July 08, 2003
We Need More Innovation
An editorial by Joseph Ottinger in Java Developers Journal provides an interesting challenge to anyone involved in standards work:
Standards are best generated from what people are using, not from what people in a boardroom think should be used. The market moves faster than a standards document can.
The key is when to innovate and when not to.
The smart thing to do is obviously to standardize what is already known to work, rather than trying to design solutions by (often very big!) committees. That's why WS-I is proving so successful I think.
This idea echoes one of my favourite phrases: "The only true test is production deployment." - meaning everything can seem fine in the development labs, but it's only real world usage experience that really proves "fitness for purpose".
The same thing applies to all technology and standards too, IMHO.
Pushing forward innovation in such a standards prone environment is also difficult too, but sometimes a discontinuity or quantum leap is both necessary and good. The hard part is obviously getting this decision right!
Entry categories:
Standards
Posted by Jorgen Thelin at July 8, 2003 03:48 PM -
[PermaLink]
We Need More Innovation
Excerpt: Jorgen Thelin and Joseph Ottinger are talking about standards and their relationship to innovation, in the same tones that Andy, Jason, and I have. Nice to see that others are having these thoughts.
Weblog: Ted Leung on the air
Tracked: July 12, 2003 06:14 PM
