Abstract

Also, like the poor, there have been well-intentioned attempts to create programs that will make them whole (or at least better). The authors present a proposal for one of these programs on the basis of the beliefs that (1) standardization is failing to serve the interests of the sponsoring organizations, the public, the industry, and the nation and (2) the failure of standardization (as a useful management tool) will have complex and far-reaching consequences for all of the participants. The authors primarily consider voluntary standards, namely, standards that do not have regulatory standing. They focus on and draw their sources from the Information and Communications Technology (ICT) industry. Their article is based on experiential data gained from constant and substantial activity within the standard setting organizations of the ICT industry. Both authors have extensive experience as embedded, empowered, and occasionally neutral (and, for at least one author, bitter) participants in ICT standardization.

Introduction

Standardization is basically a management technique used to reduce risk and, since 1980, it has moved from being viewed as a technical discipline to being viewed as a “cool” marketing tool within the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) industry. This statement is probably an overly dramatic assertion of what has happened in the market, but we believe that it is generally defensible given our perspective of the events over the past twenty-five years.