The Center for Global Standards Analysis is a newly created entity based at Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. The Center has been formed to evaluate, inform, and educate the public on standards issues, the benefits of standards, and the potential impact of standardization on global commerce. The Center’s founders have created a course to be taught this fall, "Strategic Standardization," perhaps the first interdisciplinary course in the United States to be offered to graduate engineering, business, and law students. (The course syllabus is summarized below.)
SN interviewed the Center’s founders—John Kenny, president of Infotech Strategies, Washington, D.C., and the Center’s chairman; William Kelly, dean of the School of Engineering at Catholic University and vice chairman of the Center; Donald Purcell, president of the Center, who has served as president and COO of three international manufacturing trade associations during the past 22 years; and William Fox, professor of law and former associate dean of the Columbus School of Law at Catholic University and general counsel to the Center.
With regard to academia, what has been lacking in standards education that has led you to form the Center for Global Standards Analysis? And how can your Center address the need for education about standards within the corporate setting?
Purcell: There’s a profound lack of educational programming among colleges and universities. That’s not to say there aren’t any programs. There are some specific programs that deal with ISO 9000 and 14000 or telecommunications, but we haven’t seen anything that we would call interdisciplinary, bringing together engineering, technology, legal, and government policy issues. So Bill Fox and I decided last fall to take the bull by the horns and form not only the Center, but develop the interdisciplinary course in Strategic Standardization as well.
Kenny: Standards in the telecommunications industry are completely market-driven, and there is very little academic understanding of the issues. But we would have a wonderful base if our employees came with an academic understanding as to why standards are critical to their careers and in their businesses.
On the corporate education side, businesses all across the board are embracing continuing education and especially distance learning as a possible way of meeting some of those needs. Rather than moving the worker out of the workplace, many corporations find they can use many of the new information technology tools—Internet-based training, video- or CD-ROM-based training—to allow a person to learn. So the Center is designed to begin to build up a content-base so that it could be replicated and brought out in any of the settings that people want.
Purcell: We see that different industry sectors are going to have different interests. We hope to create, beginning with the course this fall, different modules so that people, like shopping cafeteria-style, can learn about standardization subjects as varied as process or transparency, health, safety, trade, environment, competition, digital commerce, and so on. Whatever their particular recipe is, we want them to be able to take these different components and address their distinct educational needs.
In your view, what are the current, most pressing issues affecting standards and conformity assessment?
Purcell: When you look at this area of standards and the process of standardization, when you cut to the chase after all the discussions we’ve had about it in the United States—as important as standardization is, it’s not a top national priority. But standards are a top priority in Europe. They made standardization and the creation of a global standards infrastructure a European priority going back into the 1980s—and it’s a worldwide structure that we’re going to have to deal with.
Furthermore, one of the great challenges for us is the large, diversified, very decentralized, private sector-driven standardization system supported by government that the United States has engendered—while we’re dealing with systems around the world that are increasingly centralized. One of the great unanswered questions is, down the road, how is this going to measure out from a competitive point of view? What are we going to have to do to improve the nature of our system? And by the way, I believe in diversity; I believe in decentralization. But we’re going to have to find out some national policy techniques that will take us to the next generation where we can maintain the diversification as well as our competitive nature. I think a major question is: Can the federal government continue to support a large, diversified, decentralized system? And that question hasn’t been answered.
Kenny: In the telecom industry, the future for their business is in a global marketplace. And legal standards, engineering standards, technical standards, the whole range, are the equivalent of trade barriers if they’re not handled properly in the global economy. Standards are as important to doing business internationally as any treaty might have been in the past. Telecommunications companies are basically trying to take the politics from issues such as privacy in the electronic area and emphasize getting the benefits of the new economy into your community—and the only way to do that is if you agree upon a standard in the truest sense of the word.
Fox: I see three crucial areas where standards have a legal impact: in their use and misuse in international trade; the part standards play in the regulation of an industry through their incorporation into regulations; and finally, standards effect on product liability or personal injury lawsuits. That’s an area that’s relatively unexplored, but in our syllabus, you’ll see we have a segment in the program that is going to be chaired by the general counsel of the National Spa and Pool Institute, which has just lost a lawsuit, discussing the liability issues that standards sometimes bring up.
Dean Kelly: From an educational point of view, I think it is important to find a way to present these issues to undergraduate engineering students so that they see the big picture in the context of an engineering education. Some of the concerns that I would like to see worked into undergraduate programs involve simply how standards get made, how engineers are involved in it, how important standards are to our ability to compete internationally, and so on.
What are your short- and long-term goals for the Center?
