The overall goals can be summarised as:

1) Free movement of Goods: Product interoperability, safety, quality

2) Services: inclusive services, ensuring growth

3) Standards – accessible, inclusion of SMEs

But behind these overarching goals, there are deeper issues.

Next month, I am at the Digital agenda summit in the workshop on standards and there are two sessions of interest:

Action 23 how can public authorities ensure that best use is made of existing standards in public procurement in order to avoid lock-in into proprietary technology and enhance interoperability:

This relates to the issue of varying specifications for tenders on public procurement. i.e. from the outline of the panel – Public authorities should make the best use of available standards when commissioning hardware, software and IT services from external suppliers. Yet, the practices of public authorities across the EU vary greatly when it comes to writing tender specifications for public procurement. In some cases, public authorities find themselves unintentionally locked into particular IT solutions for decades, simply because they failed to draft sufficiently flexible tender specifications allowing for open choices in technological evolution. And

Action 25 how to boost interoperability (and innovation) in the absence of formal standards, e.g. through the licensing of interoperability information:

Companies which dominate the ICT sector achieve wide market penetration of their products and services. If their products are incompatible with those of other brands, users feel locked into the dominant company’s product range, for fear that any new devices they purchase will not be compatible with their existing equipment.

Re Action 25, the discussion goes further that: Companies should provide interoperability information about their devices and applications. With this information available, smaller enterprises have the opportunity to develop applications and services compatible with those offered by dominant market players. The end result will be an extremely competitive market and a happy consumer.

Thus, behind the single market goals, we have a more complex set of issues and I would like to debate these on talkstandards. I was trying to think of a parallel, ie any other instance when similar initiatives were undertaken – but I cannot! Would be interesting to see what views we capture at talkstandards.

Web Standards

Mobile Apps “May Soon Be Dead”

On the day that Gartner reports the growth of the smartphone market by 85%, comes the counter intuitive suggestion that very soon mobile apps will be dead. Apps are, of course, the main reason people buy smartphones.

While there is nothing the media enjoy more than killing off things, MIT’s Technology Review is a title not given to excess or hysteria. But the reason for its gloomy prognosis is the increasing growth of web apps.

W3C: new members extend Web standards work

The World Wide Web Consortium announced 35 new members, a move it says signals growing interest in HTML and other Web technologies it standardizes. Among the new members are: China Unicom, Comcast, Facebook, LG Electronics, NEC Corporation, Netflix, SanDisk, Sony, and Zynga.

W3C to develop peer-to-peer browser standards

The World Wide Web Consortium is to develop standards to enable direct peer-to-peer communications between browsers, without the need to go through centralized servers.

The standards could make it more difficult for repressive government action against Web communications, according to members of the W3C working group assigned to develop the standards. The group aims to define APIs that will let browsers communicate using audio, video, and “supplementary” real-time communications, the W3C said yesterday.

Opera CTO still sour on Google native code plugin

Google I/O Officially, Opera CTO Håkon Wium Lie was at Google’s developer conference to discuss WebP – Mountain View’s open source effort to replace the aging JPEG image compression format – but he’d rather talk about WebM, the video format he calls the last missing piece in the standard web platform.

This morning, at Google I/O in downtown San Francisco, Wium Lie delivered a presentation on Opera’s use of WebP, a new “lossy” image compression format open sourced by Google last fall. Like Google Chrome, Opera’s desktop browser can now display images encoded with WebP, but the format is also used by Opera Turbo, the browser maker’s traffic-compression service.

Khronos respond to WebGL security report

The Khronos Group, who maintain OpenGL and WebGL standards, have responded to claims of security issues in WebGL. It affirms that security is a “vitally important consideration for any web standard” and notes that the WebGL working group has been working with GPU vendors “from day one” on WebGL security.

DOJ Ruling Against Microsoft Impacted Browsers Little

Even though the DOJ put restrictions on Microsoft about how Windows handled browsers, the consent decree seemed to have little effect on the development of the browser market, observers said. Instead, competitive pressure brought about the vibrant market that the DOJ sought, and the variety of browsers today, and what they can do, is far richer than it was in 1998.

Ericsson testing the boundaries of HTML5

The knock on HTML5 is that browser-based technologies don’t have the oomph to stack up to their more robust natively developed counterparts. But Ericsson (NASDAQ:ERIC) developers hope to change that perception. At the Ericsson Business Innovation Forum in Silicon Valley this week, Ericsson demoed a prototype browser that supports real-time audio and video, technologies that eventually could be used to run video chat and video conferencing programs straight out of the PC and smartphone browsers.

Mobile Standards

Apple offers olive branch to cellcos with SIM plan

Apple wants to adopt a more standards-based approach for its next generation of SIM cards – as long as it can set the standards. The company has submitted a proposal to the key European telecoms standards body, ETSI, for a tiny SIM card suited to future, ultra-slimline products.

UK start-up targets M2M in white space spectrum

Neul, set up by founders of CSR, aims to enable the ‘internet of things’ once ETSI publishes standards this year

MEF joins ASC X9 to develop essential standards for advancing …

MEF (Mobile Entertainment Forum), the global trade body for the mobile media industry with a dedicated focus on mobile commerce, and ASC X9, the US technical group that develops financial industry standards, today announced that they will work together with industry leaders to develop privacy and security standards for M-commerce. A launch webinar will be held on the 24th of May 2011 which will set out why security is so important for the growth of M-commerce and outline the work of MEF and ASC X9.

Universal phone charger standard amended to include Tablet PCs

A universal mobile charger that’s currently in development has been adjusted to ensure other devices including MP3 players and tablet PCs can be charged using it.

Cloud standards

NIST Releases Federal Cloud Guidelines

Technology standards organization aims to be a comprehensive resource to help agencies comply with government’s “cloud-first” mandate.

OMG Announces Cloud Standards Customer Council

OMG has formed the Cloud Standards Customer Council (CSCC). CA, IBM, Rackspace, Software AG and Kaavo are founding sponsors. Among end users, Lockheed Martin, Citigroup, North Carolina State University and more than 40 others are CSCC members.

Military won’t commit to single cloud computing architecture, say panelists

The military doesn’t want to to commit to any particular cloud computing architecture, said panelists during a May 11 panel at the AFCEA International 2011 Joint Warfighting Conference in Virginia Beach, Va.

“There are multiple standards, and they serve multiple purposes. I don’t think it would be beneficial to DoD to limit itself to a selection of just one type of cloud technology,” said Army Brig. Gen. Joseph Brendler, chief of staff of the Defense Information Systems Agency. For example, some architectures serve high speed computing applications better than others. A more capacity-oriented architecture based on a distributed file system–similar to Amazon’s Elastic Compute Cloud–probably wouldn’t be a good fit for such a need, he added.

Brussels opens ears on cloud computing

The European Commission has opened a consultation on cloud computing ahead of the creation of a Europe-wide strategy.

Neelie Kroes, Digital Agenda Commissioner, said she wanted to hear from cloud developers as well as users.

Of particular interest is feedback on cross-border data protection and liability, standards and interoperability, uptake of cloud services – especially by smaller companies – and ways to promote research and innovation.

The Commission is already looking at data protection rules more generally, including how they can be adapted to cloud computing.

The consultation will run until 31 August and the Commission’s strategy on cloud computing will be released next year.

Intel, partners push for cloud standards

But how will the market force cloud providers to interoperate?

One effort is Open Data Center Alliance, whose members include BMW, Deutsche Bank, JPMorgan Chase, Lockheed, Marriott, Shell, Terremark, UBS, Baidu, eBay and Kraft Foods.

The alliance was formed late last year and its membership has since doubled to more than 150 firms, representing, in total, about $85 billion in annual IT spending, according to Kirk Skaugen, a vice president at Intel and general manager of its data center group.

Intel helped to create the alliance, but Skaugen says the chip maker serves in an advisory, non-voting, role. The roadmaps and recommendations that come out of this group will be software and hardware agonistic, he said.

The alliance isn’t creating standards, but what it will do is work with existing standards organizations, such as Distributed Management Task Force, to help develop them, said Skaugen.

Do Cloud Standards Matter?

The Interop conference this week in Las Vegas discusses opportunities and standards

Red Hat Elected to DMTF Board of Directors

The Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF), the organization bringing the IT industry together to collaborate on systems management standards development, validation, promotion and adoption, today announced that open source solutions provider Red Hat has joined the DMTF Board of Directors. The addition of the industry-leading company adds to DMTF’s expanding presence in the IT industry. Red Hat joins AMD, Broadcom, CA Technologies, Cisco, Citrix Systems Inc., EMC, Fujitsu, HP, Huawei, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and VMware to continue DMTF’s mission to enable interoperable IT management solutions.

Ubuntu Switches Cloud Platform From Eucalyptus To OpenStack

Canonical has decided to dump the Eucalyptus framework from Ubuntu Linux’s cloud foundation in favor of the OpenStack platform. The OpenStack is an open-standards-based cloud-computing platform established by NASA and hosting-services provider Rackspace.

Privacy standards

California Proposes Smart Grid Data Privacy Standards

The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC) has released a proposed decision that would specify security and privacy requirements for all data collected and stored by smart meters.

Watchdog Hits HHS on Records Security

Two new reports from the Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of the Inspector General offer harsh assessments of HHS’ efforts to protect electronic health records.

App Makers Urged to Do More to Protect User Privacy

The chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee scolded both government and industry officials on Thursday for doing too little to protect the privacy of children who use applications on smartphones and other mobile devices.

Senate To Hold Hearing On Mobile Privacy

Standards for online privacy might be in flux as ad networks debate whether to respect the new browser-based do-not-track headers, but many ad companies at least offer privacy policies and say that users can opt out of receiving targeted ads. When it comes to mobile privacy, however, a good number of app developers appear to operate on an anything-goes basis.

Privacy Bills: Which One Would Ad Industry Choose?

It’s no secret most ad industry trade groups and many online marketers do not want online privacy legislation to pass. Yet, if they had to pick one of the six recently-introduced online privacy bills, some would be more palatable to their business interests than others.

Leahy Proposes Changes To Electronic Privacy Law

After nearly two years of discussion on the issue, Senate Judiciary Chairman Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., has finally introduced legislation that would update the Electronic Communications Privacy Act.

HHS To Release Final Rule on HIPAA Privacy, Security by End of Year

A final omnibus rule to strengthen HIPAA privacy and security safeguards and provide better protection for electronic health data will be released by the end of 2011, according to an HHS official, Government Health IT reports.

