A standard is a recognized definition or format. On the Internet and with computers, standards allow for reliable data exchange and hardware interoperability regardless of the computer vendor, individual programmer, or network provider.

• Standards define the way components should interact and the way components and systems talk to each other.
• Standards are not limited to physical aspects of computing such as dimensions of a component or the configuration of a connecting cable.
• A programming language (ANSI C), a networking protocol (TCP/IP), or a graphic file format (JPEG) are some examples of standards.

To illustrate the power of standards, think about driving an automobile. In the U.S., everyone drives on the right side of the road. What if there were no standard (law, in this case) for which side of the road you must drive on? We would continually see auto accidents, hospitals would be overcrowded, auto body shops would make billions, and insurance would be unaffordable. Thankfully, the U.S. has adopted a standard of driving on only the right side of the road which lets us enjoy safe and efficient transportation. Not only to standards lower costs, but they create stability and allow for innovation.

On the Internet and in the computer industry in general, standards help lower costs by enabling interchangeability, competition, and customization.

Interchangeability

Because of certain video and display standards for instance, practically any computer monitor can be connected to nearly any PC and perform as expected.

Competition

This creates competition and lowers the cost of monitors as different companies try to win your business.

Customization

Furthermore, consumers and corporations can customize systems to fit their individual needs. Not only can computer components (cpu, hard drive, etc.) be pieced together to allow a less expensive, more powerful systems, but individual customized networks and servers can be connected and expected to exchange information because of standards.

Standards allow for greater innovation. Imagine:

What if...

If only one organization, government, or corporation wrote all the software and built all of the hardware for every computer and every network in the entire world, we would not need standards like we have today. This giant controlling body could make everything work together.

As history has shown, however...

...technical breakthroughs and innovations are more often achieved by small, independent groups with new ideas and a new way of doing things.

Standards create stability among computer components and systems.

• When one part of the system knows what to expect from another part of the system, it can do its job properly.
• Standards define this type of interaction among computer components, computer systems, and networks.

Official Standards - approved and controlled by a standards organization.

Official standards are standards which are approved by a standards making agency or organization. Many different organizations are responsible for different types of standards used on the Internet.

When one of these organizations gives its stamp of approval to a standard, it is known as an official standard. The standards organization controls that standard. To modify or extend an official standard, one must go through the organization which controls it.

We'll take a look at standards organizations in Section 6.

Industry standards - controlled by a corporation.

Industry standards are often developed when a standards organization is taking too long to develop an official standard and companies need some type of stop- gap measure to sell products.

Unlike an official standard, an industry standard is controlled by a corporation. Since the standard is owned by a corporation, a licensing fee is often charged for other groups to use the standard.

An example of competing industry standards occurred not long ago among modem vendors. The technology to produce high speed computer modems (capable of 56 kbs downloads) had existed for some time before the eventual standard, v.90, was released by the ITU. Companies producing modems did not want to wait until v.90 was released to sell their modems, however.

As a result, two competing industry standards were released, x2 from U.S. Robotics (now part of 3Com) and K56flex (from Rockwell). Before the release of the v.90 standard, modems were being made which adhered to one or both of these industry standards. Now, high speed modems adhere to v.90 and sometimes K56flex and x2 also for backward compatibility.

De Facto Standard - Not official, but accepted by the community.

De facto standards are standards which arise usually gradually as one type of software, data format, or language becomes increasingly popular. They are not approved by any standards organization, but they are widely used and recognized in industry as a standard.

Some examples are:

• Hewlett Packard's Printer Control Language (PCL) and
• Abode's Postscript language used to print documents on laser printers.
• The Hayes AT command set for controlling modems is another example of an industry standard.

There are many standards which are used on the Internet. Many of these standards existed before the Internet and World Wide Web became popular. Standards were in wide use in the electronics and communications industries long before even computers were common. As a result, standards used today on the Internet are taken from many different categories.

Here we are talking about categories that group standards more by their function. Within each group, a standard may be official, de facto, or an industry standard.The groups I've chosen here are not arbitrary; however, there are no hard and fast rules as to how to group standards. Many times a standard will fit into more than one category and the categories may have slightly different names.

The important point is to remember that there are many different types of standards which have different purposes in relation to the Internet.

Some standards were developed solely because of the Internet and World Wide Web. Examples of these standards are:

• HyperText Transfer Protocol - HTTP is the standard protocol for sending files over the Web. It is responsible for getting a Web page from the Web server to your browser.
•  HyperText Markup Language - HTML is the language which Web pages are written in. It allows a Web browser to interpret and display a Web page once it is delivered to you.
• Common Gateway Interface - CGI is the specification for transferring information between a Web server and a CGI program. CGI programs are commonly used to process the input given by a user on a Web form. When you visit the Hertz Corporation to rent cars on the Web, for example, a CGI program processes your reservation request.
• Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol - TCP/IP is a protocol standard that controls how Internet messages (information) are addressed (it knows where they came from and where they are going) and how they are transmitted. It controls how messages reach their destination across the many possible routes on the Internet.

