GOSIP - technical definition

A United States government specification, published in 1990, that essentially required all government networking products to be compliant with the Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) protocols. In 1995, a new directive modified that position by allowing federal government agencies to acquire products in compliance with IETF, ITU-T, or ISO protocols. The GOSIP initiative fostered a significant movement towards standards-based, rather than proprietary, solutions. See also IETF, ISO, ITU-T, OSI, protocol, and standards.