Certified Open brand and logo has been protected by Trade Mark registration across Europe. This is held by Certified Open Ltd.

To protect the investment and commitment in Certified Open, Certified Open Ltd has been established in the UK a not-for-profit, limited by guarantee company –. and has created in such a way as to ensure that since there is no equity, no profits can be distributed. This is seen as a first step towards establishing a Foundation. The Board is represented by a representative from TOF-E, OFE and the Free Software Foundation Europe as equal partners.

Alongside the Board a Certified Open Council was established to ensure maximum input, strategic direction and input into governance and appeals processes. This would seek maximum representation from communities and interested organisations. Current members are listed on the Certified Open website.

Any financial surpluses generated by Certified Open will be retained by CO Ltd for further development and support of the community.

All participants within the Certified Open Programme agree to abide by the Code of Conduct that defines the way in which member companies and individuals will relate to both their employers and their clients.

The Certified Open programme relies heavily on a process of self assessment; the fact that the self assessment criteria are all measurable and assessable (and are not open to subjective judgement) is a “governor” on the otherwise unreliable nature of self-assessment.

All certifications are listed in the Directory as are the responses to the questionnaires which supported their submissions.

In the Certified Open programme there are severe sanctions imposed if an assessor – within either the products and services or the certification programmes – is found to have been inaccurate in the statements they have made.

These sanctions involve:-

• With immediate effect, all certifications of products, services and skills produced by the offending company will be withdrawn;

• The company will be required to re-certify products and services through witnessed certification processes only for a period of one year;

• Witnessed certifications may only be performed by accredited third parties.

A formal Appeals Process supports these assessments

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