ABSTRACT : The Rise of the Metastandard Consortium

Andrew Updegrove

6/05/2005
(Original Publish Date: 5/25/2005)

Most standard setting organizations rightly focus on limited subject matter areas. Historically, there has been no need for sophisticated standard suites, and hence no infrastructure evolved to efficiently create them. But in a modern, networked world, accomplishing a given set of business tasks may require the use of a set of tightly coordinated standards from many different standards organizations. As a result, a new type of organization has evolved to address this situation by assembling standards suites, rather then setting the standards themselves. This article explores the reasons why such organizations are necessary, and describes three of the first such entities to be formed.