About This Site

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I. Basic Facts
Mission:	The goal of ConsortiumInfo.org is to be the most comprehensive source of information on the Internet regarding standards, standard setting, and open source software, and on the role that these essential tools play in business and society.
What is a consortium? A consortium is a group of companies that join together to accomplish a specific goal. In the technology industry, they most frequently join together to set standards to enable the development of new infrastructures (e.g., for the Internet and telecommunications), products (e.g., wireless devices and high definition television), and services (SaaS and Web Services). Most consortia also promote these new technologies, in order to educate potential customers and create demand. There are hundreds of consortia in operation today, supporting thousands of standards. Who joins consortia? Thousands of companies are members of anywhere from a single consortium to scores of such organizations. Members also include government agencies, non-profit research institutions, trade associations, major universities and individuals. Membership in a given consortium can cost anywhere from several hundred dollars to several hundred thousand dollars, depending on how ambitious its goals are.
Audience:	This site is intended for: Those forming or managing organizations that create, promote, or advocate for standards or open source projects Those participating in such organizations Those studying standards, standard setting and/or open source projects Policy makers wanting to know more about standards and/or open source Journalists wanting to know more about standards and/or open source, or to follow news in the making in those areas
Host:	Gesmer Updegrove LLP, a technology law firm based in Boston, Massachusetts, USA. GU is an internationally recognized leader in creating and representing the consortia that create and promote standards and open source software. GU has helped form and represents more such organizations than any other law firm in the U.S. (for a list of the organizations GU has represented see the GU Consortium Client List). To learn how GU can help you form a consortium, optimize your standards strategy, or address intellectual property rights issues, contact:
Editor:	Andrew Updegrove, is a co-founder of Gesmer Updegrove LLP and an internationally recognized expert on standard setting and open source organizations and how to form them. He has represented over 70 standard setting, promotional, and advocacy consortia and open source projects. In 2005, he received the President's Award for Journalism for his work at ConsortiumInfo.org and in the Consortium Standards Bulletin
Webmaster:	Since the initial launch of the site, Nathan Burke
History:	ConsortiumInfo.org first went live in May of 2002; the Consortium Standards Bulletin was launched in December of the same year.
Site News:	For recent press releases and other information, see the Press Center
Contact:	By email: , or by telephone at (617) 350-6800
II. Fourteen Ways to Get the Most Out of ConsortiumInfo.org
Find:	The right consortium to join by reading Participating in Standard Setting Organizations and then reviewing those that are available in the appropriate category at the Standard Setting Organization and Standards List
Maximize:	Your investment of time and money in joining a standard setting organization by reading Maximizing the Value of Consortium Participation
Understand:	What a standard setting Intellectual Property Rights Policy is all about
Learn:	Everything else you need to know about standards, standard setting, and the organizations that create them at The Essential Guide to Standard Setting and Consortia
Form:	A consortium with the help of the service providers listed at the Professional Services Directory
Do Research:	At the Standards MetaLibrary, at the Laws, Cases and Regulations section of the site, and at the cumulative archive of the Consortium Standards Bulletin
Subscribe:	To our free, award winning, monthly eJournal, the Consortium Standards Bulletin
RSS:	Use our RSS feeds to get standard News as it happens, articles as they are added to the MetaLibrary, entries as they are added to the Standards Blog, new consortia as they are added to the Standard Setting Organization and Standards List, and essays as they are added to Consider This…
Browse:	For books at Biff's Technology Bookstore, the only on-line bookstore that categorizes books by the standards to which they relate (and support ConsortiumInfo.org at the same time!)
Broaden:	Your understanding of the role that standards have played throughout history, and what they mean to society today, by reading the essays at Consider This…
Get:	A free ConsortiumInfo.org Standards News Feed for your website
Send:	Us your press releases, articles for the MetaLibrary, and links to new consortia so that we may include them at ConsortiumInfo.org. Find out how at our Communications Center
Link:	To ConsortiumInfo.org. Find out how at our Communications Center
Partner:	Is there a way we could work together on content, conferences, or other projects? Let's talk about it. Contact by email: , or by telephone at (617) 350-6800
III. ConsortiumInfo.org by the Numbers
5364:	Number of archived news items at the Standards News Portal
1838:	Number of articles in the Standards MetaLibrary
436:	Number of blog entries at The Standards Blog
595:	Number of standard setting organizations and open source projects in the Standard Setting Organization and Standards List
61:	Number of issues of the Consortium Standards Bulletin
2154:	Number of books in Biff's Technology Bookstore
IV. The Details

A. Why this Site Exists

Consortia, as well as the formal Standards Development Organizations ("SDOs") that predate them, have an unquestioned place in the creation of valuable technical specifications, standards and reference software. They are also a major source of the verification test suites and compliance testing tools that allow vendors to more cost effectively ensure that their products comply with standards.

More recently, thousands of open source software projects, some existing only online, and others with the same types of structure, staffing and budgets as consortia, have been created. These organizations create not standards to facilitate the creation of interoperable software, but the software itself. And today, software is the nervous system that drives almost everything, whether it be a computer, a scientific instrument, a cell phone, a consumer electronics device, or just about anything else we use today.

