Thinking about Best Practices for Standards

Jonathan A Morell

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 2000)

From bar rooms to board rooms the same concerns are heard. 1. We need standards, but only if they work. 2. We are afraid the wrong standards will become accepted. 3. Do we get enough out of our participation in standards development? 4. Standards are not developed fast enough. 5. Is the formal standards process still relevant? 6. Will vendors adopt standards that give us what we want: interoperability, smooth migration from legacy systems, flexibility, reasonable price and good functionality? I believe these concerns are an inevitable consequence of the technology, market structure and user needs of our age. The problems cannot be solved, but they can be lessened. As a matter of faith (for certainly there is little evidence) I believe they can be lessened to a great enough degree to make a practical difference in the technology available to us. In large measure this issue of StandardView was my attempt to test whether my faith is well placed. I wanted to explore two questions: 1. Can we identify the design constraints on standards development? 2. Working within those constraints, can we formulate practical solutions that will make a discernible difference in how standards affect technology?