This article is co-authored by James Bryce Clark, General Counsel, and Laurent Liscia, Executive Director, of OASIS

The concept of the Smart Grid, like “cloud computing”, is in a hype phase, where it’s invoked by all sorts of products and future plans. We are reliably assured that it will walk our dog and bring world peace, along with all the added conveniences provided by our newly clever home appliances.

What do we get if true network effects augment and evolve electricity networks? But there is a core of real goals underneath, which explain the strong public policy push in many nations to move the electricity grid from a closed, relatively primitive set of transactions, to a true network with extensibility and scalability — the much-lauded “network effects” phenomenon.

• One key explicit goal is greater sustainability and energy savings though better data. If usage and cost statistics are clear, shareable and aggregatable, then more can be done to optimize supply and demand, and specifically to match generation and demand loads, a key industry challenge.

• Another is greater control. As grid data becomes more agile, electricity users get more feedback — like a hybrid car’s dashboard advises the driver about battery charging on the fly. Power users are put in a better position to access, share, and control access to data about themselves. Utilities, system operators and regulators get better safety, soundness and load data, for repair and system optimization.

• Greater functionality also is a compelling opportunity. Richer data will empower innovation at all levels, whether it’s an industrial shop floor able to self-adjust operations and consumption to brownouts or price fluctuations, or a consumer’s “eco” button on a home appliance similarly being able to adjust its run cycle dynamically.

Network effects require low barriers to entry. That’s why open data standards are essential to the smart grid’s design. For that reason, standards organizations, and the new entrant companies and services that they enable, are key players in the development of smart grid methods, in North America, Europe and Asia. There’s a plethora of overlapping efforts from both de jure and market-driven standards organizations, with governments taking different levels of leadership. Such uncertainty requires vision.

The OASIS vision, based on work already underway in collaboration with the US SGIP project and our many pre-existing data, network and identity/access projects, is to empower the end-users, residential, commercial & industrial. Study after study shows that behavior modification is based on information and example. A smarter grid will offer better information, and pervasively spread improved business models.

This also means that policy is an integral part of Smart Grid: effective open standards cannot be created outside of regulatory and policy considerations. This includes policies focusing on the central role of the consumer; the need to protect his or her privacy and the integrity of his or her personal information; and the impetus to provide him or her with timely and precise energy consumption information are central drivers of these projects across the globe.

As the data models and requirements, on which data structures are built, circulate and finalize, we expect end-user stakeholders in industrial and consumer sectors to become increasingly vocal active participants in their creation and maintenance.

As with today’s Internet, electricity grids often interconnect across national boundaries. The expected savings and reduction in carbon emissions are meant to achieve planetary, not national, goals. The standards we develop must be international as well, to meet global interoperability needs, and spread the benefits of increased features, safety and sustainability to all. Liaisons among global SDOs and regional organizations are multiplying for this reason. Increasingly, the players also are starting to grapple with the higher levels of clarity, license availability, cross-vendor neutrality, and formal open process needed for specifications to safely and readily achieve widespread cross-border adoption.

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.

European Commissioner Kroes has recently stated that “Interoperability encourages competition on the merits between technologies from different companies, and helps prevent lock-in. Standards are the foundation of interoperability.” But Maurits Dolmans emphasizes that care must be taken to balance between the two conflicting market failures which characterize the ICT sector: the “tragedy of the commons” and the “tragedy of the anti-commons”.

“Both of which must be resolved if IT innovation is to flourish and lock-in avoided. This involves a careful balancing of IPR protection and standardsetting, while avoiding hold-up and preserving opportunities for the significant innovation provided by the open source movement”.

On the one hand encouraging innovation by allowing for creators to recover sunk R&D costs, while on the other hand balancing the risk of patent thickets, and the modern day “commercial counterpart of Dick Turpin’s ‘Your money or your life’” – patent “hold-up”. The latter leading to the ubiquitous industry portfolio of countervailing patents – a cold war of sorts with patents as the proverbial nuclear arsenal.

However, Dolmans suggests that an established ‘common standard’ which is truly open allows the “best of breed” components from different manufacturers to be combined, with maximum efficiency. To qualify as “open” a standard must meet a number of conditions:

• Open access to the decision-making process
• Open (transparent and undistorted) procedures
• Open (published, pro-competitive) goals
• Open (published, objective, relevant) criteria for technology selection
• No over-standardization
• Open access to the standard:
…….o Open information on blocking patents
…….o No unjustified refusal to license
…….o Fair pricing

Moreover, the article suggests that while royalty-free licensing is advisable in the software arena – allowing both open source and proprietary software to compete on quality and functionality – the telecommunications sectors is best served by the use of FRAND licensing.