Modern communication standards could be traced back to the invention of the telegraph, radio, and Morse code. Standards which apply to the Internet, however, deal with allowing computers to connect to each other and transfer information. Some examples are:

• Point to Point Protocol - PPP allows one computer to connect to one other computer. Most commonly, PPP is used for dialing into an Internet service provider from a home computer using a modem.
• V.32, V.42, V.90, ... - These standards are used for transmitting data between modems. In general, the higher the number, the faster the transmission speed which is support by the protocol.
• Xmodem, Ymodem, and Zmodem - These standards are protocols that tell a computer how to transfer files. They are commonly used when two individual computers connect to each other (over modem or a network) to transfer files. Xmodem was the original (and slowest) protocol, with simple built-in error checking.

Since the Internet is a network of networks, network standards are an inherent part of Internet Standards. Also, networking standards are closely related to communication standards, because networking computer systems together implies some form of communication. Some examples of network standards include:

• Ethernet - Ethernet standards form a basis for ethernet networks. They specify attributes that affect not only the hardware that connects computers on an Ethernet network (the cables, network interface cards, hubs,...), but also portions of the software that run the network.
• AppleTalk - an industry standard developed and used by Apple Computer, it controls how Macintosh computers connect and talk to each other.
• Fiber Distributed Data Interface (FDDI) - FDDI is a standard for data transmission in networks using fiber optic lines.

Graphic standards relate to the format in which graphic files are stored and how graphics are displayed on a computer. Common standard graphic files formats found on the Web are:

• Graphics Interchange Format (GIF) - A format for storing images, the GIF format is owned by CompuServe (now part of America OnLine) and the compression algorithm (or compression method, called LZW) is owned by Unisys. GIF is not an official standard, but a combination industry/de facto standard. Users can create, view, and transmit GIF images freely, but companies which make products that create GIF images must have a licensing arrangement with CompuServe
•  Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) - JPEG is an ISO standard that works extremely well for storing photographic images. Most images found on the Web are either JPEG or GIF formatted images.
• Portable Network Graphics (PNG) - PNG is a file format for storing graphic images in a fashion similar to GIF files. PNG has no license restrictions and typically has better color representation than GIF and more options than JPEG.

Video standards relate to such things as how a computer sends signals to a monitor to display images as well as how moving images (video) can be stored and played back over the Internet or downloaded and played on a computer. Some of the more common examples of such video standards encountered on the Internet are:

• Audio Visual Interleaved File (AVI) - Also known as Video for Windows, this is an industry standard developed by Microsoft. AVI files store video and audio information with a limited resolution and playback ability, but they don't require any special hardware to watch. This makes AVI a common format for distributing video.
• Quicktime - Developed by Apple Computer, Quicktime also does not require any special hardware for video playback. It is built into Apple's MacOS and is freely available for Windows. More powerful and flexible than AVI, Quicktime is the basis for the next generation MPEG format, MPEG-4 described below.
• RealAudio/RealVideo - Industry standards developed by RealNetworks for transmitting live audio and video over the Internet.
• Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) - MPEG is a set of standards for compressing audio and video information for storage on disc. MPEG-1 was used for Video-CD's and CD-i. MPEG-2 is used for DVD's and High Definition Television (HDTV). MPEG-3 (better known as MP3) is a popular way of storing and transmitting music.

A proprietary standard is owned and controlled by someone. The "someone" is usually a corporation. Proprietary designs are not open for others to see the specifications that would allow them to duplicate a product that uses the standard.

Just because a standard is privately owned, however, it is not necessarily closed. The owner of a privately controlled standard can choose to make the standard open, like the Hayes AT command set that all modems use. So private does not mean proprietary.

The Windows operating system is proprietary and sometimes considered a de facto standard for desktop PC operating systems. You cannot buy Windows from anyone but Microsoft, however. This is because Microsoft's standards for Windows are proprietary and closed.

Apple Computer's MacOS operating systems have usually also been proprietary (although generally not considered a standard). Interestingly, though, Apple's latest release of its operating system, Mac OS X, is open (at least some parts of it) and is based on another open operating system, Unix.

Open standards are public. Officially approved standards as well as privately designed standards that are made public are considered open. When a standard is public, anyone can see its specifications and use it to build a product (whether hardware or software).

For example, many manufacturers make ethernet network cards which can be installed in a PC and allow it to connect to an ethernet network.

Anyone is free to extend the functionality of an open standard. Often, these add-ons to a standard are approved by the standards agency and incorporated into the standard.

