On Monday 21 March 2005 06:19, Pat Naughtin wrote:
> Dear Jim,
....
> Can you have a standard that's 'voluntary'?
The point raised by this question is not trivial. In the United States
many
standards are voluntary! I am tempted to say "most" but I've never taken a
count of them and one would have to decide on weighting factors such as
length, economic impact, etc.
Industry in the United States drives a lot of our standards
development.
Those standards do us a few favors:
-- They make products compatable, e.g., light bulbs and light bulb sockets.
-- They keep companies from having to list volumes of data about each of
their
products by letting the standard provide the details.
-- They keep contracting parties from having to list volumes of data in
each
of their contracts by letting the standard provide the details.
-- They provide some sense of quality control.
-- They promote innovation in an efficient manner, by providing an
industry
consensus on which features to develop support for.
-- They are entirely voluntary unless invoked by law or regulation. Even
standards invoked by contract are voluntary because one is free to sign or
not to sign the contract. Of course, if one chooses to ignore lightbulb
socket standards and build one's own design, compatability issues might
arise. Sometimes this works to a company's advantage and sometimes to its
disadvantage. It's a free market, folks!
Government standards are often voluntary, at least on the face of it.
Federal
highway standards need not be adhered to by the states; of course, that would
result in a loss of funds. Some see this as "bribery" but actually it's a
contract of sorts. "If you adhere to our standards in designing and building
federal highways for you, we will agree to fund the design and building of
those highways [at least in part]." There is a quid pro quo there and that
constitutes a contract.
Some government standards are not voluntary, however, and those are
usually
the ones that deal with safety issues.
The web site I put up the link to is part of a federal movement to rely
more
and more on industrial (or "civilian") standards, where possible.
I suspect that voluntary standards play a larger part in our lives than
they
do in other countries. In those countries, governmentally imposed standards
may play the larger role. That's just a hunch on my part, though.
Jim
--
James R. Frysinger
Lifetime Certified Advanced Metrication Specialist
Senior Member, IEEE
http://www.cofc.edu/~frysingj
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