A Call to Support a New Public-Private Partnership In U.S. Standards Development

“Why consequential? To begin with, one could count on one hand
the occasions upon which the federal government has undertaken an
assessment of the efficacy of the ill-defined public-private
partnership that constitutes the U.S. standards development
infrastructure. And yet, since the passage of the Technology
Transfer and Advancement Act of 1995, the government has by law put
almost all of its standards-related eggs in that single basket.

“It is also consequential because the decision to issue the RFI
reflects the recognition by policy makers that our existing
standards development process, both on the public as well as the
private side, was never designed to address challenges that involve
multiple industry sectors. Indeed, the United States Standards
Strategy, developed by representatives of government, industry,
standards developing organizations, consortia, consumer groups, and
academia, stresses that the development of standards can best be
addressed through a “sectoral approach,” and calls upon
“Stakeholders in the U.S. standards system[to] seek … to
reinforce the sectoral approach to standards development in
regional and international forums and highlight the benefits of
this approach.”

Complete Story