A variety of constituencies from the West have taken it upon themselves to
 reach out to China to “educate” the Chinese about the existing global
 standards development infrastructure, and to urge them to take part in that 
infrastructure in the same way as do other countries. Clearly, having 
China, with a single national vote, participate in ISO, IEC and ITU would 
be best for the status quo players that have become skillful in
participating in those organizations through decades of effort. It’s 
interesting to ask, however, whether that course of action, without more, 
would truly be best for China and its people.
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PART 7 – U.S. Law and Policy Prefers Standards Developed in the Marketplace: the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 and OMB Circular A-119

For this and the next installment, I will focus for the most part on U.S. law and policy as it provides a most clear illustration. In the context of standard setting, there is a substantial early history of the government as the exclusive or predominant standards-setting entity, rooted in its British heritage dating back many hundreds of years.
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This is Part 6 in a series of articles in which contributor Stacy Baird presents and in-depth analysis of the role of governments in standards setting initiatives which is released on a bi-weekly basis. For previous instalments see here: Part 4, Part 5 – Editor

PART 6: The Well Developed Range of Standards, both Proprietary and Open, Reflect a Sophisticated Standards-Setting Ecosystem

Previously I described the several forums and market characteristics that can develop an IT standard: SDOs, patent pools, market driven de facto standards and consortia. As further evidence of the sophistication of the IT standards-setting marketplace, there are numerous and highly differentiated types of standards that can achieve interoperability

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This is Part 5 in a series of articles in which contributor Stacy Baird presents and in-depth analysis of the role of governments in standards setting initiatives which is released on a bi-weekly basis. For previous instalments see here: Part 3, Part 4 – Editor

PART 5 – Not Hot, nor Cold, but Just Right… (or “Not Formal, Not Informal, but Drawing on the Best of What Came Before”): Consortia

I have been discussing the sophistication of the IT industry in setting standards as evidenced by the industry’s long history and considerable use of formal (SDO) and informal means such as patent pools. In between SDOs and patent pools resides a more recent concept commonly used by the IT industry, a truly flexible approach to standards development – where the relevant industries or businesses develop and support a standard by mutual agreement through a consortium.

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This is Part 4 in a series of articles in which contributor Stacy Baird presents and in-depth analysis of the role of governments in standards setting initiatives which is released on a bi-weekly basis. For previous instalments see here: Part 2, Part 3 – Editor

PART 4: The Least Formal IT Standard Setting: Patent Pools and De Facto Standards
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This is the second in a series of articles in which contributor Stacy Baird presents and in-depth analysis of the role of governments in standards setting initiatives which is posted on a bi-weekly basis. The first in the series can be seen here – Editor

PART 2: There are Good Reasons for Government to be Reluctant to Mandate IT Standards

To start with the end: Government should be reluctant to mandate an IT standard. Before regulating an industry, policy makers have to look at a few things: the sophistication of the industry with regard to what is being considered for regulation; the capacity of industry to address a perceived problem without government regulation; whether regulation would be contrary to or in support of good public policy; and finally, whether the risk of “government failure” outstrips the risk of market failure. It is incontrovertable that when it comes to standards, the IT industries are sophisticated.

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In June, Talkstandards.com hosted an open forum which discussed the standards system in the People’s Republic of China. A series of articles were posted by contributors which covered a range of issues related to China’s involvement and cooperation with standards setting in the EU, US and abroad.

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On Thursday February 25, Talkstandards hosted a lively open forum on ICT Standardization and eHealth.

Ajit Jaokar spoke of the possibility that eHealth will take off in emerging markets and what the implications thereof could be. As an illustration, Jaokar mentioned the M-Pesa mobile payment service which took off in Kenya, serving 6.5 million subscribers by May 2009
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In the e-health sector, ICT standards are obviously important since ICT solutions for healthcare are heavily data and information driven and having seamless access to such information is a foundational matter.
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中国自主創新与信息通信技术标准

China’s policy of promoting indigenous innovation in ICT industries is bifurcated, with large-scale, capital intensive development in a few urban centers supporting the national strategy of becoming an exporter of technologies and standards, while enterprises in provincial cities and towns are left to fend for themselves with few central government subsidies or protections, writes Jane K Winn.
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