Technical Standards: Foundations of the Future

Ken Krechmer, Fellow, International Center for Standards Research University of Colorado at Boulder; Communications Standards Review

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 1996)

Without the cubit, the pyramids could not have been built. Technical standards are the foundation of each technological advance. Each succeeding innovation is linked by reference to prior technical standards. And each successful innovation enhances the flow of progress. Most innovations cause only the smallest addition to the flow of progress, but a few are the beginnings of more profound change, perhaps the beginnings of a new wave of change. Technical standards are a means to chart these rising waves of change. In this paper three classes of technical standards are identified, and the past waves of change they influenced are described. A fourth class of technical standards is postulated and some of its effects are predicted.