Standards Engineering Standards Education at the University of Pittsburgh by Michael B. Spring

Introduction By 1990,1 the course had taken a stable the end of this article). Some of the more There are a variety of approaches to form and had two tracks, one for librarians prominent included papers on: teaching standards. Historically, there have and one for information science students. • Computer Based Collaborative Author- been a number of efforts to include standards It examined the national and international ing for Standards Development as economic tools and much of the very early organizations, the standards process, the • Standards as Change Agents in the In- research on standards was from this perspec- academic literature on standards, and stan- formation Technology Market tive. Standards may also be viewed as social dards in several categories—networking, • Usability of a Collaborative Authoring efforts to provide for the common good. interface, data interchange, and operating System for Standards Development: They may also be viewed as a component systems. Students were reading A Guide to Preferences, Problems, and Prognosis of business activity—an approach that has Information Technology Standardization • System Design for and Integrated Doc- been championed by much of the more recent by Carl F. Cargill, Technical Standards: ument System and its impact on Stan- work in Europe and Asia. Finally, they may An Introduction for Librarians by Walt dards Development Effi ciency be viewed from a “standards” perspective Crawford and OSI Explained by Hensall and • Improving the Standardization Process: in which various disciplines are combined Shaw. The goals of the course were stated From Courtship Dance to Lawyering: to study the social dynamics of the process, as follows: Working with Bulldogs and Turtles the technical evolution of the standards and • To defi ne the basic characteristics of the economic and business impacts of the standards. By the end of the 1990s, as funding standards. This article examines an effort at • To review the impact of standards on for supporting research on standardization the University of Pittsburgh that was funded the development of information sys- failed to emerge, the stand-alone course on by a contract from the National Institute of tems. standardization began to change and focus Standards and Technology (Project 70NAN- • To explore the processes by which stan- more on the use of standards and less on B13H206). We begin with a history of stan- dards are developed. standards research. During this same period dards education efforts at the University of • To experience the process of designing/ the faculty in the department was increas- Pittsburgh and conclude with a description programming information systems in ingly involved in standardization and the of the effort under the grant. accord with some standard. treatment of standards found its way into • To examine the implications of stan- a number of courses. The most heavily History of Standards Coursework at the dards for the interpretation and analysis invested course was the course on web tech- University of Pittsburgh of document creation, conversion, and nology but several courses on networking, The fi rst course on standards was de- design. security, and database began to incorporate veloped at the University of Pittsburgh in more of a standards focus. The last year that 1987. The Executive Director of NISO, Pat By 1995, the course had evolved to take the course was offered as a pure information Harris, had suggested to one of her Board on both a more technical focus as well as technology standards course was 1999. members and the new Dean of the Graduate a policy focus. The required textbooks for In 2005, in part as a response to a School of Library and Information Sciences, the course were now Information Technol- resurgence of interest in standards, the Toni Carbo, that such a course might be an ogy Standards: The Quest for the Common course on “web technologies” was retitled important addition to the curriculum. The task Byte by Martin Libicki, Information Tech- “web technologies and standards”. While of designing such a course, which had to be nology Standardization by Carl F. Cargill, the course only addressed those standards equally of interest to information scientists, and Global Standards: Building Blocks for related to the web, the range of standards telecommunications engineers, and librar- the Future by Linda Garcia. Further, the addressed included standards from a variety ians, fell to me. The fi rst syllabus stated that course encouraged students to get involved of organizations and lectures included treat- the “course endeavors to trace the processes in the research we were doing on standards ments of the standards process, the standards by which standards are developed in various with the cooperation of the major Standards organizations, and economic and business fi elds, by various standards organizations, and Developing Organizations (SDOs) and the perspectives as well as technical perspec- across international boundaries.” It laid out a National Institute of Standards and Tech- tives on standards. framework based on standards for intercon- nology (NIST). Out of this work, students nection, communication control, information and faculty became involved in a number The NIST Project presentation, and process control. It examined of research projects that led to several Increased interest in standards educa- standards from the perspective of econom- publications and funded research projects. tion in Asia, Europe, and the US caused us ics, social psychology, business, publishing, More than a dozen papers were coauthored to begin thinking again about how we might telecommunications, and computer science. by faculty and students (see references at approach teaching people about standards.

