Standards

Chairs

Philipp Wieder (TU Dortmund University): philipp.wieder [AT] udo.edu
Franz Kudorfer (Siemens): franz.kudorfer [AT] siemens.com

• Gathering information about the ongoing standardisation activities
• Gathering information about existing gaps or needs for standards
• Maintaining the information to have always an up-to-date view
• Provide the projects and the community at large with a consolidated view on standardisation activities, needs, and news
  

Strategy definition. Experience from Framework Programme 5 and Framework Programme 6 has shown that the definition of one overall standardisation strategy for a large group of projects is a path better not to be entered. This is due to the fact that depending on the technical area, institutions involved, standardisation body, etc., the strategy definition is merely a technical issue with some standardisation-related factors to be taken into account. Therefore it seems more appropriate to use the information assessed and the synergies created by the Coordination of Contribution to Standards TG to assist individuals, institutions, groups or FP7 projects in finding others interested in a certain standard and add standardisation related bits to the more technical discussion on how to advance. This collaboration effort may also include the establishment of contacts to specific standardisation bodies through liaisons.

Networking. Although the ICT Software and Services Architectures, Infrastructures and Engineering projects represent a substantial body of expertise and experience, it is obvious that the standardisation landscape is much wider and includes a far greater number of players. Therefore the Coordination of Contribution to Standards TG addresses the networking aspect of standardisation including support for SMEs, the collaboration with projects outside Challenge 1.2, the collaboration with other European activities dealing with standards, liaisons with standardisation bodies and the promotion of collaboration results.

As the support for SMEs is one of the overall objectives of the collaboration effort, its importance is also evident in the context of standardisation. Therefore, regarding the main objectives information assessment, strategy definition and networking, it is important to include SMEs in the loop and handle their demands with specific care.

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Instruments

Information assessment and provision. The Collaboration Task (CT) on the Co-ordination of Standardisation Efforts made a survey among the IST FP6 Grid Technology projects to gather information about the standards relevant to those projects. These standards have been classified into three categories, (i) standards being adopted by a project, (ii) standards and specifications being considered by a project, and (iii) technology areas lacking standards or specifications. A consolidated list based on the input from all projects has been used as basic information to develop a strategy, and provide other stakeholders with information about standards potentially usable in a number of development projects. This list also included information about technical areas where certain projects are actively contributing to standardisation efforts. Such a survey (including regular updates) is a good instrument to gather the basic information about efforts and needs with respect to standardisation in the Challenge 1.2 context. The data gathered from that survey will serve as the foundation for strategy definitions and networking efforts. The FP7 project NEXOF-RA has already started to collect data among project partners. A list of relevant standards and standardization bodies will be presented in a public deliverable. Moreover NEXOF-RA has defined an open contribution process for the NESSI Reference Architecture (including standards) which is open to all FP6 and FP7 projects. It is highly recommended to conduct the survey and provide its results using web-based techniques since this will reduce the overhead for the participating projects. It may also be an option to provide an RSS feed with important information regarding standardisation.

Strategy definition. It is obvious that this TG cannot enforce any standardisation strategy, but that it will provide information and consulting towards individuals, institutions and projects which seek for standardisation collaboration. In the past this resulted in technical people meeting with support from the standardisation CT to discuss the state-of-the-art, gaps, potential solutions, hence defining a standardisation strategy. To achieve this, people need to have a contact point for approaching a TG and ideally the possibility to meet physically to discuss the strategy. The ECSS portal again might be the ideal place to promote this instrument. Regarding the physical meetings, people normally tried to meet initially at one of the well-known big European conferences or collaboration meetings. It should also be evaluated whether the other TG groups might serve as a “sensors” to find out potential need for standards and establish links between the respective projects and the Coordination of Contribution to Standards TG.

Networking. In addition to create a good network among the people within the Software and Services Architecture, Infrastructure and Engineering area, it is essential to establish a network including pan-European and global players in the area of standardisation. Regarding the Challenge 1.2 this includes the following ETPs:

• NESSI
• eMobility

 

• ACF
• IETF
• OASIS
• OGF
• TMF
• W3C

Within these organisations, people have to be identified as liaisons to provide information about their organisations, answer questions and promote the results of this TG. An obvious instrument to achieve this is a mailings list, but once may also consider the usage of “social networking” platforms, e.g. creating a respective group at LinkedIn or XING.

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