----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Scott Horning" <robert_horning(a)netzero.net>
To: "No Spam" <nospam(a)cacace.org>rg>; "Wikimedia Foundation Mailing
List"
<foundation-l(a)wikimedia.org>
Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2006 12:19 PM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] proposed new project - wikistandards
No Spam wrote:
I would like to propose a new wikiproject, called
wikistandards, in which
the community at-large contributes to the creation of international
standards (a wiki version of ANSI and ISO).
The first standard I would like to begin work on is a Project Management
standard. The impetus for this comes from my frustration over the Project
Management Institute's standard
www.pmi.org
It is also an IEEE standard:
http://webstore.ansi.org/ansidocstore/product.asp?sku=IEEE+Std+1490-2003
And there is also the ISO standard:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_10006
PRINCE2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PRINCE2
There are other lesser known examples of closed committee works or this
nature.
The PMI standard suffers from 'design by committee' and is, to say the
least, stultifying. Lets see how the wiki community does at designing
standards.
I look forward to comments.
I am willing to start the first project off but need some guidance and
advice on how to proceed.
Regards
Al
Have you seen the pages on Meta:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikistandards
and a competing proposal
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_for_standards
It should be noted that this proposal has been formally "voted" on by a
small community that has sought to create this idea into a full Wikimedia
sister project. I am unsure of its current status by the special project
committee, especially as Wikiversity has been far more dominent in the
conversations that have been going on with that group.
I was actually planning on trying to move Wikistandards to the Incubator
Wiki (
http://incubator.wikimedia.org/) to do a trial run of this idea,
but I'm currently quite overwhelmed right now trying to get Wikiversity
going instead (for myself). I know that there is already a small
community of people who are interested in seeing something like this to
be developed, and it would really be just a matter of informing that
group if something were put together and to try and restart the momentum
that had occured earlier.
I would have to agree that a Wiki being used to develop standards in a
very open process is something that would be beneficial to the standards
development community. The costs of purchasing "standards" range from
merely very expensive to insane. In fact, one reason that has often been
given for the price of some standards is to act as an anti-competitive
pressure to make sure that those who purchase the standards have the
financial means to really make something work, or specifically to
discourage new people from getting involved in the development of the
standards. I have seen some of these standards go for a price of over
$100,000 for a single 300 page book.
ISO standards are ones that are "merely very expensive", as I don't think
paying $500 for a 500 page book is necessarily a fair value for the
standard. The reason given behind why they charge so much, even for a
PDF version of the standard that you download off the internet, is
supposedly the network bandwidth and server storage costs. You are also
indirectly helping to pay for the standards development committees, and
for the office staff of the standards agency (which for the USA is
located in downtown Manhattan).
I believe that such standards can be made much more cheaply. Network
bandwidth and storage costs are not nearly what ANSI or IEEE make them
out to be (both are local agencies or "chapters" for ISO in the USA). I
also beleive that there are sponsorship opportunities to help pay for
these costs that could be obtained by the Wikimedia Foundation
specifically to make sure that these standards are made available, and
they could be made free.
--
Robert Scott Horning
----- Original Message -----
From: "No Spam" <nospam(a)cacace.org>
To: "Robert Scott Horning" <robert_horning(a)netzero.net>
Sent: Saturday, August 26, 2006 1:54 PM
Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] proposed new project - wikistandards
Hello Robert,
Your historical knowledge of this is valuable and appreciated.
And your personal insights are equally valuable and important.
The reasons you state, and more, are what motivate me to get this going.
I want to emphasize the following point to all that may be involved that
the
intent (as I see it) is to generate a public domain knowledge base designed
by inclusion (the wiki community and not an exclusive committee) in the
wiki
tradition, that is created and used by everyone at no cost. The resulting
body of knowledge will serve up enough information to spawn new businesses
and organizations that feed off of the wikistandards effort. I suspect that
some types of standards will have to become rigid; at defined points of
progress, a permanent snapshot of a wikistandard will have to be archived
for it to serve its purpose (such as a standard for a next generation
bluetooth technology).
I also believe, for a while anyway, that the ISO's and ANSI's of the world
will continue to serve an important purpose. But they will nonetheless see
this effort as a threat. To allay the fears of those who have something to
lose wikistandards will not serve all needs. Firms that want to push
standards in a direction that serves their proprietary needs (patents, etc)
will be frustrated with the wiki way. They will insist on going through
ANSI
and ISO. For example, the waring tribes of firms that fought over the HDTV
standard for so many years feel that their interests can only be protected
by fighting it out in exclusivity. It will be interesting to see how that
continues to play out once the wiki standard effort goes open-source.
The example of PMI (
www.pmi.org) is interesting. PMI reminds us that their
standard is a basis from which you, NASA for example, can build your own
standard that is applicable to your industry or business. A sort of
building
block or template. The standard is not directly applicable to any end-use.
And, as you say, PMI charges a lot of money for this standard. Furthermore,
they are quick to file suit against anyone who plagarizes their document
(perhaps a large protion of the $1,500 for certain pubs pays for the
lawyers).
Wikistandards would act with autonomy and freedom to include every work,
hyperlinked with every best practice, from which a menu of such elements
may
be chosen to form your custom methodologies. And naturally, at least some
standards will be useful on their own merits (such as a standard for a next
generation bluetooth technology). If innovation is accelerating at a
non-linear pace now (kurzweil) imagine what it can do if standards are
broader, more alive, and easily accessed.
I can also envision a day when wiki can offer certification exams for those
who want to show they are knowledgeable experts on any given wikistandard
(Certified Wiki-IT ?).
That is my vision for starters, I suspect the thing will morph well beyond
this -- meeting needs as they emerge. That after all is a nice benefit of
wiki.
Do you have any suggestions for me on how to proceed? Perhaps a contact at
wiki headquarters where I can begin a fact finding mission?
Al