“Mandating royalty-free licensing would likely recreate a tragedy of commons and discourage innovation, while allowing IPR owners to charge at will could create a tragedy of anticommons. To strike the right balance, therefore, a contract of mutual restraint is necessary”.

.

A Tale of Two Tragedies – A plea for open standards:
Maurits Dolmans (2010) @ www.ifosslr.org
http://www.ifosslr.org/ifosslr/article/view/46/72

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.

What is a Smart Grid?

What is a Smart Grid? How should it look like? Well, the answer depends on who you ask.
There is a general consensus that:

-          The Smart Grid should be ‘smart’, i.e. should have intelligence in the network.
-          The Smart Grid will bring at least three industries together – existing power utilities, telecoms, IT.  It will also provide a boost to a fourth industry segment (home networking).

Thus, in the context of Smart Grids, the ‘network’ now spans the Power network, Telecoms network and the home network with a new set of applications being built by the services industry. This is a challenge no doubt.

On the Supply side, the Smart grid will be / will imply:

-          Smart Grids are more than conventional utilities since we will move away from predictable billing to dynamic pricing
-          Smart grids imply lower operational costs
-          Smart Grids would imply faster equipment renewal cycles
-          New competitors will enter the space from outside the ecosystem(ex Internet players)
-          Smart Grids will provide better analytics

For Governments, the Smart Grid will be:

-          A new ecosystem an opportunity for competitive positioning of their respective economies globally
-          A chance to be potentially involved in Standards
-          A chance to manage security threats

For customers:

-          Customers don’t know about Smart Grids but they do care about them
-          Customers want lower bills
-          They want to be in control of bills
-          They may be producers of energy in future

Smart grid technology could span

-          Power grids
-          Networks – including fixed and mobile networks
-          Home networks
-          In car networks

Society could be impacted by

-          Promotion of Green issues/ Green issues
-          Privacy concerns arising from Smart Grid deployment

How would Smart Grid look like from a services perspective?

-          Smart Grids could proactively detect problems before they arise
-          Smart Grids could mirror production of energy against consumption of energy by balancing supply and demand
-          Sensor measurements inside network would enable rapid management and diagnostics
-          Consumers could become producers
-          Consumers could become traders by buying and selling energy perhaps to the Grid
-          Smart Grids would enable better management of demand(low blackout probability)
-          Smart Grids would allow us to intelligently manage  home devices
-          Smart Grids would lead to Self healing networks
-          The ‘meter reading man’ would be a thing of the past
-          Smart Grid would connect diverse generation mechanisms
-          Electric cars could become more popular
-          Smart Grids would help advanced sensing of issues and remote diagnostics of problems
-          Smart Grids would lead to better decision support through trend analysis of data
-          Smart Grids would imply a Bi-directional flow of energy
-          Smart Grids would motivating for customers(would encourage customers to change their energy consumption , behavior and usage patterns)
-          Smart Grids would enable innovation and ‘Edge of network’ services through a start-up culture for fostering new innovation.’

Smart Grid Standards

Smart Grid standardization is complex. Purely because Smart Grids bring three domains together: IT, energy and telecoms. Each has existing value chains and standardization along with different industry cycles.

The task is as complex as putting a person on the moon but with the added dimension of requiring collaboration not just by one but by several industries. Standards are designed to achieve interoperability. Interoperability for smart grids can be viewed at three levels: the device level, network level and services level. Device level interoperability is relatively easy, but interoperability on the other two levels is much more complex. Standards are important but they are not sufficient for Smart Grids, since Smart Grids span domains. Formal standardization process has limitations because standardization aims for consensus through compromises. Standards provide a measure of stability but they need to be augmented by user groups. Hence, Standards Need User Groups to create implementation agreements by reducing the number of options. This strategy has worked well in other domains like WiFi through groups like the WiFi alliance.

Why Smart Grid standardization is different?

Smart Grid standardization is different from other standards approaches for the same reason of its complexity. Smart Grids have complex functional requirements and since they span domains, there is potentially an additional step which is involved in collecting all these functional requirements. This additional step is not seen in other domain specific standard initiatives.