Privacy groups applaud Senator Rockefeller’s “Do Not Track” bill

Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) has introduced a new “Do Not Track” bill to Congress that aims to hold companies accountable for collecting information on consumers after they’ve expressed a desire to opt out. Called the Do-Not-Track Online Act of 2011 (PDF), the bill would create a “universal legal obligation” for companies to honor users’ opt-out requests on the Internet and mobile devices, and would give the Federal Trade Commission the power to take action against companies that don’t comply.

White House Issues Major Cybersecurity Guidelines

President Obama wants the Department of Homeland Security to work with the private sector to set security standards for critical parts of the nation’s cyberinfrastructure like the power grid, according to detailed legislative guidance the White House sent to Congress on Thursday.

Government-certified private-sector inspectors would then verify that such systems are safe.

Smart grid standards

Solutions for Integrating PV into the Grid

Solar power’s role in the global power generation portfolio is growing year over year largely because solar generation increasingly makes economic sense.

This burgeoning economic case results from a combination of incentives such as solar renewable energy credits (SRECs) and mandates including renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and because solar solutions—especially when they have smart grid and other functionality built in—can be packaged into profitable business propositions without subsidies. As these forces grow solar power’s prominence, power grids must handle far more photovoltaic (PV) input than before. To accomplish this, solar power and the grid have some growing up to do.

Open Standards for a Smart Grid

As the number one purchaser of renewable energy in the United States and a strategic investor in renewable energy startup companies, Intel is helping lead the development of the clean energy industry. An imperative that is closely linked to clean energy is to help make smart energy a global reality.

NIST body backs beefing up cybersecurity in smart grid standards

The Smart Grid Interoperability Panel’s (SGIP) Cyber Security Working Group (CSWG) is recommending cybersecurity measures be beefed up in the smart grid standards for wireless communications and smart metering the next time they are revised, according to CSWG Chair Marianne Swanson.

Web standards

Adhering to OGC SWE Standards Simplifies Sensor Web Development

The SWE Common Service Model interface standard can be applied across services, which either require information from sensors or give information about sensors. In all the cases involving access and management of sensors through service interfaces the OGC SWE Interface standard can be applied.

The OGC SWE Common Encoding standard gives the standard model of how the sensor related data such as nature, structure and encoding must be presented. This standard explains how static data in the form of files and dynamically data generated processing is to be presented. It also describes how real time data streams and web service outputs and inputs should be processed. Other OGC Sensor Web Enablement standards like OGC Sensor Model Language (SensorML) Encoding Standard, Sensor Planning Service (SPS) Interface Standard and Sensor Observation Service (SOS) Interface Standard are compatible with the OGC Interface and Encoding standards.

The HTML5 future of the web starts to take shape

Web based applications are already vying with some traditional PC based applications software for users – Google Docs comes to mind – but in the future HTML5 might accelerate this into a trend that could wind up turning most users’ PCs into thin clients totally dependent upon the web.

That’s the message from Paul Cotton, the director of web services standards strategy at Microsoft

Google Launches WebM Video Patent Cross-Licensing Initiative

As this year began, Google was ensconced in a web video brouhaha, after Google officials wrote that they are putting more muscle behind the VP8 open source video codec, and that Google’s WebM video standard would compete with more entrenched standards. The upshot was that Google is moving steadily away from supporting H.264 video, which could have a big impact on web publishers and device manufacturers. Many of the questions surrounding WebM had to do with how open a standard it will be, or whether Google might position it as a way to reap lucrative licensing revenues through its incorporation in the Google Chrome browser, and elsewhere. Now, WebM Community Cross-Licensing has been announced, possibly putting to rest some of the concerns.

Mobile standards

NFC to boost mobile commerce?

The new BlackBerry Bold smartphones unveiled by Research in Motion (RIM) this week are the first BlackBerry devices to be equipped with the much-hyped near-field communication (NFC) technology.

European Banks Work on Guidelines for NFC Payments

The European Payments Council (EPC), which represents the European banking industry, has released a draft version of guidelines it hopes will give the use of NFC (Near Field Communications) for payments a boost.

The Mobile Contactless SEPA (Single Euro Payments Area) Card Payments Interoperability Implementation Guidelines document focuses solely on the use of NFC. The EPC wants the industry to provide feedback by June 17. The final version is expected to be published in October, according to a statement issued on Thursday.

Swift mobile wallet adoption hinges on apps

Koichi Tagawa, chairman of the NFC Forum, a group formed to advance the use of the technology by ensuring interoperability among devices and services, said that one of the main reasons why NFC, and in particular mobile wallets, is back in the spotlight is because the group had recently released four new specifications to aid stakeholders in advancing their services.

Cloud standards

Standards for Inter-Cloud EDI

‘Inter-Cloud EDI’ aims to act as a hosted trading hub standard for EDI (Electronic Document Interchange) messages across Cloud applications.

The Case for Cloud Security Standards

A discussion on the key issue of  ”What is the baseline security standard we have to have to trust third parties to govern our data?”

Five Guidelines for Cloud Computing and Device Security in The “Always Able” Era

there are five important guidelines enterprises should consider as they reshape IT policy to enable mobile devices to function seamlessly and securely in the cloud: Take an inventory of all devices, Device security equals cloud security, Unified protection, Cloud-based encryption, Scalability

Into The Great Wide Open: The Open-Source Cloud Revolution Takes Shape

A discussion on the evolution of the Open source cloud

Unified APIs or API Standards, The Race is On

The race is on:  can API standards evolve fast enough, or will unified APIs meet the demands of the development community?  Or are unified APIs just an interim solution until we can define common standards?

Giant telcos look to the cloud

In the battle for enterprise customers, giant telecommunications and cable companies are going to the cloud, reports the New York Times. According to Web Host Industry Review, CenturyLink, one of the largest telecommunications carriers in the US, revealed that it had entered into an agreement to buy managed hosting provider Savvis in a cash and stock merger worth a total of approximately $2.5 billion.

Savvis Exec Argues Against Cloud Standards

The man who has been the cloud computing guru at Savvis Inc. (Nasdaq: SVVS) says the telecom industry shouldn’t rush to standardize cloud services, for risk of shutting down innovation.

Larry Steele, vice president of software as a service (SaaS) at Savvis, says that tying cloud services to transport services is a natural next step, and most likely a positive one, unless telecom operators try to create standardized cookie-cutter approaches to delivering cloud services. (Savvis struck a deal Wednesday to be acquired by CenturyLink Inc. (NYSE: CTL) — see CenturyLink Clouds Up With Savvis Buy.)

CSA and ISO to team up to develop cloud security standards

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) and the International Organization for Standardization/ International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) have announced they will be teaming up to develop key standards for cloud security.

The partnership was unveiled at the recent CSA Summit at Infosecurity Europe and the CSA has established a Category C Liaison relationship with ISO/IECs’ Joint Technical Committee 1/Sub Committee 27.

Storage: Cloud Implementation Standards Take Hold

A new standard for cloud storage called the Cloud Data Management Interface (CDMI) is being increasing used by storage vendors in both private and public cloud implementations.  CDMI was created by the Cloud Storage Initiative (CSI), a group within the Storage Networking Industry Association (SNIA).

Microsoft’s cloud OK’d by the federal government

Companies looking to offer cloud services to the federal government have to go through the proper certification channels, and, in many cases, this process hinges on security measures.

According to SecureInfo, it recently became involved in a strategic partnership with Microsoft. As a result, Microsoft’s new cloud offering passed regulation requirements issued by the federal government and is now able to dispense services to critical national agencies.

SecureInfo, a provider of electronic security solutions, worked with Microsoft so that its cloud offering would be in compliance with the Federal Information Security Management Act.

“Microsoft’s GFS and BPOS-Federal solutions have effectively satisfied the current National Institute of Standards and Technology controls at a Federal Information Processing Standards Moderate Impact level,” said Yong-Gon Chon, SecureInfo’s chief technology officer.

Huawei Joins DMTF Board of Directors

Dubai, United Arab Emirates, 27 April, 2011: Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF), the organization bringing the IT industry together to collaborate on systems management standards development, validation, promotion and adoption, today announced that Huawei, a leader in providing next-generation telecommunications network solutions around the world, has been elected to the DMTF Board of Directors.

Privacy standards

India Adopts New Privacy Rules

Amid worldwide lobbying by IT companies to promote the harmonization of data protection laws for the sake of cloud computing, India last month quietly issued new privacy rules that impose significant limitations on how businesses can handle personal information.

Europe Leads in Pushing for Privacy of User Data

To address concerns about data protection, Viviane Reding, the European justice commissioner, said in a speech Tuesday that she would propose extending unionwide rules about breaches of privacy to online banking, video games, shopping and social media.

The rules require phone companies and Internet service providers to inform customers of any data breach “without undue delay.”

TRUSTe Now Largest DAA Compliance Solution for Online Behavioral Advertising

TRUSTe, the leading online privacy solutions provider, today announced that its TRUSTed Ads platform is now under contract to manage10 billion impressions per month, establishing TRUSTe as the largest provider of Online Behavioral Advertising (OBA) notice and choice by volume. TRUSTe also announced today that the TRUSTed Ads platform has been adopted by top consumer brands, DSPs, advertising networks, publishers and data aggregators as the privacy solution of choice to meet self-regulatory compliance requirements.

Sony, Apple Must Repair User Trust in Privacy Standards, EU’s Reding Says

Sony Corp. (6758) and Apple Inc. (AAPL) must work to reassure users that their personal data will be safe from prying eyes, the European Union’s justice commissioner said.

A Manhattan Project for online identity

A detailed discussion on the impact of the National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) announcement last week.

Privacy Commissioners launch free assessment tool for businesses

Several of Canada’s top privacy watch dogs have teamed up to release a free security and privacy assessment tool it hopes will help prevent breaches of personal information.

IT Outsourcing in China and Data Privacy Guidelines

China’s data privacy protection has long been considered one of the world’s weakest. But the government’s proposed data security guidelines may go too far in the opposite direction.

The People’s Republic of China took a step toward addressing its lack of comprehensive data privacy laws earlier this year: It issued a series of proposed data security guidelines intended to better protect the privacy of Chinese citizens and provide guidance for international businesses operating in the country. The document, developed in consult with China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, contains a set of broadly applicable rules and principles for storing, handling and transferring personal information.

OMB sets IT purchasing guidelines for telework

Federal executives have until the end of July to develop or revise information technology procurement policies that support their agencies’ telework needs, according to memo released Thursday.