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Given that much of the sample screens We developed the research on standards materials to be delivered seemed to be starting via a website that was over from scratch, I was standards compliant, that moved to put together a presented material in small retrospective2 on what ten to twenty minute vid- we know and don’t know eo clips, that introduced about standards and stan- complex standards both dardization which served conceptually and techni- an update to a very early cally, and that provided review of standards re- students with exercises search published in 1991.3 that were as game- like as While there has been possible—while still pro- growing attention to stan- viding technically correct dards as business instru- learning opportunities. ments and as instruments Our design was to provide of international coop- three “generic” standards eration and competition, modules and nine specifi c we felt that there was a technically focused mod- lack of attention to the ules as follows: technical perspective on • Generic: standards. To that end we ○ Introduction to Stan- responded to a call for dards proposals from the Na- ○ Standards Organiza- tional Institute of Stan- tions dards and Technology. ○ The Standards Pro- It was our belief that we cess had learned a lot about • Specifi c Technical standards, the standards Standards organizations, the stan- ○ Security Standards 1: dards process, and the Cryptography, Cer- importance of standards tifi cates and Signa- that we could share with tures our colleagues. To that ○ Security Standards end, we proposed the 2: RBAC development of a set of ○ 1: modules that could be http, html, and url used in a variety of dif- ○ Web Standards 2: ferent courses to intro- WAI, XML, and Se- duce standards in a way matic Web that would interest and ○ Document Inter- intrigue students. change Standards Our experiences led us to several their evolution is often not put forward with ○ Big Data and Data Mining conclusions. First, while standards can be the novice in mind and the terminology and ○ Emerging Standards for Cognitive fascinating, they are often dealt with in a relationships often appear mysterious and Radio (IEEE P.1900) way that makes them boring and cumber- undecipherable. Fifth, truly understanding ○ Cellular Telephony and Wireless some. Second, standards have to be taken an information technology standard only oc- Networks in small doses. Coming to grips with them curs when one implements it. To these ends, ○ Networking Standards OSIRM and in full blown form can be intimidating but we focused in telling the story of how stan- the Internet Stack dealing with their origins and goals is much dards organizations emerged. We focused more understandable. Third, the history of on showing how standards evolved and One of the most fascinating parts of the standards and the twists and turns make for what the goals were of the efforts. Finally, development process involved going back fascinating stories that make it easier for we focused on providing an opportunity for to check developments and verify our facts. students to understand them. Fourth, the students to get involved in ways that would For example, we have always worked hard structure of the standards organizations and peak their interest. to help students understand the process rules

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(Continued from page 13) and where they came from. In researching • Complicated Relationships: The Rise module has one or more exercises meant to rules about involving “all materially im- of Modern Standards Organizations. engage students. pacted parties,” we came across the details With the growth of science and technol- The modules on particular standards or of the story of Charles Dudley in the history ogy and the industrial revolution, pro- areas of standardization varied in their ap- of ASTM.4 As many readers will know, but fessional societies emerged to help set proach. In some cases, there are additional as some may not, Charles Dudley received standards. The railroads, the telegraph, stories about the evolution of the standard. his PhD in Chemistry from Yale and went radio, and power systems all spurred In other cases, the video materials seek to work for the Pennsylvania Railroad. In new standards organizations. to provide an overview of the technical 1878, he published a paper on The Chemi- • Complicated Relationships: Stan- standard that can serve as a roadmap to the cal Composition and Physical Properties dards Organizations for Information details. In yet other cases, the video portion of Steel Rails. The paper suggested that a Technology. As it became clear that the makes an effort to explain the importance particular composition of steel would better computer would play a signifi cant role of the standard by reference to the context serve the Railroad’s needs. The rather vehe- in commerce, new organizations were in which it came about. ment negative reaction of the steel produc- created to supplement the work of ex- As an example, in the two modules on ers led him to suggest that producers (who isting standards organizations in setting the web standards, there are six videos. While believed they knew the best way to produce standards. These organizations rapidly these videos might have taken any number of steel economically) and consumers (who be- evolved with the technology. different forms, the fi rst provides an overview lieved they knew best how steel performed) • Complicated Relationships: The Rise of the computer and internet standards and meet together. Dudley’s efforts led to a of Consortia. As information technol- developments that made the web possible, standard for steel rails and to the creation of ogy continued to evolve with great from personal computers to DARPAnet to the ASTM. In the fi rst three modules, a total rapidity, traditional standards organi- TCP/IP. A second video looks at the evolu- of nine videos developed. They included: zations—which worked slowly and tion of the core web standards—the Uniform • The Invisible Infrastructure: The deliberately—were challenged and Resource Locator (URL), the HyperText Rise of Modern Standards. Introduc- replaced in many cases by more agile Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and the HyperText es the importance of standards in the consortia. Markup Language (HTML) tracing them modern world. It traces the growth of • Open, Fair, Consensus: The Stan- from Tim Berners-Lee’s fi rst brief papers to commerce and the railroads along with dards Development Process. Early in the IETF RFCs. A third video demonstrates the creation of standard time zones and the twentieth century, as part of the ef- applications like Google Maps and responsive standards for steel rails. It looks at the fort to improve the quality of products, designs that are made possible by JavaScript, proliferations of boiler explosions and a process emerged that showed