6
1 Basics of standards
according to the content of a specification and the better the specification, the longer
the investment will hold.
Choosing the right moment to launch a standard development is probably the
most critical decision in the process. If it starts too early, newer industrial developments will overtake the standardisation documents. If it starts too late, there might be
little room left for the standardisation among existing solutions that have established
a dominant position.
As standardisation generally takes place after industry has completed a number of
developments, the standardisation committee is always confronted with existing solutions mostly with limited compatibility. Most software companies are not willing
to invest in software adaptation because the modification of existing software towards compliance with a new standard is extremely expensive. This has accelerated
the creation of industrial consortia in the IT -domain where common industry standards are often defined before the investment in the software development starts. The
development of a sufficiently generic standard in combination with the ability to define profiles for specific fields of application is a widely used strategy to integrate
existing software into new standards. This strategy leads to compatibility on the abstract level but not necessarily on the implementation level. Often, an extended compatibility can only be reached with future vers ions of the application software or with
the advent of newer technologies. An example is the Extensible Markup Language as
the de-facto standard oftoday for the encoding of documents and database contents.
National perspective
The principles of standardisation are: do it once, do it right, do it internationally.
In the IT-domain any national approach is at best apreparation for or a benchmarking of an international solution. A typical example of this process is the history of
the European approach to the standardisation of geomatics, the CEN/TC287 (Geographie Information) (CEN = Comite Europeen de Normalisation). This committee
was dissolved after the ISO/TC211 started its work and it's members expertise, and
knowledge, were integrated into the new worldwide committee.
However, International Standards do not mean that national or regional distinctions are overridden. An important subject is the linguistic adaptability of the standards. As the English language dominates business in the world, in particular the IT
sector, it is often difficult to keep the coherence of a standard-compliant system and
a national user interface. Admittedly, it is often a matter of costs. For further details
see chapter 1, section 5.
Differences in traditions are more difficult to be solved. The first North American
geographie information systems were designed for medium scale applications. From
the beginning, they permitted integration of remote sensing technology. The European systems followed their cadastral tradition that is more than two centuries old.
America thinks in feet. Europe thinks in centimetres. This causes different viewpoints during the standardisation development.
1 Basics of standards
according to the content of a specification and the better the specification, the longer
the investment will hold.
Choosing the right moment to launch a standard development is probably the
most critical decision in the process. If it starts too early, newer industrial developments will overtake the standardisation documents. If it starts too late, there might be
little room left for the standardisation among existing solutions that have established
a dominant position.
As standardisation generally takes place after industry has completed a number of
developments, the standardisation committee is always confronted with existing solutions mostly with limited compatibility. Most software companies are not willing
to invest in software adaptation because the modification of existing software towards compliance with a new standard is extremely expensive. This has accelerated
the creation of industrial consortia in the IT -domain where common industry standards are often defined before the investment in the software development starts. The
development of a sufficiently generic standard in combination with the ability to define profiles for specific fields of application is a widely used strategy to integrate
existing software into new standards. This strategy leads to compatibility on the abstract level but not necessarily on the implementation level. Often, an extended compatibility can only be reached with future vers ions of the application software or with
the advent of newer technologies. An example is the Extensible Markup Language as
the de-facto standard oftoday for the encoding of documents and database contents.
National perspective
The principles of standardisation are: do it once, do it right, do it internationally.
In the IT-domain any national approach is at best apreparation for or a benchmarking of an international solution. A typical example of this process is the history of
the European approach to the standardisation of geomatics, the CEN/TC287 (Geographie Information) (CEN = Comite Europeen de Normalisation). This committee
was dissolved after the ISO/TC211 started its work and it's members expertise, and
knowledge, were integrated into the new worldwide committee.
However, International Standards do not mean that national or regional distinctions are overridden. An important subject is the linguistic adaptability of the standards. As the English language dominates business in the world, in particular the IT
sector, it is often difficult to keep the coherence of a standard-compliant system and
a national user interface. Admittedly, it is often a matter of costs. For further details
see chapter 1, section 5.
Differences in traditions are more difficult to be solved. The first North American
geographie information systems were designed for medium scale applications. From
the beginning, they permitted integration of remote sensing technology. The European systems followed their cadastral tradition that is more than two centuries old.
America thinks in feet. Europe thinks in centimetres. This causes different viewpoints during the standardisation development.