“When crafting these policies, agencies must account for security risks and ensure that all devices and infrastructure meet federal security and privacy standards”

Has Texas Patient Privacy Bill Hit a Snag?

State Rep. Lois Kolkhorst’s bill to further protect Texans’ private medical information looks stuck; it’s been three weeks since it passed out of committee, and it hasn’t yet been set for a House vote.

Are we really thinking enough about smart grid security?

Some new data from Pike Research suggests that spending on cybersecurity measures for the smart grid will reach $1.3 billion by 2015. The researchers are calling for a 62 percent increase between 2010 and 2011 alone. But personally speaking, I think that sounds far short of where it should be, considering the many billions of dollars being spent on smart grid infrastructure holistically and the very real exposure that the smart grid could mean in terms or privacy and data loss.

Group Worries ‘Do Not Track’ Could Bog Down Broader Privacy Bill

A “do-not-track” provision could bog down a wider online privacy bill, and should be left up to providers until it can be considered separately, a privacy group said Wednesday.

If the debate is defined by a do-not-track option, which would allow Web users to opt out of third-party tracking, the bill may not move through Congress, the Center for Democracy and Technology worries.

IPhone, Android location-logging feature sparks privacy concerns

Revelations about how Apple iPhones and Google Android phones keep precise track of each user’s whereabouts every day is sending shock waves through the tech and privacy communities.

More Consumers Say Privacy — Over Security — Is Biggest Concern …

Today, at both APPNATION and the Mobile Marketing Strategies Summit, TRUSTe, the leading online privacy solutions provider, announced the results of a survey of 1000 smartphone users nationwide on issues relating to privacy and usage of mobile applications and mobile web sites. The Q1 2011 online poll, conducted by Harris Interactive, included responses that reveal attitudes and perceptions about mobile privacy; primary areas of concern; as well as current safeguards being implemented.

Nearly all respondents agreed that privacy is an important issue when using a mobile device and that they want more transparency and control over what personal information is collected and how it is shared. In addition, smartphone users want more choices about advertising and geo-location tracking. Thirty-eight percent say privacy is the number one concern when using mobile applications, followed by security (26%); identity tracking (19%); and sharing information with or without permission (14%).

RFID tags at medical conferences attack doctors’ privacy

The disturbing trend of tracking physician’s movements at scientific conferences using RFID tags imbedded in attendees name badges at national scientific sessions.

Smart grid standards

EarthTechling IEEE And SAE Work On EV Grid Standards

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) have signed a memorandum of understanding to work together for standards that relate to how electric vehicles connect to the smart grid.

IEEE Launches Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Project in India

Mumbai, Maharashtra, May 3, 2011 /India PRwire/ — IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA), a globally recognized standards setting body within IEEE, today officially introduced its globally reputed project, the “IEEE P2030TM Draft Guide for Smart Grid Interoperability of Energy Technology and Information Technology Operation with the Electric Power System (EPS) and End-Use Applications and Loads”, in India.

Electric vehicles need ‘smart’ power grid

WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. — While an upcoming Electric Vehicle Grand Prix may reflect a growing popularity of electric vehicles, their widespread adoption will require innovations to the power grid, say researchers at Purdue University.

Can (should) a city build a smart grid?

The discussions and insights from Boulder, the worlds first Smart Grid city and it’s impact on other cities watching the results for future trends.

ANSI Electric Vehicles Standards Panel Seeks Participants to Develop …

To facilitate the large scale introduction of electric vehicles into the market while ensuring that the technologies and infrastructure are safe and effective, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) has formed a cross-sector Electric Vehicles Standards Panel (EVSP). The EVSP is seeking participants with relevant expertise and interest to begin the critical work of developing a standardization roadmap to enable the safe, mass deployment of electric vehicles and associated infrastructure in the United States.  The goal is to develop version one of the roadmap this year.

SAE, IEEE partner on vehicle-to-smart-grid tech

Two of the world’s leading technology standardization groups have signed an agreement to partner on vehicle-to-smart-grid standards.

Are we really thinking enough about smart grid security?

Some new data from Pike Research suggests that spending on cybersecurity measures for the smart grid will reach $1.3 billion by 2015.

What exactly are we up against? A few weeks ago, I spoke about smart grid cybersecurity with Datta Godbole, a Honeywell director of research and director for the company’s Automation and Control Solutions (ACS) Labs group. According to Godbole, there are three primary concerns that we should all have when it comes to smart grid security:

1. The need to secure customer data. That’s because the information that is collected about people’s energy could inadvertently be used to reveal details of a person’s private life — such as whether or not they are home at a given time of day. Or likely to be so.

2. The need to secure the grid itself. This relates to management aspects, such as making sure the grid its stable, automating demand response requests, and protecting the physical infrastructure of the utility delivery system (doesn’t matter whether the utility in question is delivering water or electricity).

3. The need to protect transmissions and communications. This refers mainly to communications between substations and the central transmissions equipment. Think of this as the “data in motion” part of the security equation.

IEEE Initiates Standard-Making Process For Key Smart Grid

PISCATAWAY, N.J., USA – IEEE, the world’s largest professional association advancing technology for humanity, recently announced the formation of three working groups to develop technology standards that will assure improved performance by key fiber-optic components in the Smart Grid.

NEMA Unveils Smart Grid Testing Scheme

Following a program announcement by the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) in February, NEMA Assistant Vice President for Strategic Initiatives and Special Projects Paul Molitor unveiled the association’s Smart Grid Interoperable & Conformant (SGIC) testing scheme at the World Meter Design Congress.

Tendril Networks Demand Response Solution for the Smart Grid

While the conversation focuses on exactly how sustainable electric vehicles are compared to gasoline-powered vehicles or what the impact their adoption will be on the electricity grid, Tendril Networks is developing a platform designed to answer such granular questions as how to account for the taxes that maintain our road infrastructure when the highly touted adoption of electric vehicle is realized.

The smart grid’s missing ingredient: performance feedback

Sharing of smart grid experiences is being done today to some degree.  Much is shared at numerous smart grid conferences and through smart grid publications and case studies.  Many of these experiences originate from obvious and clear cut issues spread by word-of-mouth or through other media channels.  But are we missing other opportunities and issues that may not be quite so obvious? Are we missing the opportunity to share the pitfalls so others can avoid them?  Is there a need for a more structured program that could create a stream of experiences that, if broadly shared as lessons learned or best practices, might benefit all stakeholders?

New Ipv6 protocol from IETF will boost ‘Internet of Things’

According to Vasseur(co-chair of the IETF Working Group responsible for RPL standardisation), “The industry has for some time being working to develop new IPv6 protocols designed specifically for constrained networking environments such as IP smart objects. These smart objects typically have to operate with very limited processing power [and] memory and under low energy conditions, and as a result, require a new generation of routing protocols to help them connect to the outside world.

“When compared to computers, laptops or even today’s generation of smart phones, traditional IPv6 protocols tend to work less effectively or consume energy at too rapid a rate for these small, self-contained devices or sensors that are often powered by small batteries that are difficult to replace.”

Vasseur added: “For a number for years, smart objects such as sensors, actuators or RFID tags have been interconnected using proprietary protocols and architectures, which has lead to closed systems, lack of innovation and limited numbers of deployments. Very early on, Cisco recognised the need for the adoption of an IP-based architecture for smart object networks…based on an open standard, and IPv6 is without a doubt the most appropriate protocol…

“For example in September 2008, Cisco co-founded the IP for Smart Objects alliance (IPSO), an industry grouping of 57 member organisations with the mission of defining and shaping the Internet of Things.”

The current:

Following the example of Boulder, many other cities are watching the experiences in Boulder and the picture is not that clear as we see in “Can (should) a city build a smart grid?”.

Meanwhile, countries like India are proceeding with parallel efforts optimised to the local ecosystem – “IEEE Launches Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Project in India”.

Meanwhile, the standards themselves are extending beyond the home to domains like electric vehicles – “ANSI Electric Vehicles Standards Panel Seeks Participants to Develop …”.

Reflecting the maturity of smart grids, we now have testing initiatives for Smart Grid projects (“NEMA Unveils Smart Grid Testing Scheme”), and even scenarios like how to manage taxation when the world of Smart Grid arrives (“Tendril Networks Demand Response Solution for the Smart Grid“)

And the future is equally complex:

Security inevitably features in future scenarios. In “Are we really thinking enough about smart grid security?”, new data from Pike Research suggests that spending on cybersecurity measures for the smart grid will reach $1.3 billion by 2015. Primary smart grid security related concerns include: the need to secure customer data, the need to secure the grid itself and the need to protect transmissions and communications.

Performance feedback is another active domain in keeping with the ‘two way’ philosophy of a smart grid especially the chance to share pitfalls and best practices with others “The smart grid’s missing ingredient: performance feedback“.

And finally we have sensors which will play an important role within the Smart Grid space especially with a post ipv6 world. (“New Ipv6 protocol from IETF will boost ‘Internet of Things’“).

Here, we see attempts to standardise “For example in September 2008, Cisco co-founded the IP for Smart Objects alliance (IPSO), an industry grouping of 57 member organisations with the mission of defining and shaping the Internet of Things.”

So, smart grid standards are evolving rapidly and in many directions.

But will standardization and governments drive the evolution of Smart Grids?

OR

Will innovation, industry and market needs will drive specific directions of growth within smart grids.

While there are indeed many hurdles to overcome, I believe that there are many opportunities just around the corner.

Helen Disney’s post highlighted the growing role of private companies in the e-health field and it is these companies who could trigger innovation.

But before we realise that potential, we have to grapple with the problem of standards

I have been looking at standards across various domains in the ‘week in standards’ series and the standardization challenges of e-health are not unique. We see the same issue in other domain, for example Smart Grid standardization, where we have long standing legacy systems, huge bodies of data and existing processes which are difficult to change

But all these fields are fundamentally transforming through technology.

Take e-health

@Bart Collet had a very insightful presentation on the future of e-health specifically focused on m-health mHealth is Huge

The two images are from slides in that presentation.

Essentially, the Point of Care has changed and moves from the hospital to your home and to your body.

This is a fundamental shift and creates huge opportunities for technology

So, I think that the greatest opportunity for standards will not be the existing systems but in systems new changes to the system. This is the greatest opportunity for new standards

We cannot put old standards in new wineskins.

Cloud standards

‎• ‎How standards could get cloud out of the 1970s

A road map to developing standards about to be released by the National Institute of Standards and Technology promises to improve the interoperability, portability and security of cloud infrastructures, and, in the words of Internet pioneer Vint Cerf, could help get the technology out of the Internet equivalent of the 1970s.

