Title: IT Standards: An Effective Protocol for Governments and Regulators
1IT Standards An Effective Protocol for
Governments and Regulators
John Venator, President and CEO, CompTIA
USA Michael Mudd Director of Public Policy,
Asia - Pacific CompTIA
Interoperable ICT Systems Seminar Bangkok,
Thailand Ay 30th 2007
2- Who Is CompTIA
- What eGovernment needs to succeed
- What the ICT Industry does for standards
- Choosing standards for effective eGovernment
- 3 principles for IPR, Trade and Growth
- A roadmap forward
- Some conclusions
3A community of communities
Who is CompTIA
- Inclusive
- Members from major industry markets, representing
all in the IT industry Hardware Software
Telecommunications IT Services - Established in 1982 with just four member
companies, CompTIA now has more than 20,000
members in 102 countries - Corporations and Not-for-profit organizations/
Schools, Community Colleges and
Universities/government partnerships - 85 are small to medium enterprises (SMEs)
- Effective
- Industry driven through members cornerstone
process - CompTIA advances the interests of the IT industry
through public policy initiatives by actively
engaging government policy makers - Global
- Worlds largest vendor-neutral provider of open IT
training certifications - Successful track record of collaboration and
facilitation of global standards - 14 offices on six continents - including in Asia
since 1999
4Who is CompTIA
CompTIA has members from the entire spectrum of
the IT industry including Hardware Software
Telecommunications IT Services
Lenovo
Cisco
Earthweb Eastman Kodak Entrust
Inc ePresence Exide Electronics Group FileNet
Fujitsu Computer GE Information Global
Knowledge Network Guru Labs gtslearning Hewlett-Pa
ckard Co. iGeneration Imaging 501 IMNET
Systems InaCom Corp. Information Technology
(ITMI) Ingram Micro Inc. Intel Kofax Imaging
Products Lava Systems Learning Centers, Inc.
Lenovo
RSA
Microsoft Motorola New Horizons Novell NTT
Data Odyssey Development Optical Laser Optika
Imaging Systems PaperClip Software
ProsoftTraining.com RSA Security Ricoh
Corp. SmartForce Sun Microsystems Sybex, Inc.
TAC Tandy/Radio Shack TechData Corp.
Technology Service Toshiba America US West Wave
Technologies VeriSign Xerox Corporation
_at_doc 3Com Access Graphics Adaptec Course
Technology Apple Inc Autodesk ATT Internet
Services Bell Howell Bluebird Systems Canon,
USA Cisco Comark CompuCom Systems Inc. CompUSA
ComputerWorld Cornerstone Imaging
Cprod CSK Data Train Institute Diamond Head
Software Document Technologies
HP
Verisign
Toshiba
Microsoft
Fujitsu
Intel
Motorola
5 Where is CompTIA
Düsseldorf Germany
Dubai/ Middle East
Brussels EU
BeijingChina
Washington DC USA
Chicago, HQ USA
New DelhiIndia
CompTIAs International Offices - Membership -
Policy
Hong Kong China
Sao Paulo Brazil
JohannesburgSouth Africa
6Pre BI - Post AI
- Silo Age is BI - Before the Internet
- The Morse telegraph and then Bell phone system
1st interoperable ICT systems - Commercially developed openly available
- Open Age is AI - After the Internet
- eGovernment is an AI challenge
- Commercial IT companies totally aligned with
connectivity via interoperability core to eGov
success in the post silo world
7Citizens want eGov on their terms
- 24 x 7
- Any device mobile or fixed
- Any software
- Minimal training ease of use
- Minimal or no cost (Citizens are after all paying
for government already!) - Security
- Speed
- Egov must adopt standards that will facilitate
the above
8Industry Specifications are everywhere
- Industry actively creating IT standards since
Morse 1844 - ITU came out of Nations needs for a standard
telegraph protocol - Created groups such as IEEE, ETSI, ECMA as well
as ANSI - EIDX (Electronics Industry Data Exchange,) a part
of CompTIA - see http//eidx.comptia.org/ for E business
interoperability - Banks rely on SWIFT as the secure messaging
standard - EDI (EDIFACT/X120)
- Over time, specifications may become standards
- Industry creates standards that are sustainable
- BUT no guarantee of success-
- VHS Betamax ( done deal!)
