Computer Standards

When people think of a product or service being “standard”, several adjectives may come to mind. The product or service must be: uniform, consistent, unchanging, and going to remain the same for a very long time, if not indefinitely. The technical definition states, “An acknowledged measure of comparison for quantitative or qualitative value.” People have grown to expect things in their daily life to be standard. Amazingly enough, people are accommodated more than they think.

There are so many products people take for granted, they rarely think of how much effort had to go into making them all fit into the same, nice little package. No one has to call their neighbors or friends down the block to make sure their stereo will play when they plug it into their outlet? Or when you make a trip to the office supply store to buy a new printer, you are not faced with multiple decisions on what paper size to choose. Everyone knows that paper that is 8.5 inches by 11 inches will fit in 99.9 percent of the printers on the market. Some time ago, certain groups of people had to stop and make tough decisions about which size paper would become “standard.” Obviously, there were many factors going into this decision, but few people have actually stopped to think why that paper size was chosen, “In a sense, a perfect standard is absolute. To the extent that we have a choice about standards, they are not perfect. When there is no choice, we tend to forget the standard exists” (Oksala 10).

Even if we were to question why a certain standard was chosen, there are many reasons to support it. Having standards introduces simplicity, lower costs of production, and increased competition. For example,

When a standard is accepted, the marketplace is affected in some significant ways. On the downside, inertia and stagnation can set in. On the upside, there is increased competition in value-added products that conform to the standard and enhance network externality. While the arguments pro and con are too complex to argue in general, it may be safe to say the ideal standard stabilizes the market and allows for a variety of interoperable products that reduce costs through competition. (Oksala 10)

Why then, does the computer industry sway so far off the path from the aforementioned standards?

If one were to look more closely at the computer industry one would see that these “standards” that are implemented are not really standards at all. They can more accurately be labeled as a general format. There are standard paper sizes, disk sizes and specific size standards within the computer, but there are also many exceptions to the rule. When a program is opened there are certain things that one will expect to find: A tool bar, a standard series of installation boxes, scroll bar, and other common features. These represent the general format. Within each of these, each program’s corporation has implemented their own “standards” and requirements for each of these tools. Tool bars are not always exactly alike, the general installation boxes are of the same size and same gray color, but their contents may be slightly different. Each corporation, if they are big and powerful enough, has managed to set some of those “standards” that we see everyday.

The development of these standards is a very involved process that goes through several steps. One of the most important things in deciding if a standard will “take” is the common population. Brian Meek also states that:

What makes standards succeed or fail is the subject of much speculation, often during late night chat. Speculation it always remains: Firm conclusions are never reached, or do not bear the scrutiny of cold and sober dawn. Anecdotal evidence is not in short supply, and case studies can be done, but little can be translated into general principle. Standards, it seems, are sensitive plants; one will ‘take’ and thrive, while another, to all appearances equally fit, will struggle to survive at all. (Meek 114)

I believe this is mostly because of access to the public. The corporations like Microsoft and Corel are able to set more of the