Standards Update, USENIX Standards BOF

[Susanne Smith]

From:  sws at calvin.uucp (Susanne Smith)

>2.  Opinion polling
>
>      John tried to discern whether attendees thought they were being
>      well-served by John, the USENIX Standards Watchdog Committee,
>      and the USENIX position on standards: to attempt to prevent
>      standards from prohibiting innovation.  Indeed, at Snowbird, the
>      site of the April POSIX meeting, John was told that smaller
>      companies don't like our participation because of this position.
>      Think about this a while.  (For a more detailed discussion of
>      the USENIX position on standards, see either ;login: 15(3):25 or
>      the periodic overview posting in comp.std.unix about the USENIX
>      Standards Watchdog Committee.)
>
>      John explained how USENIX came to its current policies and why
>      it does not endorse standards of its own.  Some audience members
>      were unhappy with extant standards bodies and said they wouldn't
>      mind if USENIX played a more active role.  Susanne reminded us
>      that UniForum working groups, which she praised, play such a
>      role.

What I remember about this portion of the bof is a little bit different.
John had been talking about the new procedures developed by the TCOS 
(IEEE Computer Society Technical Committee on Operating Systems)
SEC (Standards Executive Committee) to limit the proliferation of 
standards groups and to make sure that groups in existence 
made acceptable progress (see Volume 19, Number 97). The question was 
asked as to what other forums are available for groups that do not gain 
SEC approval.  The UniForum Technical Committees were mentioned as one 
forum for work that might be premature or inappropriate for TCOS.























Volume-Number: Volume 21, Number 55