Together, these diverse organizations — consortia, SDOs and open source projects — are the source of much of the technical "DNA" that drives the infrastructure upon which our ever-more complex, technology-based modern world relies. That DNA goes beyond mere standards, and in recognition of this fact, we have coined a new word to describe its elements. That word is "commonalities."

What is a "commonality?" As we define it, a commonality is:

• Whatever tool(s) we need
  
  
• That we need to agree on and create
  
  
• In order to do what we agree needs to be done

It is in recognition of the vital role that the organizations that create commonalities play, and in order to facilitate their work, that we have created this site. We refer to these organizations as "Commonality Organizations," or "COs."

B. The Role of this Site

More specifically, this site is intended to:

• Serve as both a comprehensive as well as an in-depth repository of information regarding COs and their work, enabling the uninitiated as well as the serious researcher to learn more about how these organizations operate and what they create
  
  
• Provide a clearinghouse where those who are actively involved in CO activities can share information regarding recent developments, just released standards and other work product, and the launching of new initiatives
  
  
• Provide a single point of access where the press, analysts, government and academia can visit to find out what is going on in the world of standards, open source and other commonalities
  
  
• Provide a neutral forum in which all participants can air ideas, issues and viewpoints, in order to find common causes and seek needed solutions.

In short, we are seeking to provide the definitive portal for the CO community.

C. What this Site Contains and Why

We have chosen to include a variety of features at this site that are not available elsewhere, either at all, or to the same extent. For example, we are have created a public database of succinct, categorized descriptions of all known SDOs, consortia and consortium-model open source projects in the areas of information and communications technology, together with links to their sites and the pages where their standards (or other work product) may be accessed. Our Standard Setting Organization and Standards List is by far the most complete list of its kind in existence today, and we are adding to it on a constant basis as new organizations are formed.

Similarly, while there is a growing body of academic and business literature addressing standard setting, SDOs, consortia and open source projects, we are aware of no site that aggregates this content. Our answer to that need is the Standards MetaLibrary, which includes more than a thousand indexed abstracts of on-line articles, each with a link to the full text (which is in most case available at the host site without charge). The Standards MetaLibrary was created with a generous grant from Sun Microsystems (for more information see the MetaLibrary FAQ).

Further to the same goal, we have authored detailed essays on the major topics that would be of interest to those that actually participate in the organizations that create standards and other commonalities. These essays are grouped in at The Essential Guide to Standard Setting Organizations and Standards. If all of these essays are read "horizontally" they will provide a complete overview of consortia and standard setting. Where the subject matter is complex, as with laws and regulations, the relevant essay can also be read "vertically" by utilizing the embedded links to access additional levels of detail. These links will take the more serious reader to annotations of the underlying laws and cases, and eventually to the full text of the laws and cases themselves.

We also function as an aggregator and presenter of current news in an ordered and analytical fashion. Every week, we review hundreds of news stories and press releases, and on a daily basis present the most significant news at our Standards News Portal and, on a more selective and detailed basis, at the Standards Blog. Monthly, we provide a full presentation of news, ideas and analysis in our award winning, free, monthly eJournal, the Consortium Standards Bulletin

D. What this Site can Become

Over time, we hope to make this site not only the most comprehensive and useful source of news, information, research material and analysis on the Internet on the topics of COs and commonalities, but a robust forum for discussion and action. By visiting ConsortiumInfo.org on a regular basis, users will be able to stay abreast of all news, trends, issues and concerns in the worlds of standards and other commonalities.

We believe that the world of consumers generally, and the technical community in particular, can benefit from having a trusted source of information and a forum for the exchange of ideas involving standards and other commonalities. By providing a common, public forum concerned with the creation, theory, use and significance of commonalities, we hope to encourage the study of these important tools as a discipline.

More importantly, a common forum can help standards and other commonalities become better recognized for what it they are — essential elements in building the increasingly vital technological infrastructure upon which communications, industry and society itself is based. We hope that this site will help government, the press and other arbiters to better appreciate the importance of standards and other commonalities, and to become more likely to include them in their thinking, planning and reporting.

E. What You can Do to Help

We hope that those who visit this site will assist us by offering content, comments, news and information that would be of interest to others that use this site. By visiting the Communications Center, you can:

• Add us to your press release distribution list
  
  
• Find out how to link your site to ours, and vice versa
  
  
• Provide us with information to link to a relevant article or paper that you have written or know about
  
  
• Get a free consortium news feed to add to your site
  
  
• Make suggestions (or give critical comments) to help us improve this site

Please regard ConsortiumInfo.org as your site, and help us create as dynamic and useful a resource as possible. But whether you decide to be a passive user or an enthusiastic contributor, we hope that ConsortiumInfo.org serves you well.

F. The Future of this Site

Since this site was launched in 2002, a wide variety of changes have already occurred in the world of commonalities. To identify only a few, in these few years:

• Open source consortia have proliferated and become an integral part of the world of technology
  
  
• The United Nations has begun to concern itself with "Internet Governance"
  
  
• Standards disputes have become significant events in international trade
  
  
• Standards policies have become important elements in national and regional strategies
  
  
• The United States patent system has come under increasing attack for its inability to facilitate, rather than impede, the development and use of standards and open source software

We have tried to cover each of these developments in detail, as we will continue to cover tomorrow's issues. We hope that you will visit us often as we do.