Thanks Ronan:
You made my point exactly.
The standards cost IEEE nothing to produce.
The cost is born by others.
I just have a hard time imaging an umbrella Linux organization that take
standards written by lets say samba group as an example, copywight them, and
then charges the Linux community 100s of dollars to use one of their
standards for a year, for this to apply to all Linux groups, and that you
are legally required to use these standards.
But! That is preciously what IEEE, ASME, ACES and others are doing.
Frank
On Friday 30 August 2002 08:17, Ronan Heffernan wrote:
> > I don't think it's quite fair to say that they cost nothing to produce.
>
> The standards are usually drafted by member companies. When I worked
> for Highlander Engineering, I wrote a draft submission to the OMG
> (Object Management Group) in response to their Real-Time Notification
> Service (for CORBA) RFP. Our customers wanted the functionality of the
> COS Notification Service, but with an embedded footprint and real-time
> features. We were going to create this product, and it was going to be
> based on an internal design. If the OMG RFP had not existed, we would
> still have designed a solution. Turning our solution into a standard
> didn't cost much (as a shrinkwrap software company, we were not
> tailoring a solution to one customer's needs).
>
> > I imagine entities like IEEE have drones that sit in an office somewhere
> > and answer phones, copy things, type things up, etc. They've probably
> > got rent, utilities, travel budgets, etc.
>
> The OMG has the same costs, but they pay for theirs with membership dues
> and meeting fees. All of the final versions of the OMG standards
> (CORBA, UML, etc) are available*, free of charge, at www.omg.org; the
> OMG knows that their mission is to facilitate the adoption AND USE of
> standards. They serve their members best by helping every company to
> follow the standards.
>
> I am not lumping IEEE in with M$ and the RIAA, but I think that they are
> not acting in the best interest of their members.
>
>
> --ronan
>
> *My submission has not been voted-in as a final standard, and it may
> never happen. Until it is finalized, it is only available to OMG members.
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