Scaffolding the New Web
Standards and Standards Policy for the Digital Economy
Although much of the growing digital economy rests on the Internet and World Wide Web, which in turn rest on information technology standards, it is unclear how much longer the current momentum can be sustained absent new standards. To discover whether today's standards processes are adequate, where they are taking the industry, and whether government intervention will be required to address systemic failures in their development, RAND undertook five case studies. So far, it seems, the current standards process remains basically healthy, with various consortia taking up the reins of the process, and the rise of open-source software has also aided vendor-neutral standardization. Nevertheless, the prospects for semantic standards to fulfill XML's promise are uncertain. Can the federal government help? Its policy on software patents clearly merits revisiting. More proactively, the National Institute for Standards and Technology could intensify its traditional functions: developing metrologies; broadening the technology base; and constructing, on neutral ground, terrain maps of the various electronic-commerce standards and standards contenders.
- Format:
- Paperback, 148 Pages
- Year:
- 2000
- List Price:
- $20.00
- Price:
- $16.00 Special 20% Web Discount
- Full Document (pdf format) (File size 7 MB)
Use Adobe Acrobat Reader version 7.0 or higher for the best experience.
Document Details
- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Available
- Format: Paperback
- Pages: 148
- List Price: $20.00
- Price: $16.00
- ISBN/EAN: 0-8330-2858-8
- Document Number: MR-1215-OSTP
- Year: 2000
- Series: Monograph Reports
Contents
Chapter One
Introduction
Chapter Two
The Place of Standards
Chapter Three
Lessons from Five Case Studies
Chapter Four
The Emerging Challenge of Common Semantics
Chapter Five
Standards Development Institutions
Chapter Six
The Place of Standards
Chapter Seven
Conclusions
Appendix A
The Web As We Know It
Appendix B
The Extensible Markup Language
Appendix C
Knowledge Organization and Digital Libraries
Appendix D
Payments, Property, and Privacy
Appendix E
Standards and the Future Value Chain
Appendix F
On the Meaning of Standard
This research was sponsored by RAND's Science and Technology Unit.
This report is part of the RAND Corporation monograph report series. The monograph/report was a product of the RAND Corporation from 1993 to 2003. RAND monograph/reports presented major research findings that addressed the challenges facing the public and private sectors. They included executive summaries, technical documentation, and synthesis pieces.
Permission is given to duplicate this electronic document for personal use only, as long as it is unaltered and complete. Copies may not be duplicated for commercial purposes. Unauthorized posting of RAND PDFs to a non-RAND Web site is prohibited. RAND PDFs are protected under copyright law. For information on reprint and linking permissions, please visit the RAND Permissions page.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decisionmaking through research and analysis. RAND's publications do not necessarily reflect the opinions of its research clients and sponsors.
RAND® is a registered trademark. Copyright © 1994-2012 RAND Corporation.