The NIST Cloud Computing Standards Roadmap Working Group is making use of existing, publicly available work along with the work of other NIST Working Groups to develop the standards document, Annie Sokol, co-chair of the working group, said during a presentation at the NIST Cloud Computing Forum and Workshop III on April 8. The document is set to be released this month.

The Cloud Computing Standards Roadmap document will be incorporated into the NIST Cloud Computing Roadmap, which is due by the end of fiscal 2011. The NIST Cloud Computing Roadmap will define and prioritize U.S. government requirements for interoperability, portability and security in order to support secure and effective adoption of cloud computing.

‎• Kundra: Cloud computing data sovereignty a matter for …

Cloud computing adoption at federal agencies is no longer a question of “if,” said Federal Chief Information Officer Vivek Kundra.

Critics of the “cloud first” initiative should embrace change and address issues that still need work, charged Kundra while speaking April 7 at a cloud computing forum at the National Institute of Standards and Technology in Gaithersburg, Md.

“Some people have overly dramatized the challenges,” he said, while acknowledging that data sovereignty is a legitimate challenge.

“It’s not going to be a question of technology. [Data sovereignty] is going to be a question of international law, and treaties that we will need to engage in the coming years,” said Kundra.

“We’ve got a very diverse interpretation and a very diverse perspective when it comes to privacy or international security, if you look at our neighbors–Canada or Mexico–versus what’s happening in the European Union,” he said.

Privacy standards

‎• New European standards for online behavioural advertising

The European Advertising Standards Alliance (EASA) has published a new code of conduct to help the industry cope with new European regulations around adverts based on tracking browsing habits.

The guidelines provide for an industry-wide self-regulatory standard for online behavioural advertising (OBA) to ensure consumer privacy protection across Europe.

• ‎Kerry, McCain’s proposed online privacy legislation divides industry

Newly proposed online privacy legislation to protect the collection, use and dissemination of personally identifiable information (PII) has divided the industry — some say it’s sorely needed, while others counter that it goes too far and will hurt business.

‎• Privacy ‘bill of rights’ exempts government agencies

Two U.S. senators introduced sweeping privacy legislation today that they promise will “establish a framework to protect the personal information of all Americans.”

There is, however, one feature of the bill (PDF) sponsored by senators John Kerry (D-Mass.) and John McCain (R-Ariz.) that has gone relatively unnoticed: it doesn’t apply to data mining, surveillance, or any other forms of activities that governments use to collect and collate Americans’ personal information.

‎• US administration to unveil Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace today

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke will be joined by Chair of the National Economic Council Gene Sperling and White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard A. Schmidt to release the administration’s National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace (NSTIC) – a White House initiative to improve online security, increase privacy and foster economic growth and innovation online. Hosted by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the event will include a panel discussion with industry leaders and privacy advocates, as well as demonstrations of innovative smart technologies being developed to improve online authentication.

NSTIC is a key building block in the national effort to secure cyberspace. According to industry surveys, as many as 8 million Americans are victims of online fraud and identity theft each year and lose an average of $631 out-of-pocket per incident. Through a private sector-led effort facilitated by the government, NSTIC aims to make online transactions more trustworthy and enhance consumers’ privacy, thereby giving businesses and consumers more confidence to conduct business online.

Web standards

‎• Adobe wakes to mobile world, Web Standards

Adobe Systems is something of an industry punching bag in some circles for offering software wedded to a personal computer era we’re supposedly outgrowing.

As part of the debut of Creative Suite 5.5, the company today announced a collection of new software that includes three iPad applications; Flash tools better at creating content that reaches devices beyond PCs; and developer tools that bring some of Adobe’s strength in design tools to the Web standards world of HTML, JavaScript, and CSS.

It’s not going to be enough to placate critics who dislike the toll the Flash Player takes on their laptops’ battery life (never mind that Web standards doing the same thing bring a similar penalty). But it should be enough to convince rational people that Adobe doesn’t just see the world through Flash-colored glasses.

‎• Berners-Lee calls for higher purpose of Web

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.–Tim Berners-Lee, who invented the underpinnings of the World Wide Web, isn’t just concerned about getting browsers on more mobile devices. Architects of the Web need to consider how it will affect all humanity as it evolves.

In his talk, Berners-Lee reprised his role in writing the protocols now used on the Web and how a few chance encounters led to the World Wide Web Consortium being first located at MIT. Looking ahead, he said that the W3C, which manages the development of technical Web standards, needs to adapt to the “ridiculous” number of mobile devices, including mobile phones and tablets.

‎• Personal data is the future, but does anybody care?

As I’ve been building my own personal data collection startup, I’ve thought a great deal about how I could communicate the value of knowing and owning your own data to non-geeks. The answer came to me after making a list of all of the personal data collection applications I have signed up for. I looked at those I use religiously versus those I’ve abandoned. Those I use religiously include: RunKeeper, TripIt, Foursquare, Gowalla, Fitbit, Mint, Hashable, OKCupid, Last.fm and Foodspotting. Those that I love the idea of, but have since left behind, include: Hunch, Blippy, 23andMe, GoodReads, Plancast and Dopplr.

I know that others’ lists will be different, but the point is that this process allowed me to step back and really think about what sort of real-time value I was getting out of gathering my own data. I was able to boil the results down to three categories that, I believe, could be used to incentivize personal data collection for just about anybody. These categories are:

‎• Utility
‎• Serendipity
‎• Self-expression

In order to incentivize the continued use of any personal data collection application, you either have to really excel in one of these areas or cover all three. Let me explain…

‎• Why Did Google Just Give Its Chrome Leader Big Bucks And A …

The reason Chrome is important because Google’s platform is the Web, which is defined by “standards.”

Official standards are usually determined by some group or groups of people sitting around a table and debating and writing papers and so on. That’s what HTML5 started as.

But standards don’t become meaningful until people start using them — these are so-called “de facto” standards.

‎• Apple Adds ‘Do Not Track’ Option to Safari

Apple has jumped on the “do not track” bandwagon by adding the privacy tool to a test version of its Safari browser, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The “do not track” option is included in Lion, the next version of Apple’s Mac OS X. It’s currently only available to developers, and scheduled to be released later this year. The Journal said mentions of “do not track” started popping up in Web forums and on Twitter; Apple has not made any formal announcements.

A “do not track” option basically provides Web users with the option to not have their online activity tracked. This type of data is highly valuable to ad networks, which can use it to serve up more targeted advertisements. In many cases, relevant ads can be helpful to the Web surfer, but there is a concern that the average person has no idea what type of information is actually being collected. “Do not track” will provide them more control, according to supporters.

‎• OGC and SIG 3D Advance Standards for 3D Digital Cities

WAYLAND, MA–(Marketwire – April 8, 2011) - The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC®) and Special Interest Group (SIG) 3D recently signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to cooperate in standards development and promotion of standards for the exchange and visualization of 3D geospatial content using Web-based technologies.

SIG 3D members defined the first version of CityGML and in 2005 submitted CityGML as a candidate standard into the OGC standards process. CityGML is a comprehensive open data model framework and XML-based encoding standard for the storage and exchange of virtual 3D urban models and is now an OGC standard. It is an application schema of the OGC Geography Markup Language 3 (GML3) Encoding Standard, an international standard for spatial data exchange and encoding approved by the OGC and ISO. CityGML has been adopted as part of the European Union’s common spatial data infrastructure, INSPIRE.

‎• IPTC Releases rNews Standard Draft for Embedding Metadata in …

Publishers, large and small, struggle to make sure that search engines and social media sites find their stories and refer to them appropriately. They want to provide highly targeted adverts while dealing with users who are opposed to the privacy implication of sharing the personal data necessary to accomplish that. How can they build web pages with news stories where the components of the story are machine-readable, as well as human readable?

The IPTC has taken a step to solving this problem with the release of the first draft of the rNews standard. Details of rNews are available at http://dev.iptc.org/rNews.

‎• A Victory for the Community? Oracle Spin Out OpenOffice, but Questions Remain

Oracle made the announcement today that OpenOffice will become a community project and no longer a commercial endeavor.

It’s not a surprising move. But it does feel like a victory for the open source community and a sign that Oracle may be easing up a bit on its hard-line stance toward the open source community.

‎• Internet Explorer, WebGL and a Return to the Bad Old Days

WebGL, a standard that enables hardware accelerated 3D animation in HTML5 (you can see some examples here). Unlike WebSockets and other unfinished specs, WebGL is now a complete specification with support from every other major browser. Microsoft, however, has no plans to implement WebGL.

Here’s the statement the company gave us this week:

Browser vendors are implementing WebGL as a way to get partial hardware acceleration after developers rewrite their code. With Internet Explorer 9, developers receive GPU-powered hardware acceleration without rewriting a single line of code which we feel is a better outcome. We look at the real world patterns of the things developers are building today and want to build tomorrow, and balance this against the risk with including things that will likely change in the future. Sometimes there seems to be a race going on to try to make headlines “by claiming to be first” to implement specifications. We don’t think that is healthy. Interoperability is not about being first. Instead, we wanted to provide a stable platform for the web. We focused on building test suites with the W3C for specs that were considered “done”, but where there were real interoperability gaps. These are not that the “sexy” problems that get talked about.

It’s a shame. IE9 and 10 look to be great browsers. But the harder I look at what Microsoft is doing, the harder it is to believe that its browser strategy is developer friendly.

Combine this with Chrome’s Native Client and the ongoing war over a video codec standard and I think we’ll see a return to the bad old days soon.

‎• Open source is mission critical for NASA

Last week’s inaugural NASA Open Source Summit in Mountain View, Calif. was aimed at identifying the agency’s issues surrounding open source tools and using the power of the web to collect policy recommendations.

The Summit organizers convened thinkers and leaders in open source technology from around the country, including representatives from RedHat, GitHub, Google, the Department of Defense, Mozilla, IBM and from within NASA itself. If you want to review the play by play, I liveblogged the NASA Open Source Summit at Govfresh.

‎• FaceBook open sources building an energy efficient data center

Today, Facebook is lifting the lid on its new custom-built data centre in Prineville, Oregon.

Not only are they announcing the bringing online of their new data centre, but they are open sourcing its design, specifications and even telling people who their suppliers were, so anyone (with enough capital) can approach the same suppliers and replicate the data centre.