An illustration of the power of open standards can be seen with the Linux operating system. The Linux OS is open source and open architecture and is built on many open standards. Anyone is free to take the source code for Linux, use it, and redistribute it. If someone extends the functionality of Linux or adds some value to the operating system (even just putting all of it on a CD), they are free to charge others for this service. Some companies (most notably RedHat Software) have been created and become very successful by making Linux easy to install and use.

Open standards are generally considered superior to proprietary standards for many reasons.

• Since proprietary standards are controlled by one company, their advancement depends on the bureaucratic pressures, marketing forces, and business plan of that company.
• Similarly, one corporation has only limited resources to advance a standard. With an open standard (like the Linux example), thousands of individuals and groups all over the world can be working on enhancing the standard.
• Also, open standards allow for new and creative uses or implementations that the original creator may not have thought of.

What is the W3C and what do they do?

The W3C exists to realize the full potential of the Web. It is an industry consortium funded by industrial members, although it does not promote any particular company's products. The W3C promotes open standards which will evolve the Web and allow interoperability between different Web products.

The W3C was created in 1994 with Tim Berners-Lee (the inventor of the Web) as one of the founding members.

The W3C is responsible for the HTTP and HTML standards. It also has approved standards such as the PNG image format which enhance the Web.

The W3C Process

The W3C has developed a process, known as the W3C process, to create new technologies and standards.

Central to the W3C and the W3C process is the idea of consensus. The W3C process addresses all participants views and objections to any issue or standard before them. They attempt to resolve any member's issues. Consensus is important to the W3C because they do not want to reach any decision which will fragment the Web into separate competing markets. The Web is a worldwide phenomenon. In order to advance the Web as a whole, the W3C's solutions must be acceptable worldwide.

The W3C believes that all of their reports and software should be available free of charge to the general public. This is their policy of public dissemination. This is to help keep the Web together as a whole and to ensure the their results are acceptable to the public as a whole.

The W3C considers submissions of new ideas and technologies from its member organizations. The submissions are well documented and give the submitter an accurate record of their contributions. A submitter can also withdraw their submissions.

Submissions to the W3C can take various paths, from being rejected, to being acknowledged and published where they are open to comment. Further, the W3C publishes many technical papers which follow various steps from their introduction as a Working Draft to a Recommendation, which can be widely distributed and used to develop software.

Standards for the Internet as a whole are governed by three related organizations:

1. ISOC (The Internet Society)
2. IAB (Internet Architecture Board)
3. IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force)

Let's look at the Internet Society first. It is the "parent" organization. The Internet Society is an international non-profit organization. Its goal is to maintain and enhance the Internet. The Internet Society acts as a guide, providing direction for the development of many aspects of the Internet. It supports the IAB, which is a technical advisory group of the Internet Society.

The Internet Architecture Board oversees the technical evolution of the Internet. It does this through its supervision of the Internet Engineering Task Force, the Internet Research Task Force, and other groups. Another responsibility of the IAB is to publish and manage notes and documents that are submitted by various groups and may eventually become Internet standards. This submission, review, and approval process is known as Request For Comment (RFC). If an RFC becomes a standard, the final version is frozen and any changes must be assigned to a new document.

The Internet Engineering Task Force is an open, international community of researchers and network designers. The IETF oversees the continuing evolution of TCP/IP and similar standard Internet operating protocols.

The American National Standards Institute, better known as ANSI, has over 1300 members from various companies and organizations. ANSI began in 1918 and sets standards in many technical areas including electronics, communications, and the computer industry.

ANSI standards range from the ANSI C programming language, the ASCII text file format, the SCSI computer interface for connecting computer peripherals such as scanner and disks, and FDDI for transmitting data over fiber optic cables.

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers describes itself as "the world's largest technical professional society, promoting the development and application of electrotechnology and allied sciences for the benefit of humanity, the advancement of the profession, and the well-being of our members.'

IEEE publishes many papers and journals as well as promoting the development of standards. IEEE has developed many standards related to networking, including IEEE 802.3 which is the basis of ethernet networking, and 802.11 which is the most widely used set of wireless radio-frequency local area network protocols.

The International Telecommunication Union, founded in 1865, is an international agency responsible for developing standards governing telecommunications.

ITU created nearly all standards used for various speeds of modem communication (V.32, V.42, V.90, ...). ITU along with ISO has developed standards such as X.400 for addressing and transporting email messages, X.500 for structuring global directories.

ISO, which means "equal", is not an abbreviation, but is the standard international short form for the International Organization for Standardization. ISO is derived from the Greek isos, which means 'equal'. Although the full name for the organization is different for different languages, the short form, ISO, is the same in all languages.

ISO was founded in 1946 as a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from over 100 countries. ISO has developed such standards as OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) as a standard model for transmitting messages between any two points in a telecommunications network. ISO is also supports many working groups like the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) which is currently working on the MPEG-4 standard for Video.