To achieve this goal, NIST set up the Smart Grid Interoperability Standards Project. SGIP is an independent requirements gathering organization created by NIST but independent of NIST. Once requirements have been identified, they are expected to be passed to existing Standards Development Organizations (SDOs). This approach has some advantages since requirements are gathered from across the affected industries independent of technology and then standardized by different SDOs. In Oct 2010, NIST identified five “foundational” sets of standards for Smart Grid interoperability and cyber security that are ready for consideration by federal and state energy regulators.

The standards and their functions are:

-          IEC 61970 and IEC 61968: Providing a Common Information Model (CIM) necessary for exchanges of data between devices and networks, primarily in the transmission (IEC 61970) and distribution (IEC 61968) domains
-          IEC 61850: Facilitating substation automation and communication as well as interoperability through a common data format.
-          IEC 60870-6: Facilitating exchanges of information between control centers.
-          IEC 62351:  Addressing the cyber security of the communication protocols defined by the preceding IEC standards.

Conclusion and Questions

We cannot attempt to solve twenty first century problems with twentieth century processes. Smart Grids are a bold attempt to create new infrastructure and thus new value for customers, enterprises, innovators and Governments. It brings together previously discrete industries – specifically electricity generation, Telecoms and the Internet. It creates new collaborators and competitors.

But if we build it, will they come? And how do we decide what to build? While Smart grids are new, networks are not. As networks evolve, they shift innovation to the edge. The edge of the smart grid is the home network, the automotive network. All these are driven by customers. So, the goal should be to empower customers and not hinder innovation.

In terms of standardization, the approach of gathering functional requirements through a separate body like SGIP is unique. The only analogies perhaps are in Japan with government led bodies like MITI taking an active role in standardization. Will this be a new trend for cross domain services? Certainly technologies like NFC (Near field communication) have been mired because they span two domains (transportation and telecoms).

But much remains to be seen. The five foundational standards initially identified by NIST include mostly device and network layer standards. My personal view is that it is good if we can standardize those layers. Conceptually, that is like standardizing the IP and http protocols. I think the efforts of bodies like NIST should be focused at that layer. This will allow industry to focus on the application and service layers and bring in new innovation.

At this point, we can only say that we are exploring uncharted waters and smart grid standardization is different from what we have seen before.

Apologies for last week, I had to teach my course at Oxford University and so it was difficult to do the week in standards last week. But we are back this week covering both weeks, and a lot has happened in the world of standards in the last two weeks as we see below.

Lets start with Web Standards:

Web standards

HTML5
HTML5 is the future of web standards but last week, W3C, the governing body for Web standards sounded a note of caution for HTML5 on grounds of (a lack of) privacy and interoperability. Philippe Le Hegaret of the W3C said “we should hold off on deploying HTML5 for now“. Actually, in a stricter sense, HTML5 won’t be ready till 2022 as a W3C recommendation (yes 2022 – the end of the world may come sooner!).  But developers and web sites are not waiting, last week Facebook rebuffs W3C’s HTML5 caution and David Recordon, Facebook’s senior open programs manager, published a description of how Facebook is using HTML5 right now and added that “Our engineering teams started shipping HTML5 functionality over the past few months and we’re quite excited by what’s already possible.”

So, when it comes to HTML5, it seems that developers are not going to wait for W3C standards! Meanwhile, Adobe, which stands to be potentially affected most by HTML5, will support both Web and Mobile apps and is also increasingly supporting HTML5. However, the overall vision of Web standards and open standards for the web is re-emphasised with the belief that the Web will last for 500 years.

Web Appstores
In another important evolution of Web standards, Mozilla has released technical documentation of a proposed open ecosystem for web apps that’s built on standards such as HTML, CSS and JavaScript. The storefront and apps offered through it will be usable across both desktop and mobile devices that use modern browsers. Mozilla itself will not build an appstore but will instead provide the technologies for others to build their own appstores. This approach contrasts to the forthcoming Google Chrome appstore which will be a commercial ecosystem managed by Google. The Chrome appstore will need users and developers to be using the Chrome browser. Thus, we are seeing some interesting commercial developments on the browser front.

