Rocom Governance

Specification Steward

The Rocom specification is stewarded by Tech Happens Europe ApS (Odense, Denmark). The steward is responsible for:

• Maintaining the specification repository
• Processing Supplements, Correction Proposals, and Part revisions
• Publishing Editions
• Managing the Rocom Certification Program
• Maintaining the conformance test suite

Stewardship Principles

0. Held in trust. The specification, domain and word mark are held in trust for the standard; the certification program is a commercial service of the steward.

1. Vendor neutrality. The specification MUST NOT contain language that advantages or disadvantages any specific vendor, product, or national scheme. Implementations are examples, not requirements.

2. Transparent process. All changes to normative text follow the Edition / Supplement / Correction Proposal process defined in CONTRIBUTING.md. No changes are made outside this process.

3. Open participation. Any organization or individual may propose changes via the CONTRIBUTING process. The steward reviews proposals on technical merit, not on the proposer’s relationship to the steward.

4. Dual licensing. Specifications are licensed CC-BY 4.0. Code and reference implementations are licensed Apache 2.0. See LICENSE-SPEC and LICENSE-CODE.

Rocom Certification Program

The Certification Program verifies that an implementation conforms to the declared conformance level. Certification is:

• Voluntary. Implementers may self-declare conformance without certification.
• Tiered. Certification is awarded per Part and per level (L1–L3).
• Maintained. Certified implementations must pass annual re-testing.

The steward operates the Certification Program but does not manufacture or sell robot hardware, ensuring no conflict of interest.

Advisory Board

The steward will establish and maintain an Advisory Board of independent experts from healthcare IT, robotics, and standards organizations. The Board:

• Reviews major Part revisions before publication
• Advises on Edition timing
• Provides input on conformance criteria

Board membership will be public. Nomination and selection criteria are published as a Supplement. The Board is not yet constituted (Edition 2026a draft).

Funding

The steward seeks foundation and public grant support for the development of the specification; no external funding has been received to date. Funding sources will not influence specification content.

Contact

For conformance inquiries, certification applications, or governance questions: specs@techhappens.eu