February 2007

Essential and Accidental in Standards

February 25, 2007

The earliest standards were created to support the administration of the government, which in antiquity primarily consisted of religion, justice, taxation and warfare. Crucial standards included the calendar, units of length, area, volume and weight, and uniform coinage. Uniform coinage in particular was a significant advance. Previously, financial transactions occurred only by barter or by [...]

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Standards and Enablement

February 24, 2007

I’d like to synthesize some thoughts I’ve been having in recent weeks. But before I do that, let’s have a joke: A Harvard Divinity School student reviews a proposed dissertation topic with his advisor. The professor looks over the abstract for a minute and gives his initial appraisal. “You are proposing an interesting theory here, [...]

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The Anatomy of Interoperability

February 20, 2007

I’d like to talk a little about about interoperability. Although I’ll concentrate on document formats, the concepts here are of wider applicability. Wherever you have standards and implementations, these are some of the issues that you will want to consider. Rather than attempting the reckless frontal assault of defining interoperability, I’ll take an oblique approach [...]

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Washing Machines are not Lamps

February 14, 2007

Microsoft standards attorney David Rudin has posted his thoughts on my How Standards Bring Consumers Choice, in a post titled Floor Lamps are not Software. David correctly points out that some appliances, like washing machines or electric dryers, with higher power requirements, have a different plug design. “Clearly, a one size standard does not fit [...]

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The World Ends on May 1st, 2010

February 13, 2007

Actually, at 6:45AM by my calculations. According to ZDNet’s Dan Farber, quoting an IBM whitepaper, by 2010, “the world’s information base will be doubling in size every 11 hours.” Every 11 hours? That’s quite a statement. Let’s see what this means. The largest storage system in the universe is the universe. (Let that sink in [...]

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How Standards Bring Consumers Choice

February 10, 2007

This is an essay on the choices that standards enable. By laying out a framework for ensuring interoperable, interchangeable and substitutable components, standards make it easier for you, the consumer, to shop with confidence and take full advantage of the choices offered in the marketplace. Let’s take the humble floor lamp as an example, and [...]

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Once More unto the Breach

February 9, 2007

Stephen Walli has a blog, Once More unto the Breach. He writes mainly about open standards/open source, with a solid business/legal angle. He also has hands-on experience with standards development in the IEEE and ISO with POSIX, and an interesting perspective from his broad experience in the industry, including working with standards and community development [...]

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Here today, gone tomorrow

February 8, 2007

The Ecma OOXML web site has been updated. The version of the OOXML specification which was submitted to JTC1 is not longer there. Instead we have a new version, generated on February 1st. I have no idea if the content of the new version differs in any substantial way from the older version, but it [...]

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Merely a flesh wound?

February 8, 2007

The subject is the 19 contradictions JTC1 member countries submitted at the end of their 30-day contradiction ballot. Andy Updegrove broke the story. Since that post came out there has been some interesting spin placed on these results, spin that I’m seeing popping up in several places. I’ll give you a few examples, and than [...]

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A Barleywine

February 4, 2007

According to the BJCP style guidelines, an English Barleywine is: The richest and strongest of the English Ales. A showcase of malty richness and complex, intense flavors. The character of these ales can change significantly over time; both young and old versions should be appreciated for what they are. The malt profile can vary widely; [...]