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Having actually helped to write some standards (W3C, BSI, etc) I can say this is occasionally true, but mostly false, in my experience. It's a cute cliche, but
by sh1mmer 17y ago
Having actually helped to write some standards (W3C, BSI, etc) I can say this is occasionally true, but mostly false, in my experience.
It's a cute cliche, but I think there are other issues behind the apparent grinding pace of standards, particularly web standards.
- gamble 17y agoI've been told that the political machinations on the committees that decide hardware standards are far more cutthroat than software standards. Software patents aren't very lucrative, whereas owning a patent that's necessary to implement a hardware standard with millions of licensed devices (networking, media, etc) can be worth an awful lot of money for the patent holder.
- philwelch 17y agoThat makes sense. In software, markets have more say in standards than standards bodies. This can be good and bad (such as when IE-HTML/CSS becomes the market standard rather than W3C HTML/CSS).