The Making of Standards: Looking Inside the Work Groups

Kai Jakobs, Dept. of Comput. Sci., Tech. Hochschule Aachen, Germany, Rob Procter, and Robin Williams

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2001)

This article attempts to contribute to a better understanding of how standards actually emerge by taking a closer look at what is going on inside standards setting committees. It discusses the results of a study of senior committee members from ISO, ITU, and the IETF; who they are, where they come from, which roles they assume during the process, how they perceive this process, and what they feel actually influences its final outcome: the standard.