Where Weve Been isnt Where Were Going: Building a Business on a Volatile Standards Base

1
Where Weve Been isnt Where Were
GoingBuilding a Business on a Volatile
Standards Base

• Andrew Updegrove
• Gesmer Updegrove LLP
• andrew.updegrove_at_gesmer.com
• www.gesmer.com
• www.consortiuminfo.org

2
Lets Start by Locating Ourselves

• Geospatial lives at the intersection of all
  points of technology
• Application Software
• Enterprise software
• Mobile Devices
• Satellite
• Open Source

3
Different Environments, too

• Different users, with different needs
• Insurance
• Military
• Transportation
• Scientific
• Municipal/State
• Environmental

4
Convergence, Convergence, Convergence

• Standards are what are supposed to make it all
  work together. But
• There are hundreds of standard setting
  organizations
• There is no adequate structure linking them all
  together
• All of those organizations set many standards
  (there are tens of thousands of ITC standards as
  a result)
• There is no central registry listing them all

5
Where Weve Been

• Until c. 1980, things were tidy
• Standards were created by formal standards
  development organizations. In the U.S., that
  meant an organization accredited by the American
  National Standards Institute (ANSI)
• When ANSI approved a specification, it became an
  American National Standard (ANS)
• An ANS could then be submitted to ISO, the IEC or
  another global standards body

6
Where We Are

• Then consortia began to proliferate
• Today, there are hundreds of them (see
  http//www.consortiuminfo.org/links/gt)
• Many are Stovepipes, developed to create narrow
  standards portfolios
• Even those that cover a wider territory (like
  OGC) need liaisons with scores of other consortia
  and SDOs, due to convergence issues

7
Open Standards meet Open Source

• And now open source
• Different communities
• Different licensing expectations
• Different development and maintenance
  organizations
• Too often, testiness rather than cooperation

8
East (Doesnt) Meet West

• Regionalism and Nationalism are also an Issue
• The U.S. government is largely MIA
• Europe is asserting regional power
• China is sinking hundreds of millions of dollars
  into its standards strategy
• Korea (and others) are becoming more strategic as
  well

9
Where Were Going

• The existing global standard setting
  infrastructure is increasingly inadequate to
  address the evolving needs of a modern, networked
  world

10
What are the Problems?

• Fragmentation
• Too many organizations with too little
  coordination
• Consortia have no ANSI to help them coordinate on
  domestic policy and international matters
• National SDOs are pursuing national agendas

11
What are the Problems?

• No Strategy to address Convergence
• A need for more Meta Consortia
• See WS-I, NCOIC and MIPC
• No standards registry to avoid duplication
• Too easy to play one organization off another
• Vendors are solving their problems, not their
  customers

12
What are the Problems?

• The system is too easy to manipulate
• Too easy to play one organization off against
  another
• Too easy to start a new organization
• Too easy to control an organization
• Too easy to play the global system (especially as
  a region)

13
Im a Vendor. So What do I Do?

• Participate!
• Take a broader, more customer-centric view
• Understand the whole standards environment for
  your products
• Adopt a win/win attitude - create big markets
  fast, not small ones
• Push consortia together, not apart

14
Im an End-User. So What do I Do?

• Participate!
• Join the key consortia in your space (its great
  training for your people)
• Make your needs known (see the Jericho Forum)
• Be active in consortia (help shape the results)
• Educate yourself about what works (and whats
  hype)
• Demand compliance with key standards

15
Im in Government. How about Me?

• Guess what Participate!
• Under the Technology Transfer and Advancement Act
  of 1995 and OMB A-119, youre supposed to
• Specify standards in procurement (thats in
  there, too)

16
So What do we Do?

• No matter who you are take standards seriously
  (theyre not going away)
• Regard them as critical to your business (they
  are!)
• Think globally, not locally (its all connected)
• Become involved, or youll get some surprising
  company (see WSIS)

17
Want to know more?

• Visit ConsortiumInfo.org
• Essential Guide to Standard Setting and
  Consortia http//www.consortiuminfo.org/essentia
  lguide/
• Consortium Standards Bulletin
  http//www.consortiuminfo.org/bulletins/
• News portal http//www.consortiuminfo.org/news/