Standardization and Policies

Standards, standardisation, standards organisations and policies are all integral parts of life in the fast paced ever expanding world in which we live. Today we are going to have a look at standards organisations.

The Case for Standards Organizations

We have already covered much about standards but the burning question that remains is:

“Why Do We Have Standards And Standards Organizations And What Do They Do?”

Uniformity and Conformity – The answer to this question is very complicated indeed but in essence it boils-down to uniformity and conformity. Numerous standards organizations have appeared all over the globe and all of them have or had the same basic well intentioned principles in mind.

The Principles of Interoperability – These principles were initially founded on the basic concept of promoting interoperability between devices and the sub-components of those devices from different manufacturers and vendors.

Consumer Confidence – The reasons for the need for a greater degree of conformity and uniformity than currently existed at the time were all about promoting consumer confidence. The idea was that people could purchase products take them home and they products should work (function correctly the first Time).

For Example: Suppose you have a torch that is powered by D-cell batteries and the batteries have served you well for some time now. Then the torch-light begins to fade out very rapidly. So it’s off to the hardware store or supermarket to buy some new D-cell batteries. Arriving back home you insert the new batteries into the torch, close the torch and turn it on. Hey presto you have light again!

Standards – This is all due to standards. If a manufacturer abides by the prescribed standard then the consumer can be very confident that things will work as they should regardless of which particular manufacturer made or supplied the replacement battery.

Localization - Traditionally; geographically distant regions established their own local area specific standards requiring different regulatory compliance. Put simply basic device functional requirements; such as electricity, could not be guaranteed to be compatible anywhere other than the item was purchased. Not a big plus for consumer confidence.

The end result of this was that; while products, services and utilities functioned well with considerable interoperability at the local level, more often than not the variation and deviation in the design, implementation and regulation of acceptable standards of compliance meant that devices could not be operated in different geographical regions with any great degree of confidence.

For Example: Different geographical regions used different technologies in order to accomplish the same result. Globally we have had three different incompatible video systems that were and still are being used around the world today. Here they are:

• Australia works on the Pal TV – Video system
• North America (including the USA) works on NTSC
• Europe works on SECOM and PAL
• Parts of ASIA work on NTSC
• Parts of South America work on variations of PAL

I don’t think it takes any great genius to look at this scenario and work out that this is very confusing and inefficient state of affairs. Let us learn from these mistakes of the past and work together to ensure that this never happens again we all think to ourselves.

Global Standards and Global Standards Organizations

Well it just so happens that this is the exact philosophy behind global standards organisations such as the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN).

Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) – ICANN is a private sector non-profit organization that was established in 1998 to assume responsibility for the administration and maintenance of the Internet domain naming system (DNS) and numbering system (IP Addressing).

It’s not too hard to work out why there was/is a need for an international authority to take this role rather than a whole pile of smaller localized authorities, governments (of any size) or even business organizations of any size for that matter.

The Internet Privatized and Proprietary - Ever wondered what the world and the Internet would have been like had a major corporation or coalition of corporations like Microsoft, Cisco, Intel or IBM been able to acquire monopolistic control over the role fulfilled by ICANN.

Take this a step further and think about what-if major telecommunications conglomerate been able to do that. It’s truly the stuff of nightmares.

Borderless – It might be fine in some countries for the government to administer that country’s names and numbers systems. We still need to take a step back and take in the big picture.

After all it’s important to not forget that it is the Internet that we are talking about here and one of the major unique attributes of the Internet is that it knows no borders.

There can be little doubt that had some country taken on the role of ICANN the Internet would be a very different proposition to what it is today.

Unworkable – If the Internet was to have been run by any single country or group of countries I find it hard to be convinced that had this country or group of countries passed an edict or legislated in a particular direction with regards to the Internet that they would have stood any chance of making any individuals or organisations in every other country on the planet to abide by them.

This would be due quite simply to the fact that that country has no jurisdiction in other country and could not apply any punitive measures for non-compliance. Just take a look at what is happening with the Nigerian 419 scams for example.

Nigerian 419 Scams

It is estimated that US citizens are losing more than $2 billion annually through these Nigerian 419 scams. They are so extensive and persuasive that many analysts class this fraudulent activity as the number one income generating industry in Nigeria.

It took but 0.29 second for Google to return in excess of 497,000 results on the key phrase Nigerian scams 419. I also located hundreds of websites; such as Scambusters, 419eater and a whole host of others dedicated to throwing a spanner into the works as far as the Nigerian criminals who are perpetrating these crimes are concerned.

Yet it still goes on unabated on a truly massive scale as indicated by the fact that US citizens alone were scammed for over $2 billion last year. It is believed that this represents less than 5% of the annual global losses to Nigerian 419 scams. The Nigerians really are making a killing and there is very little that other nations can do about it.

Perhaps we should just pull the Internet plug out from under them and the whole of Nigeria drops off the Internet. Some would say that this is penalizing the innocent. Well the rest of the world has been begging and offering support including financial support to the innocent in Nigeria for some time now and still they do nothing about it. Maybe they aren’t that innocent after all.

By the way I did a little extra research here and discovered that these types of scams can be traced back to before the 1920. I dare say that had I tried a little harder for a little longer I would have found that they have been going on for even longer but 60 minutes seemed long enough.

This case highlights the need for greater consideration when it comes to the Internet and changes to the Internet. We must consider the implications prior to diving off the deep end.

Standards organisations may be able to produce better guidelines or define new standards that would allow new ways of stopping activities such as the Nigerian 419 scams. Considering that a sizable portion of the Nigerian 419s are being conducted via email perhaps we really should be taking a closer look at the possibilities of using anti-spam strategies and legislation to counter these scammers.

In the next issue we will take a look at some more roles and functions that standards organisations fulfill after which we will take a look at some specific standards organizations such as ISO, IEEE, ANSI, the IAB, EIA, ITU and NIST and what they do. From there we will move on to conventions and their role in standards and standardization after which we will check out policies in a little more depth. Until next time enjoy!!!