All standards run the risk of running afoul of patent rights. Open source has the added risk of copyright infringement, and a reputation for a more distributed process. Recent events illustrate how addressing infringement fears is essential to convincing end users that investing in open source software is a safe, as well as a smart, bet.
ISO TO SET GUIDELINES FOR SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
ISO was founded in 1926 to create technical standards. Today, it has over 2700 technical committees and working groups to do just that – and one new working group that has just been formed to craft guidelines for social responsibility.
BREAKING DOWN TRADE BARRIERS: AVOIDING THE CHINA SYNDROME
When China and the United States stared across the negotiation table over a wireless security standard, China blinked. Or did it?
INTRODUCING THE PERSONAL DATASPHERE
Today, standards are set by vendors at the top and imposed on end-users at the bottom. The increasingly complex realities of a wired world will sometimes make this an ineffective approach that will ill serve vendors and end-users alike. In this article, we introduce the concept of the Personal DataSphere, and ask whether the end product of its inevitable development will represent the first triumph of the standard setting methods of the future, or a failure to move on from the outmoded methods of the past.
DARWIN, STANDARDS & SURVIVAL
Effectively adapting to change and leveraging new opportunities is essential to economic success. Companies skillful in this process secure advantages over their less adept competitors. Incorporating standards planning into corporate strategy provides just such an opportunity. Observations and analysis of standards activity over the past few years reveals that trends are emerging among current standards participants – and allows us to suggest specific best practices and predictions that IT companies can use to compete more successfully.
NEW WINE – OLD BOTTLES: WS-I BRINGS A NEW DIMENSION TO THE ART OF MAKING STANDARDS SUCCEED
When new and complex interoperability opportunities evolve, the availability of the consortium process permits rapid, responsive and creative adaptation by the marketplace to meet the challenge of these new opportunities. WS-I provides an example of this dynamic in action.
INCITS: THEN AND NOW
Faced with growing competition, some SDOs — like INCITS — have adapted by providing a link between consortium-originated standards and international “de jure” bodies. The result is a more effective global standards infrastructure.
WHAT ARE CONSORTIA DOING TODAY? (MORE SURVEY RESULTS)
Standard setting organizations are having meetings, conducting interoperability tests, issuing studies and white papers, conducting training sessions, promoting their industries, issuing lots and lots of press releases – and, oh yes, doing some standard setting, too.
CHANGING INDUSTRIES/CHANGING CONSORTIA – I3A (A CASE STUDY)
It was 1946 when the National Association of Photographic Manufacturers was launched, and chemicals and print paper were the state of the imaging art. Fifty-one years later, the Digital Imaging Group was launched, to lead the industry into a brave new world of electronic files and the Internet. And it was 2002 when the two organizations joined forces to become i3a – the International Imaging Industry Association – which still successfully covers both technologies. It takes the flexibility of a consortium to adapt and meet industry needs which evolve this dramatically.
WIRELESS (WHO’S ON FIRST?)
The press has made much of the competition of Bluetooth and WIFI for the hearts and minds of the industry. Are competing standards good or bad?