The Dynamics of Standards

by Egyedi, Tineke M.; Blind, Knut

• ISBN13: 9781847204868
• ISBN10: 1847204864
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2008-12-30
• Publisher: Edward Elgar Pub

Summary

This book addresses the new field of standards dynamics. It focuses in particular on the tension between standards and change. Standards are points of reference and should therefore be inherently stable (at least to a certain degree). However, technologies change at an increasing pace, particularly in the field of information technology (IT). This requires the development of more standards and more updates, and leads to increased competition between standards. In many situations problems arise, such as how to retain compatibility if standards keep on changing and whether to adopt the new version. If standards are related, how does changing one standard affect the others? The contributing authors gathered here analyse the causes and scale of change in order to demonstrate how to prevent, reduce and cope with its negative impact. Addressing a number of highly up-to-date issues including the sustainability of documents and data, this book will be of great interest to those concerned with innovation, management of technology and the emerging field of standardisation studies. In addition, standard-setting organisations and policymakers should be aware of the ambivalence of standards dynamics.

Table of Contents

General introduction	p. 1
The sustainability of digital data : tension between the dynamics and longevity of standards	p. 15
An implementation perspective on sources of incompatibility and standards' dynamics	p. 28
+ vs. - : dynamics and effects of competing standards of recordable DVD-media	p. 47
Internet addressing standards : a case study in standards dynamics driven by bottom-up adoption	p. 68
Incompatible successors : the failure to graft XML onto SGML	p. 82
The IEEE 802.11 WLAN installation at RWTH Aachen University : a case of voluntary vendor lock-in	p. 99
A case study of the adoption and implementation of STEP	p. 117
How stable are IT standards?	p. 137
Factors influencing the lifetime of telecommunication and information technology standards	p. 155
Conclusion	p. 181
Bibliography	p. 190
Index	p. 205
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