Alex has a pretty constructive post up this morning that is worth a read, he lays out ten points that he thinks need to be considered as part of a reform program for ISO/JTC1.
In my view this is a lot more helpful than many of the other comments that I see in blogs and in the press of late. Much of the existing commentary appears to either fall into a group of folks crying “it is broken, it is broken” but then not really taking any active steps to fix anything, or support for the recent IBM announcement which appeared to propose tossing the baby out with the bath water.
You’ll find Alex’s post on his new blog here.
This post is the first in a series which aims to set out proposals for broad reforms that could help ensure JTC 1’s future. These posts are offered “out of process” as an informal starting point. They, like everything on this blog, are personal views – but have been informed by discussions with many experienced standardisers from many nations over the course of the last two years. My intention is that after the posts have been completed they will be assembled into a short paper (taking comments into account) which, I hope, may influence the onward international debate.