> Yes, the tradition has been for IT standards to be made via the national and
> ISO processes. This wasn't fast enough for the Internet. The failure of OSI
> and GOSIP, plus the reluctance of formal standards bodies to embrace the
> on-line way of doing things (and to see themselves as Intellectual Property
> creators, rather than paper publishers) has lead to a split.
>
> This is going to cause increasing problems as Internet "standards" become
> economically and socially important. We have already seen the problems with
> defining Java as a formal standard. This contrasts with the success and
> acceptance of formal standardization of Ada (of course some will argue it is
> only unsuccessful technology which gets successfully standardized).
>
> I suggest we need to bring the two sides together, to have standards which
> are both sufficiently rigorousness defined and responsive to needs.
Tom [and Linkers]
Not only do I thoroughly agree with this, but I think that there is a
significant cultural change underway in ISO which is quite promising.
I attended the meetings of ISO TC 46 in Ottawa in 1995 and again in London
this year. I noticed a big change between the two meetings. Most ISO
working groups are now working through e-mail, and there is a strong
trend towards the use of Web sites for information about progress on ISO
standards. The time limit for moving proposals to the final DIS stage has
been reduced [though it's still too long] and there is a mood within ISO
delegates to get the process moving more rapidly. There are still
problems with the copyright status of ISO Working Drafts and Committee
Drafts, but there is a lot of willingness to see these drafts disseminated
widely so that comment can be gathered from all stakeholders.
In other words, while there is still a way to go, my perception from the
TC 46 meetings is that the ISO and IETF cultures are starting to converge.
We should welcome and encourage this.
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"Warwick Cathro" T T T T T T T T
wcathro@nla.gov.au I I I I I I I I
National Library of Australia I I I I I I I I
Phone: +616 2621484 Fax: +616 2731180 T T T T T T T T
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