Open v.s. more Open
Another interesting debate is brewing in the world of standards with questions about what is ‘open’ – raised by Steve Jobs in relation to Apple v.s. Android. Android (Google) responded to the criticism by saying that Android was more successful because it was more open. But this article – “How to stop Apple and Google’s great web lockdown“ - provides a more balanced perspective:

“Open…and Shut Both Google and Apple are vying to win the “Most Open Platform” prize in the mobile computing beauty pageant, but neither deserves the blue ribbon. Both companies make serious compromises in order to retain control of their platforms. But the emerging HTML5 standard, with a heavy dose of JavaScript, may up-end both companies’ attempts to lock down apps to their respective platforms.”

And facebook developer Joe Hewitt points out:

“Hewitt argues that Android is only open after the fact. That is, the company only releases code after it is complete:Until Android is read/write open, it’s no different than iOS to me. Open source means sharing control with the community, not show and tell.”

Now, over to privacy standards.

Privacy standards

Not for the first time, facebook has been accused of privacy breach and has now promised to encrypt user IDs to block inadvertent sharing. Meanwhile Esther Dyson sees privacy as a marketing problem.

The UK government has revived it’s plan of storing details of every email, web page visit  and phone conversation made from the UK and new domains for privacy continue to be explored – like Digital signage – and Web TV continues to be blocked by some cable networks on the grounds of privacy.

Privacy is increasingly becoming a key battleground but, on the other hand, we see considerable ambiguity on the actual mechanisms and concerns especially from the Government.

Cloud standards

For cloud standards, there are variations at a regional level.  Microsoft calls for APEC cloud harmony and at a national level (for the USA), NIST continues to take a deep interest in cloud standards. Meanwhile in Europe, RSA says that demonstration of cloud security compliance could potentially be an expensive business.

From a technological perspective across geography, there is now for the first time a discussion on standards for M2M(machine to machine) and the cloud, and ofcourse the first version of the Open Stack release is out.

Smart Grid Standards

The first set of Smart Grid standards have been submitted to the energy regulators for approval. A set of five foundational technical standards for Smart Grid interoperability and security have undergone a cybersecurity review by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and have been submitted to federal regulators for adoption. IEC meanwhile have announced an online Smart Grid mapping solution standard.

Telecoms‎

In India, the 2nd International Conference on Green Telecom was held in New Delhi to discuss the greater use of non-conventional energy resources in telecom and how pollution still can be further lowered and in China, the Chinese press celebrates that China’s homegrown fourth-generation (4G) mobile communication standard has been selected as one of six global benchmarks by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) – see Chinese 4G mobile standard goes global.

‎This concludes the week in standards.

Our post of the week is this link which is the future of TV is HTML(5) – a deeply insightful and disruptive post both for TV and the Web.

Kind regards,

Ajit

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.

However, over the course of the last two centuries, U.S. government policy has reflected an appreciation that industry is typically the most efficient and informed, the most capable of developing standards. And as our system has evolved, the U.S. federal government policy has come to reflect a strong preference for developing standards in the private sector with a concomitant aversion to government-unique standards. This course is not unique to the U.S. The nations of the European Union, and most of the developed and developing world have followed this same course. This week I will discuss the significant U.S. laws, and next, the most notable U.S. statements of policy.

In 2005, ANSI published the U.S. Department of Commerce endorsed The United States Standards Strategy. As the introduction to the USSS states, “Voluntary consensus standards are at the foundation of the U.S. economy. . . . The United States is a market-driven, highly diversified society, and its standards system encompasses and reflects this framework. . . . [A] standards system is strengthened whenever standards developers share a common vision for meeting stakeholders needs . . . . Standards are essential to a sound national economy and to the facilitation of global commerce.”

Congress has expressed statutorily a strong preference for private sector-developed standards and restraint in government mandating standards. In enacting the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995 (NTTAA), Congress formally adopted into law what had since 1980 been the policy of the Executive Branch and embodied in guidance to federal agencies issued by the Office of Management and Budget, OMB Circular A-119. With the NTTAA, Congress required federal agencies to abide by a preference for voluntary standards over government-specific standards. The preference for market-developed standards is evident in the report language that accompanied the NTTAA. To assure absolute clarity, the House Committee Report stated: “It is . . . the intent of the Committee to make private sector-developed consensus standards the rule, rather than the exception.” (H.R. REP. NO. 104-390, at 25 (1995)). The 1998 revision of OMB Circular A-119 clarified that it had “not been the intent of the Circular to create the basis for discrimination among standards developed in the private sector, whether consensus-based or, alternatively, industry-based or company-based.” Thus, it is clear that the federal government preference is not only to rely on private sector developed standards, but those standards developed in the full range of private-sector forums.

