The Essential Guide is a concise handbook for anyone who wants to understand standards and standards development from a hands-on perspective: how to decide what Standard Setting Organization (SSO) to join, how to get the most out of one after you do, and how to create an SSO if the right one doesn’t already exist.
Business Considerations
Nobody has to join an SSO, or support its standards. As a result, there is as much art as science to forming an SSO that key stakeholders will want to join and support.
Legal Considerations
While governments everywhere support standards development, SSOs and their members must understand and comply with antitrust, tax, intellectual property and other laws around the world.
Certification testing and Branding
Standards need to be credible in order to become widely implemented. Achieving trust relies on proving interoperability through testing, and advertising that value through branding.
Creating a Successful SSO Technical Process
At the core of every SSO is its technical process. Whether an SSO creates useful standards in a useful time frame is a result of how well that process is designed and run.