Facebook are calling this the OpenCompute project and they have released a fact sheet [PDF] with details on their new data center and server design.

Smart Grid Standards

‎• Commission ideas on smart grids draw mixed reactions

The European Commission presented, on 12 April, its ideas on how to push smart grids forward. The communication focuses on developing common EU-level technical standards so as to provide interoperability of different systems. Officials hope that a first set of smart grid standards could be in place by the end of 2012. The Commission also talks of ensuring the highest level of data protection for consumers and grid operators. Data protection safeguards must be defined before systems are developed, says the communication. Additionally, the Commission requests that members states produce action plans with targets for smart grid implementation. Other points on the executive’s programme include guaranteeing transparency and competitiveness of the retail market. There should be minimum requirements on information provision for customers in a revised Energy Services Directive, due this summer. The Commission further boasts of promoting technological innovation. Over the last decade, the EU has spent about €300 million out of over €5.5 billion invested in some 300 smart grid projects. Still in 2011, the Commission will propose new large-scale smart grid demonstration initiatives on research and development projects for modern electricity networks. The Commission will also launch, in the “coming months,” an industrial initiative on smart cities and communities.

‎• DoE seeks standards for e-vehicles

With its grand vision of modernizing public transport in the country, the Philippine government Department of Energy (DoE) is pushing for collaboration with other concerned agencies in setting standards for vehicles, including those which would be using alternative fuels.

Despite some failing experiments in other countries and many more which cannot move into commercial scale, the energy department clings on to vision that electric vehicles and the conversion of jeepneys to natural gas vehicles (NGVs) would become its trump card in solving the country’s pollution problem and to chip away from the vagaries of volatile oil prices.

“That’s why the DoST (Department of Science and Technology), DoTC (Department of Transportation and Communications) component is very critical to us. There will be new standards, new safety standards,” Energy Secretary Rene D. Almendras said.

‎• Utilities Need to get Local Grid Ready for Electric Vehicles

According to a recent report from Pike Research, many utilities could be unprepared to deal with the impact of EVs on the electrical grid, due to a lack of standards for sharing information between utilities and external systems.

‎• Report: Smart Appliance Market Will Expand To $26.1 Billion By 2019

Although the smart appliance market is off to a slow start, it will experience greater growth beginning in 2013, and by 2019, it is expected to represent $26.1 billion, according to a new report from Pike Research.

‎• 150 Million HAN-enabled Smart Meters by 2020

The smart meter market increased 250% over the past two years and is set to triple over the next decade, according to ON World. Relentless energy demand and intensifying challenges associated with building new power plants make customer participation a top priority for advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) projects.

A few of ON World’s research findings include the following:

‎• 13 million electric AMI meters were shipped last year in North America.
‎• By 2014, Europe will surpass North America and Asia will be the fastest growing AMI market.
‎• Twenty four percent (24%) of the surveyed utilities indicate that they are likely to use a public network for AMI within the next five years.
‎• Most in-progress Smart Grid standards use an IP stack such as ZigBee Smart Energy 2.0, IEEE802.15.4g, and IEEE1901.2.
‎• By 2020,150 million electric AMI meters are planned to have a HAN gateway.

‎• ETSI workshop addresses the challenge of Smart Grid standardisation

Paris (Teletechwire): ETSI’s first Smart Grid workshop, held at Sophia Antipolis on the 5th and 6th of April 2011, attracted over 250 participants from Europe, China, Japan, Korea and North America. Representatives of the power and ICT industries came together to address the challenges they face in standardising Smart Grid technology.

Mobile standards

‎• Industry body calls for comments on standards for location-enabled SMS

The Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) seeks public input on the candidate Open GeoSMS Standard which would help define location-aware and location-based SMS applications more clearly.

According to the OGC, the reason for proposing Open GeoSMS is because Location Based Service (LBS) devices or applications of different brands or from different vendors are often unable to share LBS information with each other which poses a potential barrier to the development of the LBS industry. Open GeoSMS also opens up a host of new opportunities around location-enabled SMS.

‎• MMA Publishes Mobile Couponing Best Practices And Guidelines

NEW YORK, LONDON, SINGAPORE & SAO PAULO, April 11, 2011 /PRNewswire/ — The MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) (www.mmaglobal.com) today published “Guidelines and Best Practices in Mobile Price Promotions” for North America. Created by the MMA’s Mobile Couponing Task Force, the document is designed to provide marketers, merchants, wireless carriers and other mobile marketing ecosystem members with an industry-standard standard for using mobile coupons and rebates to increase sales and promote consumer loyalty.

‎• PBS’ Landmark Next-Generation Emergency Alert System Pilot Project …

LAS VEGAS–(EON: Enhanced Online News)–Beginning later this year, PBS will initiate testing on a next-generation emergency alert system, which is designed to deliver multimedia alerts using video, audio, text, and graphics to cellphones, tablets, laptops and netbooks, as well as in-car navigation systems. Building on the flexibility of the ATSC Mobile Digital TV broadcast standard, the PBS pilot project will test capabilities designed to lead to a comprehensive new Mobile Emergency Alert System (MEAS), part of the first major overhaul of the nation’s aging Emergency Alert System (EAS) since the Cold War. PBS Chief Technology Officer John McCoskey will announce the pilot project today at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) Show in Las Vegas.

‎• DARPA To Develop Android, iPhone Encryption

The Department of Defense (DoD) research arm is seeking to develop encryption technology to secure data in iPhones and Google Android-based mobile devices.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) aims to create full disk and system encryption for the smartphone devices that can be used not only in the DoD but also across agencies, according to a request for information (RFI) posted on the FedBizOpps.gov site.

“The primary purpose of this RFI is to discover new technologies and methods to support full disk and system encryption of the [commercial mobile devices] (specifically Apple and Android platforms) to include a pre-boot environment to load the operating system,” according to the RFI.

‎• Low-cost wireless sensor networks open new horizons for the …

The ESNA project enables high effective networking based on cheap wireless sensors in a wide range of business applications – from more comfortable and energy-efficient environmental controls to precision monitoring of agricultural resources.

The EUREKA ITEA software Cluster ESNA project has developed a flexible framework for business-oriented wireless-sensor network applications using a standard architecture to facilitate communications between all types of smart device – from domestic appliances and environmental controls in the home to the latest process control equipment in factories.

‎• EAS Logo Program: Good Start, But Not Far Enough

Yesterday, Microsoft announced the Exchange ActiveSync Logo Program, which is designed to give IT pros confidence that they’re allowing well-supported mobile devices to connect to corporate networks. Exchange ActiveSync (EAS) has become the standard protocol for mobile device syncing and policy control. The problem has been that even device makers that license the protocol from Microsoft can implement it at different levels on their smartphones and other mobile devices. The new logo program will certify that a given device meets a minimum level of EAS support.

‎• Security Innovation’s NTRUEncrypt Adopted as X9 Standard for Data

X9, the official body for technical standardization for the financial services industry, develops, establishes, maintains, and promotes standards to facilitate the delivery of financial services and products. Because NTRU is smaller and faster than other public key crypto, it provides numerous performance and security benefits to the financial community. Financial institutions can now offer high-security data communications without incurring hefty costs or sacrificing performance, which has not been possible with other public key crypto such as RSA. Additionally, because of its small footprint, NTRU is ideal for handheld and mobile devices that historically haven’t offered strong encryption security due to limited computing resources.

Recognizing the need for stronger crypto that will hold up under increasingly powerful attacks, such as those that will be enabled by quantum computing, and understanding how NTRU is unique in its ability to do this, the X9 standards body created the X9.98 standard and certified NTRU. It is the only crypto to be X9.98 certified, which specifies cryptographic functions for establishing symmetric keys, using a lattice-based polynomial public key encryption algorithm. “Security Innovation has always been committed to improving IT security and protecting customer data,” said Adams. “The availability of crypto that meets this new standard, in NTRU, is a significant advancement for the financial community.”

‎• 13.56MHz Favored in China’s Contactless Payment Standards Battle

Zhang Qi, director of the China Information Industry Trade Association (CIITA), announced at the China Mobile Payment Industry Summit in Beijing today that 13.56MHz was tentatively selected as China’s national contactless payment standard in a meeting in November 2010 between government regulators, Chinese banking network China UnionPay and China’s three major mobile operators. The meeting was organized by the People’s Bank of China (PBoC), Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), and the Standardization Administration of the Peoples Republic of China (SAC). 2.4GHz will likely be limited to use in closed application environments such as corporate buildings, and will not be used in the banking and financial sectors.

‎• Khronos pushes for sensor, device input API standard

The Khronos Group pushes for an open API standard for advanced input devices to enable innovations by sensor and device manufacturers, while simplifying portable application evelopment.

This week passed was a quite surprising week in standards with a proposed scale down of the budgets for data.gov and other sites, yet another cloud standards body launched, plus other interesting views and news from the world of standards. Please feel free to leave any comments/suggestions in the comment section below.

WEB STANDARDS

‎• The Story Behind W3C Adopting HTML5

W3C (World Wide Web Consortium), the body which looks after web standards was at a time far behind XHTML 2.0 as they wanted the web to be standardized and be more stricter as well. But what browser vendors observed was that no one was doing XHTML properly, and very few people were doing XHTML development. Furthermore, the few that were doing it weren’t doing it properly. So, the standard had no relevance when no one did it properly.

‎• W3C Issues Report on Web and Television Convergence

Today, W3C publishes a report that summarizes the discussion among the 77 organizations that participated, including broadcasters, telecom companies, cable operators, OTT (over the top) companies, content providers, device vendors, software vendors, Web application providers, researchers, governments, and standardization organizations active in the TV space.

‎• Data.gov in crisis: the open data movement is bigger than just one

In the next few months, Data.gov, along with a number of other data-related sites of the government such as USAspending.gov and Apps.gov, are slated to be shut down due to budget cuts. The current annual budget of $37 million will be reduced to $2 million.

‎• WoodWing releases Open Format for Interactive Publications (ofip)

Zaandam, The Netherlands – WoodWing Software, a leading supplier of cross-media publishing solutions and an innovation leader in the tablet publishing market, announced today that the data format used in its Tablet Publishing Solution is now available as an open format, free of charge.

‎• Multi-stakeholder model likely for internet regulation: Berners-Lee

A multi-stakeholder model, involving organisations like the United Nations, appears to be the likely solution to increasing calls for regulating the internet, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web, said in Hyderabad.

