Leave the standards to the SDOs, or collaborate independently?

Allow me to first state that the following is simply the personal, subjective opinion of this author...

This week began with an announcement from three manufacturers of a "new" cooperative effort to start a communications forum and develop an interoperability standard. I felt like the Jeff Goldblum character from the great "The Right Stuff" movie that would run breathless down the hall to report on the latest activities by the Russians in space, only to hear "we know about it already."

It's probably good that I waited a few days before posting this as I was pretty disappointed that yet another group was doing an "end run" around the Standards Development Organization (the SIA) that has developed the only ANSI-approved interoperability standard for the Security Industry. The interesting thing is that this week's actions, though well intended, have helped me see how impartial SDOs and Credentialing organizations are in the best position to recognize, organize, focus and manage manpower to achieve realistic interoperability goals.

I completely understand how interoperability efforts are quite useful and will greatly benefit everyone in the Security Industry "food chain." However, when an effort exists, why not contribute to it and improve it rather than create another, duplicated, parallel effort. 'Nuff said on that one, right?

Well, not really. You see, last year I had the benefit of meeting a particular end user that taught me something quite insightful. "Think of my customer as your customer."

Wow!

If I can help my customer improve their customer's experience, or contribute to savings for his (or her) organization that could mean savings passed onto their clients, we all win.

What does this have to do with a parallel standards effort?

Simply put, it is industry resources not applied toward better helping the (hopeful) benefactors of this industry. If we took the time spent on multiple device and system interface efforts and applied those efforts to introduce more useful applications for the end user, we all win.

So where do we go now? What can we do to improve this situation?

Ask the SDO. They have a method in place for recognition of standards development activities and a way for these efforts to focused correctly and impartially.