Re: standards

--- In CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO@egroups.com, "Terry L. Ridder" <terrylr@b...>
wrote:

> hello;
>
> have you bothered to look at http://www.ecma.ch?
>
> companies which belongs to ecma are:
>

<<snip>>

I'm very well aware of the kinds of companies that contribute to
standards development.

> On Fri, 24 Nov 2000, Tony Jeffree wrote:
>
> tony>
> tony> At 03:08 24/11/00 +0000, you wrote:
> tony> >now if ecma can do that for 39+ years, what is wrong with
> tony> >ansi, iso, ieee, etc? i think it just boils down to basic
> tony> >greed.
> tony>
> tony> I think your comment boils down to basic ignorance of
> tony> how standards are funded and developed.
> tony>
>
> i have a rather good understanding of how standards are formed.
> i used to work for iiasa (international institute for applied system
> analysys) in austria, and for the u.n. in austria. people who worked
> at both the u.n. and iiasa worked together with unido
> (united nations industrial development organization) developing

standards

> for developing countries.

In which case, it amazes me even more that you are so ignorant of how
some standards organizations are funded, and the motivations behind
the funding models they use.

>
> <major snip>
>
> tony>
> tony> Maybe the only "basic greed" here is more related to people
> tony> demanding for free things that have caused others considerable
> tony> time and expense.
> tony>
>
> this is hogwash plain and simple. ecma develops standards and gives
> them away so that equipment from different vendors inter-operates

together.

> inter-operation means better sales, better sales imply more profit.

with

> those profits the company fund emca to write more standards and

improve

> existing standards.
>

I'm afraid the above justification for making them free could be
equally easily described as basic greed - "If I give this stuff away,
I will make *even more* money!!" Now that could sound very like basic
greed to some people...

> having to pay for standards, any standards, is basic greed by the
> standards orgranization. if ecma can do it they all can do it.
>

As I pointed out, the reason for standards organizations charging for
this stuff is to *cover their operating costs*, not to make profits
(not-for-profit organizations are, by definition, not allowed to make
profits). Nothing to do with greed on their part - if their costs
don't get covered by some means, then the standards development
ceases. Maybe something to do with lack of imagination in terms of
how they go about raising funds from their (voluntary) committee
participants, but that's a very different accusation.

Just because an organization has a different funding model from the
one you personally favour, it is pretty obnoxious (and I repeat,
basically ignorant) to accuse it of greed.

Regards,
Tony