If the best way to do that is through ongoing dialog on the Internet and interaction via e-mail, we ll use those technologies to do that. I think that today people relate better to actual case histories. There s always going to be some good ideas, some theories, but you ve got to kick the tires, you ve got to be part of it. There s a world of difference between people who have actually been part of this process, sitting at the table, and those who may have read about it or heard about it. I think that s one of the disconnects between the engineering side and the management side.
Most managers don t sit in standards development meetings.
So the speakers in our class this fall are the people who participate and have that kind of background. I ve been around standards in a lot of industries. When I came to the telecom side of business, it was fascinating to learn that even in that competitive environment, if competitors did not meet on an ongoing basis and talk about the standards that both of us were working from, you could not possibly hand off a telephone call and hope to have it work. By the time I got to the computer industry, which was very different in that it was not a regulated industry, my assumption was that standards might have played a lesser role. But when you come right down to it, the granddaddy of all networks, the Internet, can only function when all the piece parts function into and cooperate with single standards.