The Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions (ATIS), an ANSI-accredited consensus standards developer, brings together the top global information and communication and technology (ICT) companies to advance the industry’s most pressing business priorities. ATIS gives its 150 members a strategic view of the future of technology in the industry through access to the insights of the Chief Technology Officers of the leading ICT companies.
ATIS is currently seeking to broaden the membership base of its ANSI consensus bodies and is interested in new members to participate in its initiatives, including emergency services, sustainability, energy efficiency, network synchronization, and wireless technologies. Of particular interest is membership from the government, academia, and user (communications service provider) communities. Membership and participation in ATIS’ activities is open to all organizations as defined in its operating procedures. More information is available at www.atis.org or by e-mail from [email protected].
Link to ANSI Standards Action Announcement Page 11.
Perspective:
• ANSI accredits individual organizations as standards developing organizations (SDO’s); not individual standards. An SDO may develop a document that, from a practical standpoint, cannot be developed in accordance with the rigorous ANSI requirement for balance and may be directly or indirectly identified as such. That document may benefit from the “halo-effect” of other documents in the SDO suite that are. This possibility is the economic reality imposed by the market or the technology — especially in fast moving spaces such as ICT which does not impose as much of a risk to public safety as, say, fire (though public safety communications systems are mission-critical). Other organizations — such as the Institute for Electrical and Electronic Engineers, the International Code Council and the American Society of Heating and Refrigeration Engineers — all produce documents that do not, and frequently cannot, follow the ANSI balance of interest requirement. These documents are effectively “open source” documents; the subject of a separate discussion.
• The “academic interest” frequently (but not always) claimed by standards developers in every nation is a nuanced interest category. Participation in ANSI accredited document development by a subject matter expert directly employed by a school district, college or university does not necessarily mean the interest of the User stakeholder is represented. A large number of faculty are consultants for manufacturers and compliance (general) interests and work on the academic/research side of the institution — not the business side of the institution which provides the market for ICT manufacturers.
• The sparse participation by the user/owner/final fiduciary in the education industry in standards development is usually not because of any shortcoming of the SDO such as ATIS (as this Call for Members demonstrates). The sparse participation is ultimately the problem of participatory democracy seen in the standards systems of many nations; explained more fully in our ABOUT. The large number of trade associations in the education industry – compared with other industries such as energy and finance — diminishes its ability to participate and advocate in ICT and other economic spaces.
The ATIS suite, and all other technical and business standards suites are standing agenda items on our weekly Wednesday, 11 AM teleconferences which are open to everyone and accessible online at this link: Standards Michigan Open Door Teleconference Login Credentials.
