I've witnessed some Standards negotiation in a previous job, involving the Khronos OpenMAX standard (which is DirectShow/GStreamer for mixed HW/SW multimedia co

I've witnessed some Standards negotiation in a previous job, involving the Khronos OpenMAX standard (which is DirectShow/GStreamer for mixed HW/SW multimedia codecs). My company and another had opposing solutions to a problem, which made opposite tradeoffs and opposite implementations (ours worked better for a more HW-focused solution, theirs for a more SW-focused solution) How does one choose? In the end, it's backroom negotiation, diplomacy, and compromise. In other words, politics.