Short-Cuts
to the
Information Superhighway
Reality
is catching up - fast. Standards are essential to building the
information superhighway and market expectations dictate the
need to move data around, at any time, to any place. The three
European Standards Bodies, CEN, CENELEC and ETSI have taken
stock and concluded that they cannot single-handedly respond
fast enough to the massive project of building the information
superhighway on their own.
This is
why jointly the European standards organizations CEN, CENELEC
and ETSI took the initiative to set up the Information and Communications
Technologies Standards Board with the participation of providers
of publicly available specifications as full partners. The ICT
Standards Board is a light structure designed to be fast on
its feet. The participants are senior people able to take a
commercial overview, balanced by people active in standardization.
The European Commission and EFTA Secretariat attend the meetigs
as Observers. The Chairman, a market player, is elected by the
participating organizations for two years; furthermore, two
Vice-Chairmen have been appointed in such way as to preserve
continuity. The Secretariat is provided jointly by the three
European Standards Organizations on a permanent basis. The ICT
Standards Board works by consensus and all players are committed
to three simple, yet vital, objectives for creating short-cuts
to the information superhighway.
- Objective 1:
Analyze
and co-ordinate requirements
-
The
ICT Standards Board listens to requirements for
standards or specifications that are based on
concrete market needs and expressed by competent
source.
Proposals
are basestandardization/
specification activity. The basic duty of the
Standards Board is to confirm that suchd on long-term business needs and require
commercial initiatives to be complemented by proposals
should be treated within the standardization/specification
environment, and, if so, what is the best way
to do so. To speed up the process the initial
consultation of Board members is carried out by
correspondence, preferably by electronic means.
- Objective 2:
Translate
requirements into standardization programmes or projects
-
Armed
with the information stemming from the requirements
and proposals, emanating from ICT Standards
Board members or other organizations, the
Board then considers what (if any) standards
or specifications need to be created and
how the task will be carried out. It translates
these needs into coherent, approved standardization
programmes or projects. The Board specifies
the type of deliverable (standard or specification)
that is to be produced, based on the characteristics
of the project.
When
there is more than one organization involved
in the elaboration of the specification
or standard, the Board establishes specific
guidelines, if needed, for the coherence
of the project.
The result is a common programme, agreed
by the participating organizations and the
Board.
- Objective 3:
Allocate
work to the most appropriate specifying body
-
When
the common programme has been drawn up and
agreed, the specific work project is created
and allocated to one or more organizations
that produce standards or specifications for
immediate action.
In
many cases, the Board needs to ensure that
an appropriate co-operation structure is in
place to ensure effective project management.
It is accepted that the member bodies may
need to seek formal approval within their
own organizations for the proposed programmes
and work items.
- What are the benefits ?
-
- European
Industry now benefits from a mechanism to achieve
coherence and convergence of different technologies
in the area of ICT, including the whole fields
of information technology, telecommunications,
broadcasting and entertainment.
- The
ICT Standards Board avoids wasting resources and
draws on different market players, including various
fora and consortia, which have carried out a substantial
amount of work in producing technical specifications
relating to ICT at different levels.
- It
is the recognition of the vital importance of
information and communication technologies in
the development of the "information age"
in our society and represents the common understanding
that European ICT standardization should be consistent
with world-wide standards.
- It
leads to better, faster standards, which position
Europe on the forefront of ICT Standardization.
It will help turn visions into reality.