”At the moment a lot of discussion is going on whether international governance should be done through different countries or if it should be done independently,” Berners-Lee told journalists at the 20th International World Wide Web conference. ”I think probably we will end up with a multi-stakeholder system where some of it comes from organisations like United Nations and foundations.”

MOBILE STANDARDS

‎• OMB Official: Mobile Tech Security Standards are Certain

A White House official who oversees government use of mobile technologies says the technology is “not secure,” and standards are being developed that will increase security.

Janice Nall, e-gov portfolio manager for the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB), was speaking at the 2011 Government Web and New Media Conference in Washington, D.C. when she said, mobile technologies have “not kept up with the wired industry in terms of security” and “are about ten years behind.”

‎• Reality Check: Standing up for standards

The terrible human tragedy arising from the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami in Japan could have been even worse if it were not for a little known telecoms standard. In Japan, mobile operators NTT DoCoMo Inc. and SoftBank used a warning system, based on the Cell Broadcast Service (CBS) standard, to provide many of their subscribers with a valuable few seconds of notice of the impending earthquake and then the resulting tsunami.

In the event of a strong earthquake, the warning system is triggered by seismological readings detecting fast-moving p-waves generated by the earth tremor, which occur prior to the impact of slower-moving, but far stronger, s-waves. Using CBS technology, the system sends out a text message to everyone with a compatible handset, giving them a few seconds notice in which to try to find some kind of shelter. Ahead of the subsequent tsunami an alert was also broadcast to all compatible phones in coastal regions to give people a chance to either leave the area or move to higher ground.

‎• FCC proposes rules for cell phones signal boosters

In addition to mandating that carriers allow data roaming, the Federal Communications Commission used its regular meeting this week to propose tighter regulations for cell phone signal boosters.

‎• Govt plans energy efficiency labels for mobile phone chargers

(India): “We are working on introducing star (energy) labelling system for mobile phone chargers. It will be voluntary (for the makers of chargers) in the beginning and later, we plan to make it mandatory,” a senior Power Ministry official said.

‎• NFC Gets Google Endorsement, Looks to Disrupt

Google announced yesterday that it has joined the NFC Forum, an organization committed to tackling standards and technological hurdles associated with near field communications (NFC).

The announcement comes just weeks after CTIA Wireless highlighted the technology, with experts saying that contactless mobile-based payments and transactions are on the brink of becoming a reality in 2011. Already most major OEMs have announced plans to begin embedding NFC-capable chips in their mobile phones.

CLOUD STANDARDS

‎• IBM paints the cloud-scape blue

IBM has backed the creation of a standards body that comprises 40 “leading cloud organisations” but none of its main rivals in the battle to dominate the next big thing in computing.

‎‎• IEEE Targets Cloud Interoperability Standards

The venerable IEEE is wading into the chaotic and roiled realm of cloud computing, seeking to set standards through a cloud computing initiative launched Monday that will focus on cloud interoperability.

‎• Using Social Media to Drive Sales, Marketing and Customer Service

The P2301 working group will provide a portability roadmap for cloud vendors, service providers, and their customers. Its work will result in a standard that will allow users to know they are buying resources and services that meet standardized definitions and measures, with the means to move them from cloud to cloud, Diamond said.

‎• Air transport industry launches first ‘community’ cloud

SITA, the air transport IT specialist, has announced plans to launch a community cloud designed specifically for the air transport industry, in an effort to cut costs and improve efficiencies.

‎• Huawei Joins DMTF Board of Directors

Distributed Management Task Force, Inc. (DMTF), the organization bringing the IT industry together to collaborate on systems management standards development, validation, promotion and adoption, today announced that Huawei, a leader in providing next-generation telecommunications network solutions around the world, has been elected to the DMTF Board of Directors. The addition of this international company solidifies DMTF’s expanding global presence in the IT industry. Huawei joins AMD, Broadcom, CA Technologies, Cisco, Citrix Systems Inc., EMC, Fujitsu, HP, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Oracle and VMware to continue DMTF’s momentum in driving IT management standards and initiatives.

‎• The Cloud and Cybersecurity

As part of federal CIO Vivek Kundra’s 25-point plan to reform federal IT management announced last December, federal agencies must adopt a “cloud-first” policy that requires them to move three applications to the “cloud” over the next 12 to 18 months. Agencies must identify the three “must move” services within three months, move one of those services to the cloud within 12 months and the remaining two within 10 months.

PRIVACY STANDARDS

‎• Ed. Dept. Proposes New Student Data Privacy Rules

In its effort to clarify student data privacy rules for researchers and education officials alike, the U.S. Department of Education proposed several changes to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, on Thursday and named its first chief privacy officer.

‎• Justice Department Opposes Changes To Electronic Privacy Law

Privacy protections “must advance with technology” or privacy will “gradually erode as technology advances.” So said the Senate Judiciary Committee — in 1986, the year that the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) was passed.

‎• Business calls for harmonised rules on data protection

One of the main calls from businesses has been for simplified, harmonised rules. But the current law governing the area is a directive as opposed to a regulation. This means member states can interpret how it should be implemented, leading to a patchwork of standards across the bloc. The data protection authority in Germany considers IP addresses to be personal data, for example. This is not the case elsewhere.

‎• Smartphone Apps Under Fire

New Jersey prosecutors are examining whether or not some smartphone apps violate user privacy standards. Such apps may go head-to-head with the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by failing to disclose information regarding asking users to submit personal information. Information collected could be revealed to third party advertisers.

‎• Neelie Kroes Vice-President of the European Commission for the …

The RFID Privacy Impact Assessment (PIA) Framework sets an example for industry in Europe and in the world by taking legitimate privacy concerns of people seriously and proactively addressing them. It effectively creates a win-win situation for business and consumers, as well as a pragmatic way to ensure safeguards for privacy. More specifically, it provides its future users with a comprehensive description of what should be done to deliver RFID applications that are compliant with the EU data protection Directive of 1995 and the ePrivacy Directive of 2002.

‎• California Lawmaker Touts Do-not-track Bill

State Senator Alan Lowenthal, a Long Beach Democrat, and Consumer Watchdog, a privacy group that supports the bill, detailed the bill in a press conference Monday. Lowenthal originally introduced a placeholder bill in February, then amended the bill on March 24 to include the new do-not-track language.

“Nearly 80 percent of Californians use the Internet and nearly 45% use Facebook — including myself,” Lowenthal said in a statement, “But today millions of Californians are unaware that their online behavior is being tracked; their data collected and sold to advertisers.”

Lowenthal’s legislation, designated as a computer spyware bill, would direct the California attorney general to adopt regulations requiring Web companies that collect personal data to allow users to opt out of data collection and online tracking.

The regulations would also require Web companies doing business in California to inform users of their collection and tracking efforts, and it would allow civil lawsuits against companies that fail to comply with the regulations.

‎• IPTC Releases rNews Standard Draft for Embedding Metadata in …

Publishers large and small struggle to make sure that search engines and social media sites find their stories and refer to them appropriately. They want to provide highly targeted adverts while dealing with users who are opposed to the privacy implication of sharing the personal data necessary to accomplish that. How can they build web pages with news stories where the components of the story are machine-readable, as well as human readable?

The IPTC has taken a step to solving this problem with the release of the first draft of the rNews standard. Details of rNews are available at http://dev.iptc.org/rNews.

SMART GRID STANDARDS

‎• Should we stop the smart grid to wait for standards?

It’s fashionable to criticize utilities for moving too slow. Is it possible they are actually moving too fast instead? Key smart grid standards are only now starting to take shape. Yet many projects — especially in the U.S. — are well underway using immature standards or none at all.

‎• Mapping the Move to ZigBee 2.0

Moving from the current wireless standard ZigBee to the next-generation ZigBee standard dubbed “Smart Energy Profile 2.0″ is going to be a very big deal for the utilities, smart meter makers and other technology providers involved. About three months from now, we’re going to know a lot more about how big of a deal it’s going to be.

‎• NIST seeks convergence of smart grid interface spec

NIST leads efforts to drive standards for smart grids by seeking convergence on separate efforts by EPRI and the USNAP Alliance on a modular interface spec for linking consumer devices to a smart grid.

‎• Electric cars likely to spark new ‘smart grid‘

WASHINGTON — Entire industries grew up around gasoline-powered cars, ranging from the ubiquitous filling stations to fast-food restaurants along highway exits. Similarly, the rise of electric cars probably will transform more than just the automobile.

‎• Electric car makers fight over plug standard

A tussle between different designs of plugs used in prototype electric cars has derailed an attempt to create a common European standard, highlighting industrial jealousy as the sector attempts to broach the mainstream.

The EU’s “focus group on electro-mobility” was set to adopt a standard type of plug for recharging European manufactured electric cars by 31 March, but an argument between rival designs scuppered

‎• Lack of Technical Standards Could Hinder Utilities’ Readiness for …

The second comeback of the electric vehicle (EV) in little more than a decade has a much greater likelihood of success, and many in the industry believe that it will have a transformative effect on driving habits as well as the automotive and electric power industries. To prepare for the arrival of EVs in neighborhoods across the country, utilities in the United States will need to design and implement a complex network of information technology (IT) systems to support data analytics, smart charging management, and customer information management. However, according to a recent report from Pike Research, many utilities could be unprepared to deal with the impact of EVs on the electrical grid, due to a lack of standards for sharing information between utilities and external systems.

‎• White House Releases Updated Energy R&D Strategy

Last week, President Obama delivered a major speech on energy policy at Georgetown University and announced the release of the White House’s new “Blueprint for a Secure Energy Future.”

In terms of promoting clean energy innovation through research and development (R&D), President Obama defended these investments in his speech by noting:

So a clean energy standard will help drive private investment in innovation. But I want to make this point: Government funding will still be critical. Over the past two years, the historic investments my administration has made in clean and renewable energy research and technology have helped private sector companies grow and hire hundreds of thousands of new workers.

WEB STANDARDS

‎• Wikitude joins W3C to help shape future AR standards

Wikitude, the Augmented Reality (AR) browser, is joining other industry players like Google, Samsung, RIM, LG and Nokia, in W3C’s efforts to develop augmented reality standards for the Augmented Reality Mark-up Language (ARML).

• ‎‎Open Web TV Standard in the Works: A Foundation for Web-TV

This week marks the deadline for Open Connected TV standard proposals. The goal: to create an open source specification for software and standards for Internet-connected, web-ready televisions. The driving force behind the specification for OCTV is the Digital Media Project. According to their website they want to promote continued successful development, deployment and use of Digital Media that respect the rights of creators and rights holders to exploit their works, the wish of end users to fully enjoy the benefits of Digital Media and the interests of various value-chain players to provide products and services.

