CFP "STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE"

[David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>]

        The Science, Technology & Public Policy Program
           of the John F. Kennedy School of Government
                              and
       The National Institute for Standards and Technology




      "STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT AND INFORMATION INFRASTRUCTURE"




                 Call for Papers and Information




        The complexity of information systems and the need for
extensibility, interoperability, and scalability make standards
for digital information and information technology essential to
the rapid development of information infrastructure.  With
information technology enabling and reshaping large segments of
the economy -- manufacturing, electronic commerce, health care --
the importance of standards is recognized not only by the
technology-based firms developing the infrastructure but by the
wide variety of information providers, content integrators,
professionals, and others who will use the infrastructure.
Accordingly, the Administration's National Information
Infrastructure initiative identifies promotion of seamless,
interactive, user-driven operation as a basic policy goal and
promises "to review and clarify the standards process to speed
NII applications."
        At the same time, intense competition in the private
sector is moving the development of information standards closer
to the marketplace.  Standards are increasingly set not by
traditional standards bodies but by dominant firms, consortia,
and ad hoc alliances.  Standards, platforms, specifications, and
standards processes and proceedings are used in increasingly
sophisticated ways within a variety of corporate strategies.  For
example, some companies choose to make their technologies more
"open" than the competition, balancing the opportunity to lead
the market with the benefits of asserting strict controls over
intellectual property.  Some groups have developed
requirements-based "requests for technology" (RFTs) as a means
for accelerating adoption of a common platform, promoting use of
common specifications, or simply advancing dialog about common
requirements.
        While high-tech industries are normally wary of
government efforts to mandate standards, many believe that the
government should have an oversight or contingency role.  This is
especially true with respect to telecommunications, a heavily
regulated area where the government has played an active role
(albeit through an independent agency, the FCC) in ensuring
interoperability and connectivity. With the growth of content
industries dependent on the new information infrastructure, the
case for federal oversight of network-related standards can be
made on the basis of common carriage principles, regardless of
the shift away from rate-of-return regulation.
        The government is also involved with information
technology standards in important non-regulatory capacities: as a
major user, as a funder of basic and precompetitive research, and
as a funder of special-purpose infrastructure.  Sometimes these
interests are not coordinated, as has been the case of data
networking protocols.  NIST recently constituted a panel to
review the government's involvement in establishing network
requirements and standards, which, in the near term, will focus
on reconciling the use of GOSIP and Internet protocol suites
within the federal government.  However, the panel sets the stage
for developing general principles for the federal role in
standards development.
        While standards development contributes to the
development of information infrastructure, the reverse is also
true:  Standards development also benefits from the use of
networks for electronic mail, remote file transfer, and advanced
management of distributed information.  Geographic and cost
barriers to participation are reduced, resulting in a fuller,
more democratic flow of ideas.  Dissemination of draft standards
is virtually instantaneous and cost-free, which speeds the
standards development process and allows it to be more staged or
iterative. This, in turn, can speed product development and
testing for interoperability.
        Finally, there is growing awareness and debate about the
relationship between standards and intellectual property,
especially in two areas: the susceptibility of de facto standards
to control through copyright and the vulnerability of standards
development to preemption by broad process patents and to
inadvertent incorporation of patented processes.  Here, too, the
government plays a regulatory role, albeit historically one with
a very different orientation: balancing free market principles
with laws to encourage innovation and original expression.  The
uncertain and controversial application of patent and copyright
to digital information, together with the growing convergence of
industries and institutions within an increasingly interdependent
infrastructure, make this a complex and critical area.


                              *****


        The Science, Technology and Public Policy Program at the
John F. Kennedy School of Government and the National Institute
of Standards and Technology announce a study on current
directions in development of standards for information
infrastructure, the changing economics and political economy of
information standards development, and the role of the government
in supporting such standards.  The workshop, to be in held in
Washington in June 1994, will draw on experts in the range of
relevant specialities -- information policy, intellectual
property, economics of standards and networks -- as well as
leaders in information technology consortia and leading-edge
standards efforts such as PDES/STEP.  The workshop and the
resulting proceedings and supplementary material will illuminate
the strategic environment for standards development, help map and
evaluate the options for the federal government, and lay a
foundation for future research and policy development.
        We seek new research, information on work in progress,
stakeholder perspectives, and other information that can help
inform and guide the development of public policy in this area.
We are especially interested in work and information that can be
reported, critiqued, and published in the course of this project.
Potential workshop participants and other interested parties are
urged to submit papers or abstracts of ongoing work by March 15,
1994.
        The study focuses on the relationship between standards
and information infrastructure and the role of federal government
in advancing information infrastructure standards. Relevant
subjects include:


- -- cross-industry coordination and meta-architecture design


- -- information and network economics in information infrastructure


- -- appropriability of externalities and the case for government
        intervention


- -- defining and evaluating "openness" of information technologies
        and standards


- -- agency participation in industry standards processes


- -- antitrust law and the economics of information infrastructure


- -- impact of patents on nonproprietary standards and standards
        processes


- -- copyright and de facto standards


- -- international coordination of industry standards processes


- -- international coordination of infrastructure standards and
        standards policy


- -- the role of consortia, associations, and other industry groups
        in standards development


- -- user involvement in standards development and standards policy


- -- the federal role in conformance-testing and certification


- -- standards and procurement policy


- -- standards development as precompetitive research


- -- typology of standards, specifications, platforms, and
        architecture




Please submit papers, abstracts, position statements, and other
relevant information to:


Brian Kahin
Director, Information Infrastructure Project
Science, Technology and Public Policy Program
John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University
79 John F. Kennedy St.
Cambridge, MA  02138
617-495-8903
Fax: 617-495-5776
kahin () harvard edu


Authors of research papers selected for presentation at the
workshop will be notified in early April.  Final drafts of
accepted papers will be due on May 23.