4 ms·

People want to get paid for their work, and we need rigorous authors and vetting. Who will pay?

by mozman 3y ago

explaininjs 3y ago
Commercial enterprises could pay a licensing/verification fee that gets split between the spec authors and third party verifiers. After all, isn’t the entire value of a spec in the verification that it is correctly implemented?
- layer8 3y ago
  The Opinion argues that those affected by the standards, for example citizens buying products subject to the standards, should be able to know what those standards are, and at least in principle be enabled to verify if the standards are met. Requiring third-party verifiers would be a way to deny ordinary citizens free access to the standards.
  - explaininjs 3y ago
    As a consume I might be able to read the standard freely, but I have no interest in buying all the electronic test bench equipment necessary to, for instance, verify that the USB-C charger I bought is fully compliant. However I’d be happy to pay an extra dollar or so to have a trusted third party do so. To put my money where my mouth is, I only buy certified “made for iPhone”/“certified Magsafe compatible” accessories now and have had a much better experience than I did before.
codedokode 3y ago
Should we make ordinary laws also paid? The lawyers earn ridiculous profits so it is only fair that they share some of it with law authors.
dwheeler 3y ago
The people who will pay will be the same people who currently pay.The authors of standards are usually not paid by the standards bodies and get no royalties. They and their companies even have to pay for the travel required. The technical reviewers are also often not paid by the standards bodies. The purpose of the current system is to defray the costs of the printing press, since there was no other way to disseminate information 100 years ago. Now that we have the Internet, paying for individual standards is unjustifiable and should be ended. This is made worse because of the increasing number of standards that effect anything useful. Countless problems have happened because people cannot affordably access the hundreds of standards they are supposed to be using.
dotnet00 3y ago
I've always been a fan of the model followed by Khronos for their graphics standards. The documentation is open to everyone, while companies pay for participation and compliance certification.

People want to get paid for their work, and we need rigorous authors and vetting. Who will pay?

by mozman 3y ago

People want to get paid for their work, and we need rigorous authors and vetting. Who will pay?

Commercial enterprises could pay a licensing/verification fee that gets split between the spec authors and third party verifiers. After all, isn’t the entire value of a spec in the verification that it is correctly implemented?

layer8 3y ago
The Opinion argues that those affected by the standards, for example citizens buying products subject to the standards, should be able to know what those standards are, and at least in principle be enabled to verify if the standards are met. Requiring third-party verifiers would be a way to deny ordinary citizens free access to the standards.
- explaininjs 3y ago
  As a consume I might be able to read the standard freely, but I have no interest in buying all the electronic test bench equipment necessary to, for instance, verify that the USB-C charger I bought is fully compliant. However I’d be happy to pay an extra dollar or so to have a trusted third party do so. To put my money where my mouth is, I only buy certified “made for iPhone”/“certified Magsafe compatible” accessories now and have had a much better experience than I did before.

codedokode 3y ago

Should we make ordinary laws also paid? The lawyers earn ridiculous profits so it is only fair that they share some of it with law authors.

dwheeler 3y ago

The people who will pay will be the same people who currently pay.The authors of standards are usually not paid by the standards bodies and get no royalties. They and their companies even have to pay for the travel required. The technical reviewers are also often not paid by the standards bodies. The purpose of the current system is to defray the costs of the printing press, since there was no other way to disseminate information 100 years ago. Now that we have the Internet, paying for individual standards is unjustifiable and should be ended. This is made worse because of the increasing number of standards that effect anything useful. Countless problems have happened because people cannot affordably access the hundreds of standards they are supposed to be using.

dotnet00 3y ago

I've always been a fan of the model followed by Khronos for their graphics standards. The documentation is open to everyone, while companies pay for participation and compliance certification.