Purcell: We are going to develop a strategic plan, which we’ve already started to work on. We’re looking at the creation of a Web site, and we’re very hopeful that we’ll get a link on the university’s Web site to start out.
Kenny: We happen to be sitting in Washington, D.C., but the means for what we’re doing academically happens to exist all over the country and perhaps all over the world. We’re trying to be mindful that everything we set up will be a replicable infrastructure. It will have been a mistake if we didn’t capture what we do in such a way that we can then get the information out there very quickly in Internet time so that people, regardless of where they are, can use it while the information is still relevant.
Will the Center function as a think-tank for the standards community? In what ways?
Purcell: I think that’s going to happen, and in part it’s already happening! For the last couple of months, Bill and I have met with several different people in associations and government agencies, and we’ve started to get a sense from them that we’re preaching to the choir. These are people with pretty senior responsibilities in this area, and they’re looking for solutions, they’re looking for answers. So the opportunity is there to call a meeting, a forum or a conference, where these people—highly trained, highly motivated—can talk to their peers and sort out what some of these complications are. One of the things that’s driving change is that the pressures are much greater now. The management challenges are much greater and things are happening much more quickly. And we’re all looking for solutions and answers in a tighter time frame on issues that are a lot more complicated than in our recent experiences.
Kenny: Most of the young people in the information economy have come up in the culture of the Internet—an environment in which, when you find something new and exciting, it’s your duty to share it and get it out there and let other people work with it. In the environment I was brought up in 10 years ago, standards were often developed in closed rooms, and eventually brought out and accepted. In today’s environment in the information economy, standards are almost like a living organism. They’re thrown out there, and they’re evolving on a daily basis. So from the think-tank perspective, we’d like to throw ideas out there—to facilitate a conversation about the issues facing standardization today. If the best way to do that is through a forum where you’re convening a group, that’s what we’ll do. If the best way to do that is through ongoing dialog on the Internet and interaction via e-mail, we’ll use those technologies to do that.
Do you see a divide between the academic, theoretical teaching of standards and actual corporate usage? Can you address that divide with the Center and with the course you will begin teaching this fall?
Purcell: I think that today people relate better to actual case histories. There’s always going to be some good ideas, some theories, but you’ve got to kick the tires, you’ve got to be part of it. There’s a world of difference between people who have actually been part of this process, sitting at the table, and those who may have read about it or heard about it. I think that’s one of the disconnects between the engineering side and the management side. Most managers don’t sit in standards development meetings. The engineering people and the scientists are getting the assignments to "go sit in these meetings, help cover our industry’s or company’s future, and make it happen." So the speakers in our class this fall are the people who participate and have that kind of background.
For each of you, what has caused you to appreciate the value of standards and understand their power and influence in today’s business world?
Kenny: I’ve been around standards in a lot of industries. When I came to the telecom side of business, it was fascinating to learn that even in that competitive environment, if competitors did not meet on an ongoing basis and talk about the standards that both of us were working from, you could not possibly hand off a telephone call and hope to have it work. By the time I got to the computer industry, which was very different in that it was not a regulated industry, my assumption was that standards might have played a lesser role. But when you come right down to it, the granddaddy of all networks, the Internet, can only function when all the piece parts function into and cooperate with single standards. So when Don approached me about setting up the Center, and I talked to people inside the group of companies Infotech Strategies represents, it was pretty clear that standards were critical to the future of the information economy—and to the future of the global economy. So I was pleased to become involved with this Center, because I think the corporate world needs it and will embrace it.
Dean Kelly: When I talk to the engineering chairs here at Catholic University, I find tremendous interest in standards—how important they are to the medical industry, the telecommunications industry, computing, and so forth. And in my involvement in engineering accreditation I am aware of the importance given to engineering standards in the new accrediting criteria for academic engineering programs. [See sidebar right] So when Don first talked to me about this, I could see these things coming together; the engineering education community and clearly the business community see standards as important issues. And it’s critical for engineering students and graduates to see the importance of standards in getting products or designs to market.
Fox: I come to it in part from an international perspective. I teach a course here called "International Business Transactions." Standards are vitally important in international trade—whether it’s company compliance with standards such as ISO 9000 and 14000, or standards as non-tariff trade barriers within agreements such as NAFTA. These are crucial legal issues that very few lawyers truly appreciate. And I’ve had to realize how standards can be both impediments and expedients to doing international business, so it’s best to appreciate their value.