• Fujitsu Promotes W3C’s “Efficient XML Interchange Format 1.0″

Fujitsu Laboratories Ltd., and Fujitsu Laboratories of America, Inc. announced support for “Efficient XML Interchange Format 1.0 (EXI),”

• Disability Discrimination Act (DDA) & web accessibility

About compliance and the Disability Discrimination Act (DDA).

• A cloud standard for Singapore

Like Korea, Singapore is following suit in the develop of their own national standard for the Cloud.

‎• Virtualization Standards to Drive Cloud Computing

Right now, there are two standards that many cloud computing advocates are tracking with keen interest. The first is the Open Virtual Format, which will make it a whole lot easier for application workloads to dynamically run on top of multiple virtualization solutions. The second is a set of virtualization management interfaces that is to be shepherded by the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF). According to Alex Rigaldo, head of the cloud computing program for Orange Business Services, virtualization standards will make it easier to both manage heterogeneous virtualization environments while simultaneously making it easier to move application workloads across them. Without these standards in place, Rigaldo says IT organizations are going to be hesitant about embracing cloud computing for mission-critical applications for fear of getting locked into a single provider.

‎• Cloud Computing: Big Shots Start New Cloud Standards Body

Deutsche Telekom, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Verizon and Yahoo, all big network owners, said Monday that they have formed a standards-setting Open Networking Foundation (ONF) that’ll promote an approach to networking called Software-Defined Networking (SDN) that makes networks programmable like computers.

• UK ICT strategy: Sounds good but where’s the detail?

The UK government’s ICT strategy sets out goals for a complete overhaul of the way the public sector approaches IT. But the report’s sketchy details might suggest the government is biting off more than it can chew, says silicon.com’s Nick Heath.

• ‎Microsoft Seeks Harmonization Of EU Cloud Computing Rules

Microsoft Corp wants the EU to harmonize rules governing cloud computing, where data is stored remotely, in order to give the bloc of 27 countries a competitive advantage, the group’s Brussels-based counsel said Tuesday. “On privacy and data retention, we should have a proposal in summer, and we should see the law enacted by about the end of 2012, if it’s a regulation,” John Vassallo, Vice-President of EU Affairs at Microsoft said in an interview with Dow Jones Newswires.

‎• EU Puts Standardization at Forefront of Cloud Computing‎ – PCWorld

The head of the European Commission’s (EC) digital agenda has put interoperability and standards at the forefront of the cloud computing agenda, according to PC World. “Users must be able to change their cloud provider as fast and easily as changing one’s Internet or mobile phone provider has become in many places,” said Commissioner Neelie Kroes at the unveiling of Microsoft’s cloud computing centre in Brussels on Tuesday.

MOBILE STANDARDS

• IEEE approves next WiMax standard

IDG News Service – The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has approved IEEE 802.16m, the standard for the next generation of WiMax, which may deliver downstream speeds of more than 300M bps (bits per second).

• ‎Mobile payment applications need a second security check, PCI says

The PCI Council (founded by credit card compaies) has taken several mobile payment software applications off its approved applications list, citing the need to re-evaluate mobile payment software to ensure that it adequately secures payment card data.

• ‎Mobile DTV Will Be Everywhere At NAB Show

Broadcasters led by NBC and Fox have promised to launch commercial mobile DTV service in the U.S. by the end of this year. And that ambition is reflected in the agenda and exhibition of the NAB Show, which open a week-long run in Las Vegas on April 9.

‎• New Wi-Fi Standards Could Revolutionize Hotspots

Wi-Fi Alliance announces standards that enable automatic handing over of data requests whenever a mobile device comes in range of a hotspot. Although technical details are sparse right now, the new hotspot system will primarily rely on authentication via SIM cards installed in cell phones. Unique details from the SIM card could be sent as part of the initial negotiation with the wireless router, for example.

• ‎Broadband to the Car

An article that explores broadband connectivity to the car and integration with mobile devices, LTE and the IP protocol especially IPv6.

‎• Google Tightening the Android Reins

While Android may be open source, it is not a standard and is controlled by Google. That control is becoming painfully apparent especially with tablets.

• ‎Orange to work with DMTF to advance cloud and virtualisation standards

Orange Business Services, the France Telecom-Orange branch for B2B services, is working with the Distributed Management Task Force (DMTF) to advance international cloud and virtualisation management standards.

• ‎‎Telcos must unify under one Cloud framework: Telstra

Telstra has warned that unless telcos band together and unify under a single Cloud policy framework, the sector will face a customer nightmare.

PRIVACY STANDARDS

• Vaizey: global web privacy standard needed

The UK government must tackle e-privacy on an international scale, alongside partners from the EU and the US, communications minister Ed Vaizey has said. In a speech to the CBI forum on e-privacy and the digital economy, Vaizey said the internet should be preserved as a “lightly regulated engine of growth”. But he said similar privacy standards were emerging from current regulation and new legislation in Europe and the US. Unlike traditional television and radio publishing, Vaizey said the internet did not respect national boundaries. And he said: “The rules governing on-line privacy need to reflect that.”

‎• Web Firms Face Too Many Privacy Rules, U.S. Official Says

While privacy officials have urged companies, such as Google and Facebook, to be as proactive as possible regarding data protection, some believe these companies face too many rules. The sentiment does not mean these companies require no regulations, but some officials believe international data loss prevention standards must be unified.

• Non-EU Websites Must Operate Under EU Privacy Laws

U.S. and other non-European organisations that target European consumers must be bound by the same strict privacy and data protection requirements as EU companies, Viviane Reding, the EU’s justice commissioner said in a speech today. However, no details were given on how the EU planned to enforce its demand.

• ‎5 Reasons Hospitals Should Pay Attention to HIPAA Right Now

Although it first took effect in 2003, the Department of Health and Human Services did not issue a civil monetary penalty for violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule until late last month. Cignet Health, a health plan located in Temple Hills, Md., was ordered to pay $4.3 million for violating the Rule, only to be followed days later by Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, which agreed to pay $1 million to settle allegations of Privacy Rule violations.

• Lawmaker promises new online privacy legislation

A senior Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives will soon introduce legislation designed to give Web users more control of their personal data and to give the U.S. Federal Trade Commission power to enforce voluntary privacy standards developed with Internet companies, he said Friday.

‎• ANSI, Shared Assessments to study financial impact of patient data

The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the Shared Assessments Program have launched a study examining the financial impact of patient data breaches.

• ‎HP Exec Says International Organizations Needed For Long-term

The world needs independent, non-profit organizations to oversee a set of binding Internet privacy standards which would be more dynamic than laws, but stricter than the in-house rules of individual corporations, said HP’s Vice President and Chief Privacy Officer Scott Taylor Thursday.

He told reporters that although congressional action is badly needed, laws and regulations alone will not be able to keep up with emerging technology and practices. Taylor advocated a combination of overarching laws and a binding corporate code of conduct that would cross jurisdictions. “We need a global set of trust agents who can provide objective evaluations of a company’s compliance with privacy rules,” he said. “A patchwork of laws across the country and around the world makes it very difficult to manage a global company.”

SMART GRID STANDARDS

• India smart grid forum website launched

The website of India Smart Grid Forum has been launched by Sam Pitroda, Chairman, Indian Smart Grid Task Force and Adviser to Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure & Innovation. While launching the webiste, Pitroda stated that authenticated users we receive access to a document management system, collaborative working on same files, team discussions, blog sites, a shared calendar, the ability to send emails to working group members, manage meetings, scheduling and compare reports etc. This system would facilitate them to access the files from outside office network in a secured manner.

India Smart Grid Task Force Web portal gives information about functions of ISGTF, tasks of different workgroups formed for ISGTF, methodology for selecting pilots for Smart Grid, Loss reduction and theft control, data gathering and analysis, Power to rural areas and reliability & quality of power to urban areas, Distributed Generation & Renewable, Physical

• ‎The Korea-EU Smart Grid Cooperation Team Was Established

The Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) under Ministry of Knowledge Economy has organized the “South Korea-EU smart grid cooperation team,” which means that Korea paves the way for entering the world market for the smart grid (the intellectual power grid).

‎• Groups merge smart grid interface efforts

The USNAP Alliance and the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) will merge separate efforts to develop a modular interface specification for linking consumer gear to a smart grid. The collaboration is one step toward a broader convergence still in the works.

The groups are responding to a request from the National Institute of Standards and Technology to merge efforts and deliver them to a formal standards group. NIST is leading efforts to drive standards for smart grids. Several protocols and network types are vying to carry smart grid data to consumer devices. They include the EPRI and USNAP protocols, the Smart Energy Profile, OpenADR and a handful of vendor-specific protocols. They may ride over a variety of powerline, Wi-Fi, Zigbee or vendor specific nets such as Z-Wave.

In October, the Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers picked Smart Energy 2.0 and OpenADR as their two most favored application-layer protocols. The group blessed HomePlug GreenPHY powerline and Wi-Fi and Zigbee wireless for the network and media layers.

‎‎• ITU develops smart grid defence and communications standards

The ITU, the International Telecommunications Union, has unveiled a new set of standards designed to support improved monitoring of electricity grids and networks. Known as the G.hnem specification, the standards have entered their final stage of approval with the standards body, and when ratified, will support the monitoring of smart grid applications such as distribution automation, smart meters and smart appliances, as well as advanced recharging systems for electric vehicles.

The idea behind the proposed standards – G.9955 and G.9956 – Infosecurity notes, is that power-driven systems of all types will use their power lines to carry a full-duplex data communications channel that can signal a variety of supervisory and diagnostic data.

• ‎Grid2Home Raised $2.6M for the Open Smart Grid

The open smart grid is here, and players are emerging to build applications and services on top of it. The latest is Grid2Home, which makes smart grid software based on open standards and launched last September, and according to a filing this morning, has raised $2.6 million of a planned $3.1 million round.

• ‎Revised ZigBee Smart Energy Version 2.0 Technical Documents

The ZigBee Alliance, a global ecosystem of organizations creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, residential, commercial and consumer applications, today announced that the current revisions of the ZigBee Smart Energy version 2.0 Technical Requirements Document (TRD) and Public Application Profile are available for public comment by the Smart Grid community at large. Public comments received last year for both documents, and Alliance responses, are also available for review.

