IEEE Conference on Standardization and Innovation in Information Technology

1
IEEE Conference on Standardization and Innovation
in Information Technology

• Experiences and Positions of DIN IT Standards
  Committee
• Ingo Wende
• DIN German Institute for Standardization
• Information Technology Standards Committee
  (DIN-NI)
• e-mail wende_at_ni.din.de
• Content
• About DIN
• About DIN-NI
• Situation in IT Standardization
• Standards and Specifications
• Measures of Standards Bodies
• Valuation of Committees
• Prerequisites for Success in Formal
  Standardization
• Success Factors of Consortia and Fora
• Future IT Standardization - an Outlook

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Experiences and Positions of DIN-NI

• About DIN Deutsches Institut für Normung e.V.
• (German Institute for Standardization)
• (Formal) STANDARD, Norm Document, established by
  consensus and approved by a recognized body...
  (EN 45020)
• DIN, together with DKE (German Electrotechnical
  Commission), is the German National Standards
  Body
• DIN and DKE cover the scope of ISO and IEC at
  international level and of CEN and CENELEC at
  European level
• DIN and DKE comprise 86 technical committees
• DIN and DKE publish about 2.000 standards and
  draft standards per year
• about 30.000 voluntary members work in the
  committees of DIN and DKE
• the publishing house of DIN and DKE is the
  Beuth Verlag
• the DIN budget comprises about 60
  from the sale of standards about 20
  from funding by Industry and about 10
  from funding by public administration

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Experiences and Positions of DIN-NI

• About DIN-NI Normenausschuss Informationstechnik
  im DIN
• (DIN Information Technology Standards Committee)
• DIN-NI covers the scope of ISO/IEC JTC 1 at
  international level and the scope of CEN/ISSS
  at European level
• DIN-NI has 17 subcommittees (some of which are
  joint committees with DKE), in which about 430
  voluntary members from industry, public
  administration and academia participate
• the main task of DIN-NI is to contribute
  actively to European and international
  standardization - international standardization
  has the highest priority
• International Standards are transposed into
  European and national standards only at the
  request of interested parties
• DIN-NI publishes about 50 national standards
  and draft national standards per year
• the DIN-NI budget comprises 50 from
  direct funding by interested parties and
  50 from the DIN budget

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Experiences and Positions of DIN-NI

• Situation in IT Standardization
• General observations
• A significant reduction in number of experts
  contributing to the work in the SCs (at
  national level in DIN-NI from 800 experts in 1992
  to 430 Experts in 1999)
• a lack of ground braking new projects in JTC 1
• an increasing number of consortia being
  established outside of JTC 1 to do highly
  innovative work which can be considered as within
  the remit of JTC 1
• a reluctance of industry to submit innovative
  work to JTC 1 (see Java, XML)
• an increasing complexity of the standardization
  tasks, difficult to cover by a single SC
  (see e-commerce)
• This varies from SC to SC and some SCs (SC 17
  Identification Cards SC 27 IT Security SC 29
  Multimedia SC 31 Automatic Data Capture) are
  fairly successful in establishing International
  Standards with a broad acceptance in the market.

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Experiences and Positions of DIN-NI

• Standards and Specifications

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Experiences and Positions of DIN-NI

• Measures of Standards Bodies (ISO/IEC JTC 1
  NBs)
• (up to date)
• To improve efficiency and to streamline
  procedures/processes (while maintaining
  quality and level of consensus of standards)
• to concentrate the scarce resources (experts,
  financial support) on market- relevant
  projects (project management, evaluation of SCs)
• to invent/improve cooperation with
  Consortia/Fora (A-Liaisons,
  PAS-Transposition)
• intensive IT-application in standardization
• to improve awareness of the strengths,
  qualities and advantages of the formal
  standardization process and International
  Standards

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Experiences and Positions of DIN-NI

• Valuation of National Mirror-Committees to JTC
  /SCs by DIN-NI Management Board (examples)

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Experiences and Positions of DIN-NI

• Prerequisites for Success in Formal
  Standardization
• The specific qualities of the standardization
  process (openness, transparency, public
  inquiry) and of formal standards (consistency,
  maintenance) are required (public procurement,
  WTO TBT Agreement)
• the technical domain is mainly of an
  infrastructural nature (SC 17, SC 27, SC 29,
  SC 31) and competing technologies confuse
  rather than further the market (see the well
  known VHS/Beta example)
• the constituency of the market actors is very
  broad (geographic coverage in number and
  size of players)
• public interest, represented by, e.g.,
  governmental agencies or consumers, is
  affected (SC 27)
• a broad community of end-uses is affected

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Experiences and Positions of DIN-NI

• Success Factors of Consortia and Fora
• the founders/members have full control over
  membership, rules, projects and openness
• members do not have to apply the strict IPR
  rules of international standardization
• actors do not have to present their particular
  new technology to the public
• only a limited number of companies is affected
  by a given technology

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Experiences and Positions of DIN-NI

• Formal IT Standardization - an Outlook
• (View of DIN-NI)
• The future Infrastructure for Technical
  regulation - for assuring portability and
  interoperability in a Global Information Society
  - will be a network of cooperating Standards
  Bodies and Consortia. Cooperation implies
  competition.
• Strengths and success factors of Standards Bodies
  to be maintained and further developed are
• Transparency of processes and rules, approved
  and known by the public
• neutrality of the platform they provide
• close connection to standards projects and
  harmonization with existing standards,
• clear and transparent IPR rules
• efficient access for SME from national
  committees to regional and international
  standardization
• experience and proven infrastructure
• a broad variety of deliverables, including
  formal standards which are accepted by public
  authorities for technical implementations of
  legally binding health, safety, and environmental
  requirements and for removing technical
  barriers to trade
• stability and continuity