User Participation in Standards Setting — The Panacea?

Kai Jakobs, Aachen University Computer Science Department, Informatik IV, Rob Procter, and Robin Williams

1/01/2005
(Original Publish Date: 1998)

Voluntary standardisation bodies regularly issue calls for increased user participation in their work groups. This paper challenges such calls. It suggests that users are not normally in a position to provide meaningful requirements for a new IT service from the outset, simply because of a lack of necessary experience. Second, the paper argues that an unconditional 'call for users', even if it were answered, would probably be counter-productive, in that a simple increase of the number of users on the committees would not necessarily increase the number of user representatives, but of company delegates. This is explained by drawing upon evidence from innovation theory, and survey results compiled through a number of interviews with representatives of both large companies and standards setting organisations. The case of electronic mail is used to illustrate the arguments.