WEB STANDARDS

• Internet Explorer 9 Arrives With More Speed, Better Web Standards …

Microsoft has released Internet Explorer 9, the first major update for Microsoft’s browser in nearly two years. Internet Explorer 9 is a huge leap forward for the IE line, bringing much-needed web standards support, better performance and hardware acceleration for faster graphics and animations on supported PCs.

• New Web standards support in Opera 11.10 Beta

Opera 11.10 Beta supports web standards including WOFF, WebP, linear gradients and multi column text layout

• Adobe proposes standard for magazine-like Web

Adobe Systems has proposed a standard that could make it easier to create Web pages with fancy layouts seen more often in magazines. The company proposed a technology it calls CSS Regions which standardizes the Cascading Style Sheets technology widely used to control formatting on Web pages. The proposal marks an important change at Adobe, one toward increasing engagement with Web technologies.

• Google excises Gears from Chrome

Google launched Gears with much fanfare as an open-source project in 2007. but only a few other Web developers, such as Zoho, WordPress, and iStockphoto, dabbled with Gears, and Google decided instead to focus on bringing Gears features to Web browsers through standards rather than its own plug-in. Now that Google has a browser (Chrome), Gears has been phased out.

• How JavaScript & HTML5 Are Remaking the Web

Although HTML5 is its own standard, the power of HTML5 is really only best realized with the use of CSS 3 and JavaScript. JavaScript, in particular, has quickly emerged as one of the best ways to help render great looking effects, animations and content in a self-contained, platform-agnostic way.

Graphics libraries like WebGL can extend JavaScript, allowing for the creation of interactive 3D graphics within the browser all while utilizing the plugin-free nature of the HTML canvas element. Using JavaScript, jQuery and WebGL, developers at Children’s Hospital Boston created the Brain Surface and Tractography Viewer.

• Microsoft ‘Do Not Track’ Plan Accepted by Web Standards Group W3C

Microsoft’s “do not track” browser proposal got a boost Thursday when the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C), a Web standards body, gave Microsoft’s plan its stamp of approval.

The W3C has accepted and published Microsoft’s submission, which W3C called “timely and well-aligned with the consortium’s objectives and priorities.”

• New CEO wants faster, more relevant W3C (Q&A)

The new W3C CEO seeks a balance between standards and innovation especially having lost the momentum for HTML5 to the WHATWG group

• Is government ready for the semantic Web?

While semantic technology has mostly been an academic exercise in recent years, it is now finding a greater role in a practical-minded government project called the National Information Exchange Model (NIEM).

• Webstock: Facebook leads the way with HTML5

Probably the most attention-getting feature of the HTML5 web standard is support of video as a standard web feature, making it unnecessary to use proprietary plugins such as Adobe’s Flash to support web video. But this is also one of the key unsettled elements of HTML5, says David Recordon, who leads the open source and open standards team at Facebook.

• W3C squeezes XML into portability

Web-standards group the W3C has published its preferred standard for compressing XML documents into something more suitable for transmission over radio, and perhaps everywhere else too. Efficient XML Interchange (EXI) tokenises XML tags to create a significantly smaller binary file.

• Adobe continues the Flash fight with 10.3 beta

Adobe is hedging its Flash bets by embracing those Web standards. Perhaps the best example is Adobe Wallaby, which rewrites Flash elements to use Web standards including HTML (Hypertext Markup Language, the language to describe Web pages), CSS (Cascading Style Sheets, used for formatting and increasingly advanced animations), and JavaScript (the language of Web-based programs that’s a cousin to Flash’s ActionScript). Adobe is billing the technology in part as a way for Flash programmers to reach iOS devices.

• SAP Adds OpenSocial API To StreamWork

SAP has expanded its potential base of application partners for StreamWork by adding support for OpenSocial, a common set of programming standards in use by many social Web application developers.

MOBILE STANDARDS

• World’s top auto makers to work on putting NFC in cars

Daimler, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai, Toyota and Volkswagen have joined Nokia, Samsung and others as founder members of the Car Connectivity consortium with the aim of developing common standards for connectivity between handsets and vehicles.

• ‎JEDEC developing standards for 3D IC fabrication

JEDEC Solid State Technology Association has announced it is working on development of standards for fabricating 3D-ICs. 3D ICs are suitable for combinations of memory with other memory or logic.

• Apple rejects ‘wave and pay’ for new iPhone

Apple will not include “wave and pay” chips in the new iPhone to be released later this year, dashing industry hopes that a universal standard for the technology would be adopted in 2011. However, Apple is understood to be working on its own NFC proposition, which would link payments through iTunes. It hopes to introduce the technology in a handset likely to be released next year.

• UTI launches best practices paper to raise developer standards

Unified Testing Initiative (UTI),the not-for-profit organisation, which includes members such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and LG, was set up to reduce fragmentation and encourage the adoption of sound working practices by developers to include quality. UTI has introduced a best practises paper to raise developer standards.

• ‎China to launch 4G service in 2014: state media

China plans to roll out commercial “fourth generation” mobile phone technology nationwide in 2014, state media said Friday, citing the country’s top telecom regulator. China has been pushing for its home-grown 4G standard, known as TD-LTE, to be accepted as a global standard.

• HQME and the future of mobile content delivered at home

HQME is a new mobile standard designed to deliver content at home.

• LTE-Advanced Mobile Standard Gets Industry Approval

LTE-Advanced Release 10 has been given the approval of the major phone manufacturers during a meeting in Taipei. The mobile data standard will increase the transfer speeds up to 1 Gb/s. This is ideal for downloads of audio-visual files onto mobile phones.

• New consumer protection measures for mobile, broadband services

SINGAPORE: The Infocomm Development Authority (IDA) of Singapore has introduced new consumer protection measures for mobile and broadband services. It requires operators to put in place new systems to help consumers prevent unwanted mobile charges caused by Premium Rate Services (PRS) and data roaming.

CLOUD STANDARDS

• Banks call for cloud standards

Australia’s largest banks have called for the establishment of cloud computing standards to ensure they retain control of any outsourced IT.

• Kundra, Cerf to tackle cloud issues at NIST forum

Officials at the National Institute of Standards and Technology will give progress reports on the government’s Cloud Computing Technology Roadmap and other security and open-standard initiatives at a cloud forum and workshop next month.

• Cloud Storage Firm Gluster Joins Open Source Community OpenStack

Cloud storage provider Gluster announced on Tuesday it has joined the OpenStack (www.openstack.com) community.

• Korea angles for a national cloud standard

While there is yet no official international cloud standard, Korea is now in the process of developing a national one to deal with the growing cloud market. The standards will address issues around security, interoperability and legal frameworks in an effort to “increase the usage rate of cloud in the public sector”.

PRIVACY STANDARDS

• Reding defines new EU data privacy rules

EU Justice Commissioner Viviane Reding spelled out new privacy rules for personal data held on the Internet, including a “right to be forgotten” that would allow users to permanently delete data held by companies.

• Europe ‘not ready’ for cookie law

European rules aimed at giving consumers more control over how their web browsing is tracked will not be enforced come May, experts have said.

• Accreditation body revises HIPAA data privacy and security standards

URAC, a nonprofit healthcare accreditation organization, has revised its Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) privacy and security standards. The revisions are based on the patient data privacy provisions of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act, which were included in the American Reinvestment and Recovery Act of 2009. In addition, URAC has made editorial changes to the standards to clarify their intent.

• Lawmaker promises new online privacy legislation

A senior Republican member of the U.S. House of Representatives will soon introduce legislation designed to give Web users more control of their personal data and to give the U.S. Federal Trade Commission power to enforce voluntary privacy standards developed with Internet companies, he said last week.

SMART GRID STANDARDS

• ITU develops smart grid defence and communications standards

The ITU, International Telecommunications Union, has unveiled a new set of standards designed to support improved monitoring of electricity grids and networks.

Known as the G.hnem specification, the standards have entered their final stage of approval with the standards body, and when ratified, will support the monitoring of smart grid applications such as distribution automation, smart meters and smart appliances, as well as advanced recharging systems for electric vehicles. The idea behind the proposed standards – G.9955 and G.9956 – Infosecurity notes, is that power-driven systems of all types will use their power lines to carry a full-duplex data communications channel that can signal a variety of supervisory and diagnostic data. In theory, at least, this will make so-called energy smart grids capable of automatically self-healing in the event of a problem, and increase the resiliency of national plus local power networks, right down to the individual home or office.

• Do We Need a Single Set of Rules Nationwide for Smart Grid Technology?

The interlinking of networks to form smart grids may carry added security risks, say industry watchers, who recommend authorities and owners secure these grids by applying the same principles and mindsets used to beef up infrastructure.

• IEEE Moving Ahead on New Standards

IEEE P2030 is being developed for use by the power engineering, communications and information technology industries as a foundational, cross-discipline, system-of-systems guide for Smart Grid interoperability.

The ‘question mark’ depicts an open ended question which leads to other questions:

• Was EU standardization based on formalism?
• Is it now based on pragmatism?
• What do these two terms mean anyway?

The current EU document (EIF v2) has to be viewed in context of the predecessor – EIF v1 which was released in 2004 and debated since then. EIF v1 tried to define ‘Open standards’, a complex issue in itself. EIF version 1 set out four criteria that a specification must have in order to be considered an “open standard”. EIF v2 contains an alternative version of these criteria.

The criteria touch on many issues but chief among them is FRAND and to the use of IPR in standards. As I have said before, as we get into a more complex regime of interplay between devices and software, the IPR issue will be a common theme of discussion in standards. In future, even JavaScript will depend on hardware optimization, which could potentially involve IPR.

EIF v2 Section 5.2.1 sets out a three part definition for “open specifications:”

If the openness principle is applied in full:

• All stakeholders have the same possibility of contributing to the development of the specification and public review is part of the decision-making process;
• The specification is available for everybody to study;
• Intellectual property rights related to the specification are licensed on FRAND terms or on a royalty-free basis in a way that allows implementation in both proprietary and open source software.

In addition to these three criteria for openness, EIF v2 also permits government officials to use specifications that may not fully meet the principles outlined above.

So, the emphasis has shifted from ‘questioning IPR inclusion’ to ‘accepting IPR transparency’ i.e. patents should be declared and licensed in a Fair, Reasonable and Non-Discriminatory manner. This is compatible with leading Open source licenses such as BSD, Apache and European Public License but not GNU.

So, to come back to the question of the forum: Have we shifted from formalism to pragmatism?

I would say: the emphasis has shifted from ‘questioning IPR inclusion’ to ‘accepting IPR transparency’ and this is certainly a more pragmatic approach.