Work Package 4: Developing appropriate standardization paths Presentation at the 2 nd Annual Review Meeting 15 March 2006, Brussels Scott Hansen The Open Group

WP4 Overview Objective: Assistance to selected IST projects in IST Calls 1 and 2 is planned, coordinated and delivered Approach: Structured assistance to IST projects towards their standardization objectives –Standards Action Plans developed as first step in collaboration between COPRAS and selected IST Projects Deliverables: Standards Action Plans for IST Call 1 and Call 2 projects during the reporting period and action steps

Scope of WP4 activities Supporting actual specification activities –Standards bodies interface and coordination –Process management and efficiencies –Creating new standards groupings Accelerating industry adoption and eliminating ambiguities –Building constituencies –Addressing conflicts or harmonisation –Increasing confidence in RTD results –Legal and IPR guidance for specifications Creating broader consensus and awareness for proposed specifications from IST projects –Events, publication, contacts, etc.

COPRAS collaboration to date 25 Projects from Call 1 and 2 collaborating with COPRAS 16 Standards Action Plans developed and underway –Including 3 clusters each involving 4 projects Further 3 Standards Action Plans in development –GRID Cluster of 12 projects by W3C –CWE Cluster of 5 IP projects by Open Group –POLYMNIA STREP by CENELEC

Typical Standards Action Plan content Motivation for revised or newly developed standard specification Project background and objectives towards standardisation Current situation of targeted standards or industry grouping Process for establishing standards within targeted grouping Action steps and schedule Specific support to be provided by COPRAS

Standards Action Plans progress Work completed Target standards bodies contacted and briefed on potential RTD results from IST projects Procedures identified for establishing new or revised standards in targeted standards bodies Approaches to build awareness/consensus for standardization defined Resources within IST projects and the COPRAS partners for implementing the standardization activities allocated Still early in standardization process but projects have already: –Established two new standards groupings –Proposed changes in eLearning specification –Proposed framework to ISO multimedia committee –Presented at communications standards working group

COPRAS Standards Action Plan Support for IST Calls 1 and 2 Total: 386 organisations participating in selected projects

WP4 Challenges Clustering requires substantial COPRAS effort and project commitment –Uncoordinated project schedules need harmonisation –Not always a common view of which standards are highest priority –Return on collaboration effort valuable only if standardisation high priority Resources difficult to adjust in running projects –Success rate dependent on sufficient resources to implement –High correlation between standards planning and standardisation progress Receptivity of standards bodies varies substantially –Some submissions have not been accepted –Rejection sometimes have led to other opportunities Scheduling of activities difficult amidst annual reviews for IST projects and IST Call proposal preparations