Obama Administration Seeks Partnership in Standard Development
The federal government seeks to partner with the private sector and international bodies to help drive standards development, key to achieving national priorities like smart grid, health IT, cybersecurity, cloud computing and public safety, said Commerce Department Secretary Gary Locke at the National Institute of Standards and Technology roundtable Tuesday. The administration is seeking public input on effective federal participation on standards and conformity assessment activities related to technology, he said.
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Standards that are being developed through public-private partnerships for advanced technology sectors are helping to drive innovation, economic growth and job creation, Locke said. Standards are also key to global competiveness and trade, he said. NIST is at a crossroad and “our perspective on standards is at a crossroads,” especially as the U.S. moves forward on smart grid, he said. Additionally, “we can’t have the Balkanization of key, emerging technology in different markets,” he said, urging international coordination on standards. The federal government could act as a convener in improving transparency, driving research and development and bringing successful industry models to the public sector, said Chief Technology Officer Annesh Chopra. NIST is particularly interested in the level of federal government engagement in public-private partnership, impact of standards on trade, competitiveness and intellectual property, said Patrick Gallagher, undersecretary of Commerce for Standards and Technology.
Agencies like the FCC play a critical role in areas like wireless interoperability, spectrum management and video service delivery standards, said Geoff Roman, chief technology officer at Motorola Mobility. Interoperability often means refining specifications as the industry moves forward, he said. The government could be particularly effective in creating a framework that guides how standards should be developed, said Mark Chandler, Cisco general counsel. But government mandate is unnecessary, said Raj Vaswani, CTO of Silver Spring Networks. The federal government should respect the voluntary, independent nature of standards bodies, Chandler said. The government’s role in standards is unique because it’s both a massive IT customer and a regulating and legislating body, Vaswani said. Legislation could be devastating for the industry but could drive the conversation forward if the industry fails to reach consensus, Vaswani said.
A transparent and open international standard process is crucial to ensure a level playing field, Chandler said. Speakers stressed the importance of industry input on standards and global collaboration, especially in the areas of patents and intellectual property rights. Some foreign governments are more forceful in their involvement in standards and sometimes that creates barriers to trade, said Steve Pawlowski, CTO for the Intel Architecture Group. Complex products with many elements could result in out of control patents and royalty stacking, Chandler said. Real successful standards must consider backwards compatibility, said Pawlowski.