Advanced Topics in Information Technology Standards And Standardization Research

More than five years have passed since Idea Group Publishing (IGP) published my first edited book on IT standards and standardisation. Back then, this was a fairly arcane topic, discussed in only a comparably small number of papers, in very few books, and at even fewer conferences.

Luckily, this situation is improving. More and more people realise the true importance of the role standards play in almost all aspects of our lives. I quite like to quote documents published by the European Commission at such occasions, and this one is no exception: “Voluntary standards, properly used, can help establish the compatibility of innovative concepts and products with related products and so can be a key enabler for innovation.” It seems that (even) policy makers are realising the potential of properly done standards, and the impact standards have on innovation. It remains to be seen whether we will also eventually see policy making being informed by standardisation.

Of course, this holds particularly for information and communication technologies. We are surrounded by ICT artefacts and services: Cameras are controlled by microprocessors, and so are cars and telephone handsets. The same also holds for an ever-increasing number of other gadgets that by now are integral parts of our daily lives. And as many of these devices need to interoperate in one way or another, it is safe to say that (interoperability) standards form one of the pillars of what in Europe is called the “Information Society.” The Internet, which may be considered another such pillar, probably would not even exist without standards.