Furthering the intent of Congress, the USSS is intended to guide American standards policies and U.S. trade relations as they implicate standards. The 2005 United States Standards Strategy set as its cornerstone the process of sector-specific, market-driven, private sector led standards, not a top-down, one-size-fits-all approach as found in some other countries. The USSS is based on the proposition that the U.S. standards system is the most innovative “through alliances and processes provided by companies, associations, standards developing organizations, consortia and collaborative projects. . . . This market-driven, private sector-led approach to global standardization is substantially different from the top-down approach favored in many other countries. . . . [Stakeholders] continue to explore new modalities of standards development. Organizations such as consortia and Internet-based processes that enable worldwide participation of stakeholders are creating an innovative environment that is becoming increasingly important in the global marketplace.”

Regardless of the process used to develop a standard, formal standards should be developed according to globally accepted principles of transparency, openness (participation by all stakeholders), impartiality, consensus, coherence to avoid overlapping or conflicting standards, due process so all views are considered and with assistance to stakeholders that may not have adequate technical expertise, particularly those in foreign countries, and should be performance based. “[T]he process should be [f]lexible, allowing the use of different methodologies to meet the needs of different sectors; [t]imely so administrative matters do not result in a failure to meet market expectations; and [b]alanced among all affected interests.” Governments should encourage flexible standards solutions and rely on standards from diverse sources, including consortia and forums. According to the USSS, as a matter of its strategic vision, the standards community is committed to the notion that “[g]overnments rely on voluntary consensus standards as much as possible in regulation and procurement rather than creating additional regulatory requirements.”

The results of the enactment of the NTTAA are noteworthy. During fiscal year 2004, federal agencies reported using 4,559 private sector standards developed by the private sector. In contrast, during the same year, they reported using only 71 government-unique standards. The impact of the NTTAA can be observed in regard to many key federal agencies that rely on standards.

The Federal Communications Commission has also articulated a preference that standards be developed in the marketplace rather than by governmental fiat. (19 F.C.C.R. 3239, 3259 ¶48 (2004) (stating “[w]e prefer, as a general policy, to allow market forces to determine technical standards wherever possible, and to avoid mandating detailed hardware design requirements for telecommunications equipment, except where doing so is necessary to achieve a specific public interest goal.”)). The Communications Act requires that the Commission regularly review all of its regulations to determine whether they are still necessary, given the current state of competition. These Biennial Reviews of Regulations have reflected a deregulatory approach. For example, in 2000, the Commission eliminated some 130 pages of technical specifications in the FCC rules for telephone terminal equipment. Instead, the FCC articulated the principles it sought to serve and left standards development to the private sector.

As evidence of adherence to the principles, under the auspices of the FCC, HDTV standards were developed in a consortium standards-setting process (humbly named the Grand Alliance) under the auspices of the standards-setting organization, the Advanced Television Systems Committee, and subsequently ratified by the FCC.

Another example of the impact of the NTTAA and OMB Circular A-119 can be found in the Department of Defense policies on standards. In 1994, Secretary of Defense William Perry issued a transformative memorandum entitled “Specifications and Standards—A New Way of Doing Business” (often referred to as “MilSPEC Reform”) that set out as a priority for the Department of Defense the increase in use of commercial technologies and the use of performance standards and commercial specifications and standards in “in lieu of military specifications and standards, unless no practical alternative exists to meet the user’s needs.” MilSPEC Reform highlights the importance the federal government placed on taking the government out of the technical specifications-setting role. Thus, the Department of Defense, with a long history of setting government-specific standards (highly regarded standards, at that) shifted policy dramatically to participation in the free market development of standards and in fact, more frequent adoption of off-the-shelf solutions.

Even where public safety and law enforcement are concerned, the U.S. government does not often mandate a standard. For example, pursuant to CALEA, another U.S. law, telecommunications companies are required to provide the FBI technical access to intercept telephone communications through what are commonly known as “wiretaps.” Compliance requires that carriers develop their networks to ensure that they can deliver specific types of information to law enforcement agencies. However, the FCC did not mandate a particular technology or methodology for compliance. Instead, the FCC created a “safe harbor” for compliance, by endorsing standardized interception technologies, developed through a private-sector voluntary consensus process. Telephone service carriers and manufacturers are presumptively in compliance when they implement those standards.

