Open Systems Standardization: A Business Approach

Open Systems Standardization: A Business Approach brings unprecedented sophistication and thoroughness to the arena of technology standards. With this book product managers and marketers can develop an intelligent understanding of the advantages and risks of each approach to standardization - so they can make better decisions about how and when to get involved, and who to work with; information technology user organizations can evaluate their vendors and make plans for the future; and researchers and students can understand the reality of technology standardization - a reality that is dramatically different from yesterday's world of methodical, technically based standards organizations. Cargill presents an overview of today's standards organizations, and helps you understand today's trends in standardization, especially the increasingly central role of commercially driven standards. He shows how the new and traditional players interact. And he reviews current standards efforts for computer hardware, software, operating systems, networking, and telecommunications - both in the U.S. and worldwide. One chapter focuses specifically on the standards efforts intended to carry the Internet into the 21st century.