The Standards Game

Who would have thought – standards and SXSW?

Karen B — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 00:20:54 +0000

The South-by-Southwest is well known for its film, music, and interactive tracks. The annual SXSW festival (which sounds much more fun than “conference”) is held in Austin, Texas USA. This year it include more than 5,000 events that took place all over the city of Austin.

I had always wanted to attend SXSW to see, hear, and experience the latest trends. Keeping up with the times keeps me excited about the world (and keeps me young at heart). This year, I had the opportunity, not only to attend, but to participate. Because of standards. Really.

The IEEE put on an “Open Future Series” that included a panel on the Internet of Things. The IoT will be enabled through standards, and I was fortunate to be asked to chair the panel. Little did I know that the topic of open standards would be so interesting to those attending and covering SXSW.

Here are a few of the articles, videos, and slides from SXSW and shortly thereafter that deal with the value of open standards:

Tim Berners-Lee on the making of new worlds (article)

Tim Berners-Lee Explains the Necessity of Open Web Standards (article & video)

Tim Berners-Lee and Karen Bartleson on Open Standards: SXSW Forbes Exclusive (YouTube video, same as above)

Two good infrastructure considerations for the internet of things (article)

Digital Telepathy: When Every Thing Connects (panel abstract)

Digital Telepathy: When Every Thing Connects (slides)

Standards: The Connective Tissue Behind the Internet of Things

Revolutionary Technologies Take the Stage at SXSW (article)

Standards: The Jedi Force Behind the Internet of Things (blog post)

And here is another gentleman that I met at SXSW who used standards to change our world, Bob Metcalfe, inventor of Ethernet:

When standards are part of a huge convention like SXSW, those of us who play the standards game feel like we have arrived. :)

Technorati Tags: EDA standards,EDA standards blog,SXSW,OpenStand,open standards,IEEE standards,WWW,Web standards,Ethernet,Internet of Things

What standards do we need now?

Karen B — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 18:35:41 +0000

We are continuously scanning the landscape, looking for areas where new standards are needed for electronic design. Those of us in the standards game have had successes and failures in identifying the needs of the design community for ongoing improvements to interoperability.

I have two questions for you, dear readers.

1. What standards should we develop now?

2. Do we need a compliance lab to test our products’ conformance to existing standards?

Let me know what you think. You can post a comment here, or if you wish to stay out of the public view, feel free to contact me directly. It’s easy to reach me through LinkedIn, Twitter @ karenbartleson, and good old fashioned email and phone.

Thanks!

Technorati Tags: EDA standards,The Standards Game,EDA standards blog,Synopsys,IEEE standards,IEEE-SA,IEEE Standards Association,Accellera

A standards struggle of global proportions

Karen B — Thu, 31 Jan 2013 23:01:47 +0000

I thought you might find this interesting. As I begin my two-year term as President of the IEEE Standards Association, these are the kinds of standards struggles that I’ll be exposed to. While not diminishing the importance of EDA standards (and the occasional struggle we’ve been through), this standards struggle puts ours in a whole new light, don’t you think?

A bit of background first. The ITU is an assembly of the United Nations which creates international communication standards, among other things. It uses a national-body-based process in contrast to a market-driven process (as most – if not all – EDA standards follow). A treaty, last updated in 1988, called the International Telecommunications Regulations was due for revision last year. And then, global thermo-standards war began…

US says it won’t ratify UN telecom treaty
By Jennifer Martinez – 12/13/12 05:33 PM ET
The United States said Thursday that it will not sign a United Nations telecommunications treaty that U.S. technology companies warn would disrupt governance of the Internet and open the door to online censorship.

Full text

There are numerous articles about this topic. Let me know if you’d like me to post some more of them.

Technorati Tags: EDA standards,EDA standards blog,The Standards Game,ITU,ITR,international standards,WCIT

Welcome to 2013 – no standards wars, please

Karen B — Fri, 25 Jan 2013 00:45:35 +0000

2012 was relatively quiet in The Standards Game. At least for EDA, that is. Perhaps we as an industry have matured to the level of “Cooperate on Standards, Compete on Products”. I, for one, hope that peace continues to prevail in the standards arena in EDA and that no one has to be sent to their room for a timeout.
:)

May this year bring you peace, health, prosperity, love, and happiness!

For example… (the OpenStand paradigm)

Karen B — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 17:00:00 +0000

The design automation industry serves a global market. Semiconductor design is performed in countries all over the world. Our products rely on standards for quality and interoperability. SystemVerilog, UPF, UVM, and SystemC are just a few of the numerous standards we use that were developed under the OpenStand paradigm. The market-driven standards paradigm didn’t have a name when we created these standards, but the principles were there and we employed them whether we knew it consciously or not.

Beyond the design automation industry, there are countless examples of global, market-driven standards. They have been benefiting humankind for decades and continue to do so. Internet standards, USB, mp3, and even the icky old QWERTY de facto standard touch our lives every day.

If you spot the OpenStand badge out there anywhere, be sure to let me know. It will be good to see the modern paradigm for global standards become recognized for what it has done and will do for society.

Technorati Tags: EDA standards,The Standards Game,EDA standards blog,OpenStand