- Metric vs. Imperial (ongoing!!)
- Blue Ray vs. HD-DVD ( just started!)
- BUT the IT ecosystem is changed and advanced in
each case - Leading to Standards
9Adoption of a specification to a standard the
innovation process
- The Idea gt - From Industry or Academia
- Prototype gt - The creative moment (IPR)
- Beta gt - The test of innovation
- Roll out gt - does the market want it?
- Early adoption gt - will the market use it?
- Critical mass gt - The undefined measure of
success - National/International industry consortium gt -
Critical Peer Review - ISO/ITU open standards Org gt - International
Technical Review - GLOBAL STANDARD gt - Availability to all on
RAND or RF terms - Leading to Interoperability
-
-
10Why does the ICT Industry want (and need)
Technology Standards?
- The ICT industry makes larger and larger
contributions to world - economies
- In 30 years ICT equaled the same employee base
as the Auto - Industry did in 100 years
- 28 of manufacturing exports in East Asia are
ICT goods - Software is embedded now in all ICT products and
services - Standards enable economies of scale
- Asian economies are recognizing that ICT is a
- major value add to their outputs
- Japan, Korea and Taiwan are established hardware
examples - India in software ad services and increasingly ,
China, Malaysia, Philippines and in the near
future, Thailand and Vietnam - Governments often represent the largest single
investor in software - assets- 22.5B global market
- Standards enable interoperability vital for
eGovernment to work -
- IDC Estimate
11Adoption of standards
- A major contributor to interoperability is
voluntary open specifications - leading to
standards development - plus voluntary open
standards adoption - Open specification/standards development -
without significant adoption of the resultant
standards - does nothing in the effort to achieve
interoperability - Standards are dynamic and must evolve to take
advantage of technology advances - If the industry is not fully engaged in the
standards setting process, standards will suffer,
as technology advances are not integrated into
the process - This is a global challenge as post Internet IT
being digital, knows no borders
-
12Technology Neutrality
- Not aligned to a country
- Not aligned to a company
- Core to public acceptance and use
- Adaptable to various business models
- Needed to implement eGovernment
- Technology Neutrality enables Interoperability
- Interoperability of necessity, encompasses both
technical specifications and standards including
open standards
13Interoperability defined
- The ability of software and hardware on
different machines or devices from different
vendors to - share data
- Increasingly - anywhere at anytime
- I want my MTV/ My I Pod/ My Cellphone to speak
to each other seamlessly - I just want it to work!
- interacting electronically with government is
the same
14 Alternative models to promote
interoperability
- Open Standards
- Voluntary private sector initiatives, e.g. WS-I,
W3C, OASIS - Government specification, e.g. European
Interoperability Framework - Private - Public multi stakeholder partnerships
- Organic (market driven) Standards
- the emergence of a dominant software
specification can often induce widespread
compatibility and therefore interoperability -
more forcefully than standards developed through
cooperative processes, e.g. PDF. - The market will respond - e.g. recent commitment
by Microsoft to support Linux via agreements with
other companies Novell to support Open XML in
their Linux offering Jan 2007 IBM offering an
OSS and proprietary software option objective
Interoperability - Governments need to choose a combination that
will suit their particular needs and of their
citizens
15Choice is Paramount
- Effective competition is a prerequisite for an
- effective and diversified IT market.
- Competition drives producers to be efficient,
innovate and provide what consumers want and
will pay for. - A policy that discriminates against industry
developed standards will, in effect exclude 85
percent of IT channel business activity. - Markets, (i.e. Citizens) not government
mandates, determine the best technology as they
must justify the investment.
