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"I like standards - there are so many to choose from", has been a standing joke for many years in information and communication technology (ICT) circles. Standards are an essential part of our society; they define how entities work together, from mobile phone networks to screw threads for nuts and bolts.
As with most jokes, a grain of truth lies just below the surface. It's no joke that with so much R&D taking place in the ICT domain, there's the risk that new standards will be prone to overlap and duplication. How can research projects ensure that their results actually fill a void in this sea of standards, and avoid duplication of effort? The C-ECOM project, run by CEN/ISSS, offers a solution.
Fragmentation can be a problem:
Worldwide there's a lot of ICT research being carried out. The European Commission's IST research programme, alone, has funded around 2,500 projects. The duration of these projects is between two to four years, a long time in the world of ICT.
"The overall problem with standardisation in the ICT sector is fragmentation", says John Ketchell, director of CEN/ISSS. "As a consequence, it's difficult for people to get a clear picture of who's doing what. At any one time, there are around 300 open standards consortia dealing with various issues, but people don't know what these are and what they hope to achieve."
C-ECOM (cluster for e-commerce) is an IST project that has created a successful clustering mechanism for standardisation. It brings together IST projects that have a need for e-commerce standards and supports them with the standardisation process. "We identified the projects that were interested in the work of C-ECOM", comments Ketchell. "We advised them of the standards process, and in return they told us of standards activities within their respective sectors."
It's not generally known, for example, that the development of standards can be fast-tracked and that the process can start even before a project has reached completion. Some IST projects naturally fall into clusters, and the CEN/ISSS Open Environment provides a really useful platform for the cross-fertilisation of ideas and results. This benefits IST projects in a number of ways: results and experience achieve greater visibility, and those from strategic areas such as e-commerce can find wider applicability.
Harmonisation - the key to standards:
The importance of standards cannot be understated. "The key issue is harmonisation: it diminishes trade barriers, promotes safety, allows interoperability of products, systems and services, and promotes common technical understanding", says Ketchell.
"CEN is a recognised European Standards Organisation. As such, its consensus-building activities take account of the interests of all stakeholders, including industry, regulators, end-user organisations and consumers. CEN works through procedures which guarantee respect for the principles of openness, transparency and consensus."
Ketchell adds that, "combining the rapid process of industry consortia with the security offered by the open consensus of traditional standardisation, CEN/ISSS provides an open process combining the tried and tested backing of the formal standardisation environment with a fast, market-driven approach. CEN/ISSS produces technical specifications, good practice and other guidance material to improve harmonisation and interoperability."
A forum where project results are more visible:
The work of C-ECOM is illustrated by Dr Michel Boehms of TNO Building and Construction Research, leader of the eConstruct project. "We were worried about resistance to the project's results. Through C-ECOM, the project has found an environment that ensures high visibility. There are many projects working on the harmonisation of e-commerce technologies. Building an industry consensus around our results is no easy task; with over 350 industry consortia working on informal ICT "standards", finding the right path to expand the project's constituency can be difficult."
"After initial contact and following the kick-off meeting", adds Boehms, "the C-ECOM project team conducted a thorough research and analysis of the options available for pre-standardisation work. C-ECOM advised the eConstruct project team to participate in the e-Business Board for European Standardisation Workshop (eBES), which is an open platform for standardisation in e-business run by CEN/ISSS."
Made-to-measure partnerships:
C-ECOM has worked with six project clusters. For the clothing industry cluster, it brought together two projects that were working on related goals. "C-ECOM carried out an analysis and submitted a formal action plan", says Dr George Kartsounis of the Athens Technology Centre. "One of the most important objectives was to establish the eTailor CEN/ISSS Workshop which proposes standard representations for data objects for the fashion industry, such as 3D human body models, 3D body measurements, 3D garments, and more, using an XML notation."
The success of C-ECOM demonstrates beyond any doubt the new role of standardisation bodies. Today, they are agencies that pro-actively support change and progress, proving that standards are certainly no joke.
Promoted by: IST Results Service
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