The NTTAA and the policy statements that flow from the law make it clear that the U.S. government is generally opposed to government intervention into the standards marketplace. Next, I will discuss U.S. trade policy and how GATT Technical Barriers to Trade Agreement promote international (and therefore market-developed) standards as fundamental to unfettered trade.

In September last year I reported on the struggle that the Goggle Chrome web browser had faced in gaining a market foothold despite superior technical performance, standards compliance and emphasis on Open Source, compared to market leader Internet Explorer. (The original post can be found here). At the time of writing, Sony had recently announced that all Sony branded netbooks would begin shipping with Chrome pre-installed.

Since then Chrome’s market share has more than doubled from 3.17% in Sept 2009 to 7.24% in July 2010. While still a fraction of Internet Explorer’s market position, Chrome has grown almost exponentially since late 2008.

Similarly, IBM’s Bob Sutor recently blogged upon his company’s official shift to the Mozilla Firefox browser. While admitting that many within the company (400,000 employees worldwide) already prefer the browser, he reports that from now on the official policy will see that “all IBM employees will be asked to use it as their default browser”. (Although legitimate as corporate policy, one can question the efficiency of top-down mandating the use of a particular browser rather than merits-based choices by users.)

While IE continues to command a 60% market share, this has been declining. Presented below are market share estimates from December 2007 and July 2010 (source). Within the two and half years between estimates, IE’s market share has fallen almost 20 percentage points (a 24% reduction) of which almost half has accrued to Firefox. This is a significant decrease within a relatively short period of time.

Over a longer timeframe, presented below (source: Wikimedia Commons, user arichnad), we see that within the last 5 years the market has evolved from essentially a single browser with a few fringe players. Despite antitrust authority concerns, the market accordingly shows a healthy degree of competition.

The increased focus on open source and standards–compliant application will in many regards make alternative browsers a reality. This will further spur competition and innovation, improving the user experience.

There is a curious paradox which we are seeing increasingly. We see closed systems built on open standards and open source. I illustrate the phenomenon giving three instances below (Apple and Facetime, Open source and the Cloud and SPDY – the proposed new protocol from Google to replace HTTP). I seek comments on these.

APPLE AND FACE TIME

Face time is a mechanism on the new iPhone 4 devices for person to person video calling. Face time includes a whole slew of Open standards (source imtc blog) including H.264, AAC, SIP, STUN, TURN, ICE, RTP, and SRTP. For instance, H.264 is a video compression standard; AAC is an advanced audio coding standard, SIP (Session Initiation Protocol) is the de-facto standard of IP Communications solutions, including both Voice and Video communications; STUN, TURN and ICE are typically used together to support Firewall and NAT traversal functionality; RTP (Real-time Transport Protocol), is used in Voice and Video over IP implementations to carry over real-time media; SRTP supports encryption, message authentication and integrity and is widely used in both IP Video and Voice implementations.

Thus, we have a wide range of open and industry standards but collectively, the Apple Face time system is closed and not interoperable. By that, I mean the system can only be used to make video calls to another person on iPhone version 4 (not even previous versions of the iPhone) on wifi (cellular connections will not do!). This totally goes against the principles of network effects and interoperability but nevertheless it is a system getting a lot of traction in the press whereas the many previous attempts to create a standardised person to person video calling from standards bodies like 3GPPP are yet to be accepted by the industry commercially from (3GPP R4 onwards).

CLOUD AND OPEN SOURCE

There has been a lot of discussion for the Cloud computing and Open source. But much of it is vendor driven and does not really address the core principles behind the issue. Hence, it was interesting to see this blog from James Urquhart – The intersection of open source and cloud computing.

To summarise the key discussion in the above blog: (emphasis mine)

1) The definition of IT infrastructure has shifted significantly in the last 15 years or so, and much of that term now encompasses software as well as hardware. Operating systems have long been considered infrastructure in the world of client-server. Middleware and data bases, such as J2EE application servers and relational database management systems have also been largely described as common infrastructure.

2) A very common practice in enterprise IT organizations is to create standard builds of key software infrastructure stacks, to create a common operations framework on which application code is the only variant–at least in theory.