16Choose technology on the basis of sound economic
considerations
- IT procurement by public or large private
entities must be based on a systematic and
rational decision-making process such as
cost-benefit analysis (CBA) - Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) is a sound
methodology for evaluating ICT assets investment
costs in CBA. - TCO is the term used to describe not only the
costs of purchasing ICT products and services,
but all the hidden costs associated with using
ICT as well, including planning, design,
installation, configuration, maintenance and
support. - Citizens will also make a decision based on ease
of use of eGov services - and relative utility-
as well as cost - Standards and specifications therefore must
satisfy the needs of all users government and
citizens to enable eGov to take off
17 Role of Intellectual Property
- IPRs are the asset in the trading of
information technology in the - knowledge economy
- Intellectual property rights (IPRs) exist to
promote innovation - and creativity
- Patents for example make transparent the
technology that enables interoperability between
competitive technologies - The act of creation has a cost (e.g. RD
expenditure to invent.) - The owner may choose to give it away (RF) or
licence (RAND) in fact most RF apps do have
conditions e.g. GPL for OSS - The limited and temporary monopoly (ownership)
over creation allows the owner to recoup the cost
of creation. - The commercial software industry (both large and
small companies) - continues to generate the largest number of
patents of any industry - globally Recent Examples think of Skype,
IPod/ITunes - Some examples of industry developed IT standards
- MP3,HTML,802.11, XML,SMTP, GSM, GPRS, EDGE, CDMA,
UMTS some choose patents and make them
available on a RAND basis or on an RF basis its
their choice, but to enable take up, they have to
share IP. -
- Technology Review Patent Scorecard
18- Standards are important, but standards alone
don't make things interoperable - The Interop Vendor Alliance
- Twenty-five companies, including Sun
Microsystems, - BEA Systems, CA XenSource and Novell,
- Advanced Micro Devices, Microsoft, Business
Objects, - Citrix Systems, NEC Corporation of America,
- Network Appliance, Quest Software have agreed
- to join the Interop Vendor Alliance
- Objective to ensure different vendors products
will work - together
19eGov adoption - three objectives
- Technology Neutrality
- maintains choice lowers prices
- Encompass Industry Standards
- enables Interoperability and consumer
acceptance - Foster Strong Intellectual Property Protection
- enables sustainable development to create
lasting value - A Model Public Policy Framework based on these
three objectives would have as principles
20Principle 1 Technology
Neutrality
- Avoid policies that would mandate or prefer
specific technology solutions, standards
implementations, platforms or business models. - Ensure that government policies aimed at
promoting interoperability remain objective and
performance-based. - Procurement acquisitions should incorporate
objective and measurable criteria
21Principle 2 Industry Driven Standards
- Allow industry to lead in promoting
interoperability including developing voluntary,
industry-driven, consensus-based standards. - Ensure that government interoperability programs
are based on a clear set of publicly accessible
technical standards. - Provide a legal framework and regulatory
framework that supports an industry-driven open
standards process. Where government is the
representative to a standards setting body,
ensure there is a strong consultative process in
place open to all potential industry
participants. - Let the market work in the standards setting
process.
22Principle 3 Foster Strong Intellectual Property
Protection
- Support the role of intellectual property both in
promoting and developing technology, and in
promoting interoperability. - Avoid policies that impose compulsory licensing
requirements in procurement practices. - Respect IPR and encourage this as a tool for
innovation. - IPR will enable SMEs to create their own
sustainable revenue streams by licensing/cross
licensing or sales - Leading to creation of value think Skype and MP3
23 In Conclusion Some thoughts
- Governments exist to serve their citizens
- For eGov to work economies must give their
citizens choices - Citizens will choose their technology based on
ease of use and relative utility for their needs,
as well as cost. - Government needs to use technology that can
connect with its citizens for eGovt inclusion -
including mobile and disabled citizens access - Interoperability is paramount
- So governments, the private sector and civil
society should be able to choose their technology
from multiple sources on terms that suit them
the market will respond with products - Policies that give the widest possible choice
best serve both citizens and industry -
enhancing the development of both the local
economy and exports, all the time lowering prices
- and reducing the digital divide
24In Conclusion / 2
- To enable the uptake of eGov initiatives and to
encompass an innovative knowledge society,
Technology Neutral standards including open and
commercially developed standards are vital - These standards lead to Interoperability between
devices - Policies that limit the available market for ICT
solutions subvert sound internationally
recognized economic, trade and IPR principles. - The ICT Industry commits millions of annually
and thousands of employees towards technical
specifications and standards development - CompTIA has commissioned a white paper on A
Model Public Policy Interoperability Framework
that examines standards as part of the goal of
interoperability see www.softwarechoice.com
25 Thank You !
- For further information and a copy of our white
paper - please contact
- Michael Mudd
- Director, Public Policy, Asia - Pacific
- CompTIA
- 222. Shui On Centre 2/f
- 6- 8 Harbour Road,
- Hong Kong SAR
- China
- mmudd_at_comptia.org
- www.comptia.org
- www.softwarechoice.org