Industry vs. Formal Standardization Bodies

It appears that industry standards are not well regarded by formal standardization bodies. Then it makes all the sense in the world to have industry bodies like Continua Alliance to promulgate industry standards.

“ETSI is non-profit organization whose mission is to produce telecommunications standards for today and for the future. It is an open forum that unites over 800 Members from 53 countries and brings together manufacturers, network operators and service providers, administrations, research bodies and users. ETSI prides itself on being a market-driven organization; its Members, which represent all aspects of the industry, decide its work programme and allocate resources accordingly.”(ETSI 2000c)

However, in the quest for interoperability, European Standards committee tends to neglect the industry based standards. They consider them of lower quality. A standard developed by a formal standardization body has the advantage that it undergoes a certain process (apparently just the right one to give perfect quality) but the cherry on top is that governments may interfere and refer to it within a law. Thus, even though there is no quality guarantee besides word of mouth, the adaptation process is secured to some extent. Selection/adoption of any standard will entail, besides the actual technical details, a bit of drama over who can and will make more profit, irrespective if the environment is official or industry based.

Design Guidelines – The process

In 2009 the Version One Design Guidelines was published. These guidelines focus exclusively on the interoperability features of devices and not on particular functionalities. The method of coming up with these results was based on analyzing the interoperability requirements from different use cases submitted by the members of the alliance. The guidelines on their own, however, revolve around already existing industry standards. The process kicks off by receiving use cases from member companies on interoperability issues regarding one of the three target areas: Living Independently, Disease Management, Health & Wellness. Based on all use cases, a generalized list of problems is formulated, which in turn is used to prioritize capabilities, interfaces and requirements. The next step is to search the industry and the standard bodies for standards which answer questions related to the capabilities and requirements. Aspects like how well the standards address the capabilities in under discussion, is the standard international and can if not can it be made so, what is the relation between the standard under scrutiny and other standards in the same area, what is the associated intellectual property claims, what are the specification access and control mechanisms, what is the level of adoption and maturity, are analyzed. All these issues narrow down the possible standards available to meet the initial requirements. The final decision is taken according to a performance comparison between candidates with respect to the requirements.

And there was the need for interoperability

Technology is a hot buzz nowadays with so many smart phones emerging the market and hybrid cars developing characteristics comparable to a Ferrari. While all this technology development is going on at supersonic speeds, there aren’t so many people interested in reading about what goes behind the curtains, how a certain motor is devised or how a standard is introduced.

This blog will try to look a bit deeper into the plot that takes places behind closed doors before certain standards are adopted. I am only a Telecom Master student, but the academic environment has brought me into contact with standards, thus nudging me to search further and discover the reasons why certain technologies are adopted into standards. I wanted to make this quest for the truth public so that other people get the chance to accompany me in this adventure I am embarking on. I do believe that there are others like me, wretched with the need to know and the desire to discover hidden details in the technology world, but at the same time also be willing to share their vision on this particular topic: INTEROPERABILITY STANDARDS IN THE MEDICAL WORLD. Thus, if you are one of those people, and find my blog the least bit interesting, please don’t hesitate to leave a comment and I will reply, for sure.