UNDERSTANDING THE ROLES AND OPTIMIZING THE RELATIONSHIPS OF GOVERNMENT AND SSOS

Andrew Updegrove

10/23/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2005)

Governmental rule making and private consensus-based standard setting activities have long enjoyed a synergistic relationship in most nations. But in the United States today, cooperation in many industry sectors is more situation-based than carefully planned in advance for maximum productive results, in part because there is no public-private collaborative structure that sets guidelines for assigning specific standards projects to one system or the other, or to provide support by one system to the other when a standard is completed. This article explores some of the similarities and differences between these public and private systems; compares the strengths and weaknesses of each; suggests criteria for determining which efforts should be pursued in one venue or the other; and proposes ways in which the two systems could learn from, and more effectively work with, each other.