Saturday, December 17, 2005

The relevancy or lack thereof of standards

When is a standard a standard? A standard is a standard when a standard body says it is.

That in a nutshell describes the situation for many standards and as far as I am concerned, I would prefer a definition that includes relevancy. "A standard is a standard when a standard body says so and when it is freely available for adoption". When a standard is not freely available, it means that the standard will not be adopted by some for monetary reasons. The consequence is that money removes relevancy from a Standard when it leads to it not being adopted.

In my mind the worst thing that can happen to a standard is that it is not adopted or ignored.

Thanks,
GerardM

1 comment:

GerardM said...

One particular "standard" is one where one of the persons involved explained of its relevancy because there had been 13 or 30 (I did not hear well) downloads of the text..

However relevant it SHOULD be, it made the guy look like a prat in my eyes. I know people in his industry that never heard about it.

Thanks,
GerardM