We are seeing the spread of the object oriented computing paradigm which blurs the distinction between software and data. By embedding some standards, OOPS systems not only make those transparent to the user - they effectively disappear, but also make other standards irrelevant. None of these developments augers well for standards as we know them today. Each encourages the anarchic development of flavours, variants, varieties and is anathema to the idea of the industrial standard. Standards in the post-industrial age are everywhere in retreat.
Standards are everywhere being pushed down, out or back.
By pushed down I mean that they are being hidden and made less important, especially by object oriented approaches, and by the replacement of hardware by software. By pushed out I mean disappearing as more flexible software accepts less structured inputs. So if we must have data standards today , let us recognise that they are the last gasp of the industrial age - and we are still in the industrial age. And he would have missed the point. A dinosaur wouldn t like that.