Technology leaders call for standards clarity
October 21, 2008
The first-ever Global Standards Symposium has concluded in South Africa with broad agreement on the need to take aggressive action to streamline standards work and end the duplication of efforts within the sector. The one-day symposium brought together government Ministers, diplomats, senior executives from the private sector and lead officials from other standards bodies.
Opening the Symposium, ITU standards chief Malcolm Johnson said that clarity and efficiency must be brought to bear as the standardisation scenario gets more complex by the day. “We must ensure we all pull together and avoid duplication of effort and waste our increasingly limited resources. Even large organizations are having difficulty resourcing this effort, so how can small organisations, especially from developing countries, hope to play a role?”
Industry and standards leaders argued that the bewildering array of standards bodies is costly and inefficient. It is estimated that there are over 300 ICT standards bodies in existence today.