Purcell: For the last 24 years, with three or four different associations, I have sat at the negotiating table with engineers and lawyers. I’ve gone to 15 countries around the world, helping people work at the subcommittee level on ISO both in Canada and the United States. And I have always been amazed that the meetings themselves were leading to decisions that would modify or change the standards that ultimately determine the fate and the future of the manufacturing companies and in fact the whole industry involved. I could see that, quite frankly, the future of the industry was being decided by a group of engineers, sitting at a table somewhere. I became fascinated with the system and its significance. But for all its significance, the world of standards is, by and large, an invisible world.
A Syllabus for Teaching Standardization
(The following information is taken from the syllabus for the fall 1999 course "Strategic Standardization," to be held at the Catholic University of America.)
"Strategic Standardization" is a survey course intended for graduate engineering, business, and law students. It is intended to provide graduate students with a broad understanding of the interdisciplinary issues associated with standardization. Students will receive three credit hours.
In the fall semester course for 1999, the focus will be on manufactured products that are developed according to decisions by the government and private sectors, and relationships between these sectors. Classes will feature guest speakers from government agencies, trade groups, standards developers, and more.
Class 1 Introduction to Strategic
Standardization
Donald Purcell, President, Center for Global Standards Analysis
Class 2 The National Standards Policy of the United States I
Dr. Belinda Collins, Director, Office of Standards Services, U.S. National Institute of Standards and Technology
Jane W. Schweiker, Director, Public Policy and Government Relations, American National Standards Institute
Kitty Kono, Washington Representative, ASTM
Class 3 The National Standards Policy of the United States II
Reuben Autery, President, Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association
Jim Turner, Democratic Counsel, House Science and Technology Committee
Virginia A. Huth, Policy Analyst, White House Office of Management and Budget
Class 4 Safety Standards
Colin B. Church, Voluntary Standards and International Activities, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
David Karmol, General Counsel, National Spa and Pool Institute
Donald Purcell on kickback regulations for chain saws
Class 5 The Environment
Mary McKiel, EPA Voluntary Standards Network, U.S. EPA
Speaker to Be Announced, Chemical Manufacturers Association
Donald E. Purcell on air quality regulations for small engines
Class 6 Standards and Trade
Suzanne Troje, Director, Technical Trade Barriers (invited), Office of the United States Trade Representative
Helen Delaney, former U.S. Representative on Standards to the European Commission
Donald E. Purcell on trends in international standards infrastructure
Class 7 Competition and Antitrust
Alan Sheer, Senior Trial Attorney, U.S. Federal Trade Commission
Christopher Kelly, Senior Counsel for Intellectual Property, U.S. Department of Justice, Antitrust Division
Donald A. Farmer, Jr., Attorney at Law, Reed Smith Shaw & McClay
Class 8 Federal Standards Programs —Department of Defense and Department of Energy
Gregory Saunders, Director, Standardization Program Office, U.S. Department of Defense
Richard J. Serbu, Manager, Technical Standards, U.S. Department of Energy
Class 9 Ethics
Alan Schwartz, General Counsel, National Society of Professional Engineers
American Society of Mechanical Engineers
Stephen P. Murphy, Attorney at Law, Reed Smith Shaw & McClay
Class 10 Testing, Certification, and Conformity Assessment
Gordon Gillerman, Manager, Government Affairs, Underwriters Laboratories
Joseph O’Neil, Executive Administrator, National Cooperation for Laboratory Accreditation (NACLA)
Class 11 International Standards—Perspectives I
Electronic Industries Alliance (U.S. National Committee, IEC)
Class 12 Digital and Electronic Commerce
John Kenny, President, Infotech Strategies
Professor William Fox, Professor, Columbus School of Law
Class 13 International Standards— Perspectives II
Julie Abraham, Director, Office of International Harmonization (invited) U.S. National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (DOT)
Steve Wood, Assistant Chief Counsel for Rulemaking (invited), U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (DOT)
Joe Franklin, President, American Gear Manufacturers Association
Class 14 International Standards— Perspectives III
Joanne R. Overman, Chief, Standards Information Program, Office of
Standards Services, NIST
Jim Walters, Director, International Standards, Air Conditioning and
Refrigeration Institute
Donald Purcell on future trends in global standards
A New Emphasis on Standards
In "Engineering Criteria 2000," the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology’s (ABET’s) Criteria for Accrediting Engineering Programs, the board has explicitly required the use of standards by engineering students in the major design experience that caps their education:
Section 4: Professional Component
"...Students must be prepared for engineering practice through the curriculum culminating in a major design experience based on the knowledge and skills acquired in earlier course work and incorporating engineering standards and realistic constraints that include most of the following considerations: economic; environmental; sustainability; manufacturability; ethical; health and safety; social; and political."
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