STANDARDS 2005- THE YEAR IN REVIEW

Sadly, our first editorial four years ago ("IPR Policies: A Call to (Lay Down) Arms") is as timely now as it was then. But there's been some progress.

It was not an easy year at any level, as members of SSOs struggled with other members to advance their favorite proposals, the U.S. struggled with the world over "who would govern the Internet", and everyone struggled with the U.S. patent system.

There was far too much news in 2005 to summarize in one story (or issue), so in this third annual review of the news we pick the most newsworthy standards development organization, standards story, open source story, and more.

In our second annual awards to news sources, we recognize those on-line services, journalists, community sites and bloggers who we felt best conveyed the role of standards in the news throughout 2005.

It was a busy year here as well.  We launched a Standards MetaLibrary and a blog, helped make what may be the largest meeting of consortia and accredited standards organizations ever a success, won a national journalism award, and more.

For months, we've been writing about this year's top standards story: the efforts of Massachusetts CIO Peter Quinn to modernize the state's IT infrastructure and make public documents accessible to future generations. The story isn't over for Massachusetts, but it is for Quinn. And it didn't end happily.

On this New Years Day weekend, I am forced to reflect not only on the responsibilities of bloggers to be accurate in their reporting, but also on the timeless question posed in 1969 by the Firesign Theatre, "How can you be in two places at once, when you're not anywhere at all?"