3) As many of these infrastructure components shifted to open-source options, they received a tremendous amount of attention from application developers. The reason for this was two-fold. The first was the fact that these projects were available for download for free–a characteristic the average developer loves in tools and infrastructure. The second is that developers were free to manipulate the entire software infrastructure stack if they so chose–though most rarely, if ever, actually did so.

4) Developers who wanted to play with infrastructure code were able to do so for two reasons: Firstly, the source code and instructions for building the software were freely available for manipulation on the developer’s own system and secondly, the developer could then build and deploy the software on said system to test and then utilize any changes.

5) What changes in cloud computing is that deployment of infrastructure software is strictly under the control of the cloud service provider. If I’m a user of Google App Engine, for example, I can’t go into the source code for their management systems, change something to suit me, and push it out to the wider Google service environment. Of course, we want it that way–it would be ridiculous to allow anyone who wants to change the way App Engine works to affect all other users of that environment. The security implications alone make that completely unreasonable, much less the other operational problems it would present.

6) Which means that the only users of open-source infrastructure projects in the public cloud are the cloud providers. They may see themselves as responsible users of open source and contribute back, or they may not. In any case, the incentive for the average application developer to delve into infrastructure code is weakened, if not outright removed.

This last point is critical – there is no real incentive for the average developer to contribute code to open source cloud initiatives and even if they did so, there is no guarantee (ex the Google App Engine example above), that such changes would be accepted. Thus, open source and cloud have some incompatibilities by the above perspective.

SPDY – THE NEW PROPOSED OPEN SOURCE REPLACEMENT for HTTP from Google

Google wants to speed up the Web by ditching HTTP and replacing it by a new protocol called SPDY. In a nutshell (source Wikipedia), SPDY is a TCP-based application-level protocol for transporting web content. Created by Google, the goal of SPDY is to reduce web page load time. This is achieved by prioritizing and multiplexing the transfer of several files so that only one connection per client is required. All transmissions are SSL encrypted and gzip compressed by design (in contrast to HTTP, the headers are compressed too). Moreover, servers may hint or even push content instead of awaiting individual requests for each resource of a web page.

This is all well and good but as the ars technica article points out there are some issues:

1) Mandatory use of SSL is not always needed: So should we all praise Google and switch to SPDY forthwith? Not quite yet. With the mandatory SSL encryption and gzip compression, SPDY will hit server and client CPUs much harder than traditional HTTP. Of course HTTP also runs over SSL in many cases, but there’s also lots of content out there that doesn’t need encryption. Making SSL mandatory is a strange move that has the potential to increase the number of people who don’t bother getting a proper certificate for their server, meaning that users will become even more blasé about ignoring the resulting security warnings. This, in turn, would pave the way for more man-in-the-middle attacks.

2) SSL on small devices: On small devices, SSL slows down the communication significantly, and because it can’t be cached, SSL-protected sites are often slower on big machines as well. The extra CPU cycles also mean that more servers are needed to handle the same number of clients.

3) Designed by web people rather than network people: It also looks like this protocol is designed by Web people, rather than network people. How the IETF applications area will respond to this effort is a big unknown. For instance, one thing that isn’t mentioned in the protocol specification is how a browser knows that it should set up a SPDY connection rather than an HTTP connection. Are we going to see SPDY:// in URLs rather than HTTP://? That wouldn’t work with browsers that don’t support the new protocol.

Some more comments:

1) Traditionally, bodies like IETF did not replace protocols wholesale. Rather, they added features incrementally thus providing a backward compatibility path to existing users.

2) The protocol may be open source but I expect that the governance model is still managed by Google. This has implications to which features are chosen to be implemented in the protocol.

3) The ‘network’ guys who may not be very happy with this could create their own version of the protocol and could also ‘open source’ it under their own governance model. This will create two versions of the protocol – both ‘open sourced’.

4) Historically, funding for the Internet protocol development came directly or indirectly from bodies such as the National Science Foundation and DARPA and companies did not get involved in low level protocols – open sourced or not.

While it is good to talk of evolution of HTTP, much more thinking needs to be done about the mechanism of this change and the belief that it is open source may not be sufficient in itself.

CONCLUSION

In all these cases, the interpretation of Open vs. Closed is relative. It depends on perspective. It also ties to innovation. The conclusion, if any, is that this is a scope for debate and that the previous, relatively simple demarcation between Open vs. closed may not be so clear with Cloud, Mobility and other emerging domains