17. Should a project contribute to standardization itself or
should this be done through its consortium partners
There are different aspects to consider when deciding to create a formal
membership link with the standards body, either directly as a project, or
through one of the consortium partners. In the end however, the decision must
be driven by which is the best way to influence the standardisation process
towards consensus that project results should be an industry standard. Some
aspects that are common to both approaches to membership are:
- Fees – regardless of whether you participate as project partners or
as a project, nearly all standards bodies have fees for membership, and some
provision for membership fees need to be included in the project budgeting.
The fees are sometimes linked to the size or turnover of the organisation
that becomes a member. Standards organizations may not be willing to provide
membership to the project at the same fee level as a single partner when the
project consortium includes for example, a large multinational commercial
organization. In some cases it may be cheaper to have one or two partners
become members.
- Approvals – some partners will have internal procedures that make it
difficult for them to become a member of a standards body. These can range
from policies that strongly discourage joining any groupings to avoid implied
endorsements, to having a centralised budget department for managing
membership in industry groupings. These internal budgets or departments might
be fully appropriated to existing groups making approvals for new groups time
consuming even when fees are partially funded by the project.
- Legalities – some standards bodies require that membership
agreements be between the standards body and a legal entity. This might be
because there are provisions related to copyrights, confidentiality, etc.
that can be sometimes difficult to interpret when dealing with an individual
or project.
All of the aspects can usually be addressed and since most standards
organizations are open towards contributions from research projects, contacts
should be established with them to discuss the various options, and how to
best proceed.
However, there are pros and
cons to participating as a project as wellas to
participating as a consortium partner with regard to
achieving consensus for research results becoming standards. Some upfront
discussions amongst the partners concerning how the project will participate
in standards bodies and what restrictions might exist for some partners is
therefore needed to avoid surprises later on, such as having to reallocate
resources because a partner is prevented from becoming a member and
undertaking planned standardization tasks.
17.1 Pros and cons to participating as a
project
Pros
- Easier to share standards information amongst partners
- Opinions or positions may carry greater weight as a project
position
- Participation in standards body meetings more cost effective for
travelling, etc.
Cons
- Extra process needed for the partners to establish common positions in
advance of voting in the standards body
- May not always be a consensus amongst partners for standards body
decisions
- A single project vote will have less ability to influence formal
decision-making
17.2 Pros and cons to participating as a
consortium partner
Pros
- Partners can express their own views rather than only the consensus of
the project
- Multiple votes will have more ability to influence decision making
- A mix of support from different types of organizations can be seen as
a stronger en-dorsement of project proposals
Cons
- There may be restrictions for sharing detailed standards body
information amongst project partners who are not members
- Individual partner opinions or positions may carry less weight than a
project position
- Participation in standards body meetings more expensive due to more
partner par-ticipants
[Back to questions]
See also
- Should every project interface with
standards organizations
- How do I embed standardization
activities in my project'swork plan
- What do I do when my project comes to
an end and standardization activities have not yet been finalized
- How should my project initiate a new
standardization process
Created by Bart Brusse & Rigo Wenning
last updated $Date: 2006/11/03 14:35:16 $