Microsoft's Jason Matusow looks behind the curtain of the standard-setting process -- maybe it should be added to the sausage/laws duad.

The creation of standards is not a pretty process, and it is important to remember that no one participates in a standard-setting activity by accident. Standards are not created by accident - there has yet to be a situation where someone stumbled over an obstacle while carrying a stack of technical specifications and serendipitously ended up with a standard. Standards participation is generally focused on advocacy of a specific technology (usually in order to create a market opportunity) or on unseating an encumbant technology. These may seem to some as unsavory goals, but they are usually the drivers for companies to participate. Governments have a different set of goals in standards, for example health and safety or the fostering of market competition. Yet governments too have some corners of their standards closets that they don't flashlights peering into too deeply. There are constant claims and counter-claims of block voting by some countries, or trade barriers being erected through standards, or protectionism of a specific industry from disruption by new competitors.

posted by James DeLong @ 9:48 AM | Standards

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