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TheInteroperabilityReport
The
ITU
Adopts
a
New
Meta-Standard:Open
Access
byCarl
MalamudMajor
announcement
INTEROP
91
Fallfeatured
amajor
announcementby
Dr.
Pekka
Tarjanne,Secretary-General
ofthe
InternationalTelecommunicationUnion.Usingalivevideoteleconferencing
link
fromGeneva,Dr.TarjannetoldINTEROPconferenceattendees
that
he
has
decidedtoallow
theInternet
communitytopostallITU
standards
fordistribution,
at
nocharge,over
the
network.TheITU
standards
are
acrucialbody
ofinternationalstandards,ranging
fromX.25toG3/G4faxtoSignallingSystem7toX.400messaging
andthe
Vseriesmodemdefinitions.TheCCITT
standards
set,known
asthe
BlueBook,
is
over19,000pageslong.
File
server
The
standardsare
initiallyavailableona
server
donated
by
Sun
Microsystems
andmaintainedbythe
University
of
Colorado.Many
other
sites
including
UUNET
willhousecopies
ofthestandards
archive.
To
obtain
standards
from
the
server,
users
caninitiate
an
anonymous
FTP
sessionto
digital.resource.org
(thepreferredaddress)
or
bruno.
cs.
colorado.
edu(the
alias).
Electronicmail
sent
to
infoserve@digital.resource.
org
with
the
world"help"
in
the
messagebodywill
return
instructionsonhowto
use
asophisticatedmail-basedarchiveserver.Commentson
any
aspects
of
this
programmay
be
sent
to
standards@digital.resource.org.
Conversion
TheITU
maintainedthe
BlueBookonaSiemensmainframeusinga1970sstyleproprietary
text
formattingsystem(completewith
their
own
character
set
named
Zentec).
Aconversionprogramwas
written
in
perl
which
is
able,withsomenotableexceptions,toconvert
thedata
intomorerationalformats.Theconversionprogram,
in
its
initialimplementation,converts
theBlue
Book
into
troff.
For
convenience,ASCII(Le.,
nroff)
and
PostScript
(Le.,
psroffed)
versionsof
thestandardsare
postedalongwith
their
troff
source.
Limitations
Twonotableproblemswillbe
apparent
in
the
converteddocuments.
First,
sometables
and
formulaswerenotabletobeconvertedduetosomewhatincompletedocumentationon
the
originalformat(and
the
limitedtime
and
skills
ofthe
conversionprogrammer).Thesecondmajorlimitationis
the
lack
of
integrated
graphics.TheITU
maintained
graphics
in
Autocad,
but
manually
addedall
textwith
typewriters,
glue,
and
similar
anachronisms.
As
an
initial
workaround,closetoone
thousand
figureswere
manually
scanned
andare
posted
in
TIFF
andEPS
formats.
It
ishoped,
inthe
future,
that
wecanprovideamoreelegantsolution.
In
additionto
the
BlueBook,
there
are
quite
afewmore
recentstandards
stored
inother
formats.TheseformatsincludeMicrosoftWordforWindows
(the
newITUpublishingplatform),RichText
Format
(aMicrosoftrevisableformstandard),ASCII,WordPerfect,
and
afew
Samnames
(theITUprecursortoWord).Although
there
are
certainlydeficiencies
in
the
freeversions
ofthe
ITU
standards,
it
is
hoped
that
the
Internet
communitywilllookbeyond
the
individualbytesto
the
symbolic
natureofthis
important
announcement.
continuedonnextpage
19
Volume 5, Number 12December 1991
20
coNNEXIo
s
Cost
Copyright
Atirst
step
Objection
ITU
Adopts
a
New
Meta-Standard
(continued)
TheITO
and
ISOhave,untilnow,onlymade
their
standardsavailablebypaper
at
great
cost.TheITOderivedannualrevenuesof
SFr
8million(roughlyUS$5million)fromdocumentsales.ISOalsomakesaconsiderableamountfromdocumentsalesalthoughtheyrefusetodivulgespecificrevenue
or
costfigures,claiming
the
informationis"proprietary."Highcost
hasmeant
that
the
most
important
communities
individualswhowillimplement
the
standards-have
not
hadreadyaccesstothesevitaldocuments.Manyconsideredone
ofthe
mostsurprisingaspectsoftheINTEROPsessionto
be
aspeech,madevia
the
videolinkfromGeneva,byAnthonyRutkowski,one
of
theseniorlawyers
at
theITU.Rutkowskipresentedadetailedanalysisof
the
legalbasisforassertingcopyrightonstandardsdocuments.Heconcluded
thatit
washighlydoubtful
if
internationalorganizations(suchasISOortheITO)would
be
able
to
successfully
assert
copyrightprotection
in
acourt
of
lawover
the
content
of
standards.(Thevideolinkwasprovidedcourtesy
of
USSprintandCompressionLabsIncorporated).Theannouncementby
the
ITUisaradicalchange
in
policy
and
represents
the
newleadership
of
Dr.PekkaTarjanne.Dr.VintonCerf,
the
chairman
of
the
lAB,underscoredthesignificanceofthesenewpolicieswhenheinformed
the
INTEROPaudience
that
he
had
receivedcallsfrom
the
WhiteHouseand
the
FCCwantingtoknowmoredetails.TheITOannouncement
is
an
importantstep,
but
it
isonly
the
firststep.ISO,ANSI.theIEEE.Bellcore.andallotherstandards-makingandstandards-coordinationbodies
must
firmlyendorsetheprinciple
that
the
resultsofthestandardsprocessshould
be
easilyaccessible
at
low
costornocost.
In
addition,bodieslikeISO
and
ANSIshouldinvestigate
their
processestosee
if
therearemeans
that
can.whilepreserving
the
vitalprincipleofdueprocess.enhance
the
speed
and
relevance
ofstan
dardsmaking.AnimportantfirststepwouldbetopostallworkingdocumentsontheInternet.Postingdocumentson
the
Internetistechnicallyfeasible.
In
less
than
onemonth.averysmallgroup
of
volunteerswereabletoconvertmost
ofthe
ITOstandards
set
(nottomentionscanning
in
images.settingup
the
hardwareandinstallingsupportsoftware).Therearenotechnicalreasonstonotpost
standards--all
objections
are
basedonapoliticaldesireto
retain
control
or
afinancialdesiretoenhancerevenue.ThemostcommonobjectionbygroupslikeANSItopostingstandardsis
that
documentsales"fund
the
process."WhileANSI
and
ISOrefusetodivulge
their
cost
and
revenuestructure,
it
iscertainly
true
that
underthecurrent
procedures
the
documentsalesareimportanttobothgroups.However.selling
standards
at
veryhighpricesundermines
the
verypurposeforwhichgroupslikeISO
and
ANSIwereformed.
It
is
as
if
the
AmericanCancerSocietyweretosellcigarettesasaway
of
funding
their
work.ISO
and
ANSIwereformedtopromote
the
widespreadacceptance
of
standards:
their
currentpoliciesseverelyunderminethose
goals.
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