promise the , and Media the impact of the American Association as a way to develop standards by in- Queries. Each of the modules, again with of Mechanical Engineers in the devel- volving all the impacted parties. That similar components—videos, PowerPoint, opment of boiler pressure standards. process has evolved as the basis of all directed readings, background material, and • The Invisible Infrastructure: Stan- standards development. exercises—exposes a particular technical dards All Around Us. While standards • Open, Fair, Consensus: Two Varia- standard or area of standards development. are invisible to most people, they make tions on Standards Development for As we developed the modules, we possible everything from smart phones IT. Two organizations emerged in the gathered important documents, articles, and to interstate highways. The video looks 1980s and 1990s to develop standards reference materials. We decided to provide at the standards in common use in smart for the Internet and the World Wide these additional materials along with the phones and the standards for the inter- Web. This video explores how the Inter- modules via a website that was itself stan- state highway system—from numbering net Engineering Task Force (IETF) and dards compliant. In developing an HTML5 to grade and bridge heights. The “Dwight Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) compliant website that included a responsive D. Eisenhower National System of Inter- develop standards. design—including how the website works state and Defense Highways” standards • Open, Fair, Consensus: Working on desktops, tablets, smartphones, and other are focused in part by understanding that with Bulldogs and Turtles. Academic devices—we used the opportunity to help one goal was a system for military trans- Research on the standards process ex- students understand what it meant to be port. The video also addresses building plores how we might improve it. This standards compliant. Indeed, we included and ADA (Americans with Disabilities video explores some of the things references to webpages that traced the Act) standards. learned in a research study on IT stan- history of browser compliance5 and that • The Invisible Infrastructure: Stan- dards development. measure the compliance of the particular dards Fill Many Roles. While stan- browser an individual was using.6 dards were fi rst used and are still used Each of these modules also has more While we don’t anticipate that every to promote commerce by creating stan- formal PowerPoint presentations as well student will be bitten by the standards bug, dards for trade, they fi ll many roles. as pointers to readings on the history of we provided a signifi cant amount of research They can control and build markets and standards, standards organizations, and the material. More than 200 articles and books spur innovation. process of standardization. Finally, each were included in an annotated bibliographic

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database. The database can be searched in a or a copy of the materials, send an email vation in Information Technology, Aachen, variety of ways and preselected sets of refer- to Michael Spring ([email protected]) or to Germany, September 15–17, 1999 ences are provided on standards theory, the the NIST Standards Services Group (erik. Spring, M.B., Fritsch, R., Lautenbacher, process, standards and innovation, and other [email protected]). G., Lenox, T., Morse, E., Sapsomboon, topics. We also researched and provided links Michael Spring is a faculty member in B. Stewart, D. and Vathanophas, V., to materials on the histories of the major the Graduate Program in Information Science Embodying Social Capital Facilitators SDOs as well as lists of the hundreds of and Technology at the University of Pitts- in a Collaborative Authoring System, organizations and consortia that develop stan- burgh. He can be reached at [email protected]. Proceedings Association for Information dards. (All of this material can be accessed on Systems 1997, Americas Conference, In- the Pitt website at http://its.sis.pitt.edu/NIST.) dianapolis, Indiana, August 15–17, 1997 (Full proceedings: http://hsb.baylor.edu/ Conclusion ramsower/ais.ac.97/program.html) This project takes what we believe to Morse, E.L., and Spring, M.B., Visual- be an approach to standards education that izations that Support Group Work. 1996 is engaging, fun, and productive in terms IEEE Symposium on Visual Languages, of student learning. We believe that the Boulder, CO, September 3–6, 1996. basic approach can be reused to introduce Willms, S., Morse, E.L., and Spring, other areas of active standards development. M.B., System Design for and Integrated Further, there is signifi cant room to expand Document System and its impact on the information technology standards that Standards Development Effi ciency. IEEE are covered. International Engineering Management Beyond the base materials that might Conference ‘96, Vancouver, BC, Canada, be developed, we have been exploring two August 18–20, 1996. other projects. The fi rst would make use of Spring, M.B., and Skogseid, I. Use of the experiences we have had in research- Patterns to Increase Communication and ing the standards processes and standards Stability in Design of Human- Computer organizations. There are a variety of ways Interaction. Seminar on Integrating Hu- in which students can be given fi rst- hand Papers produced at Pitt man Factors with Software Engineering, experience with standards. For example, Sapsomboon, B. and Spring, M.B., Com- 1994 Annual Meeting of the Human Fac- several committee chairs allowed us to lis- puter Based Collaborative Authoring for tors and Ergonomics Society, Nashville, ten in on standards meetings with our side Standards Development. Open Systems TN, October 25, 1994, pp 101–106. muted. This allowed me to comment on Standards Tracking Report, November, Spring, M.B., Grisham, C., O’Donnell, what was going on in the process without 1996, 5(8), pp. 4–6. J., Skogseid, I., Snow, A., Tarr, G. and disturbing a meeting. We also interacted with Oksala, S., Rutkowski, A., Spring, M.B., Wang, P., Improving the Standardiza- several committees via survey instruments and O’Donnell, J. The Structure of IT tion Process: “From Courtship Dance and phone interviews. This allowed for data Standardization. StandardView, March to Lawyering: Working with Bulldogs gathering and analysis. Finally, while it has 1996, 4(1), pp 9–22. and Turtles”. Standards Development now been done by some of our colleagues, Spring, M.B., and Lunin, L.F., Guest and Information Infrastructure, Technol- we have long envisioned a computer based editors, Perspectives on . . . Information ogy Policy Working Group, Information simulation of the standards development pro- Technology Standards. Journal of the Infrastructure Task Force, Rockville, MD, cess that would allow students to experience American Society of Information Sci- June 15–16, 1994. a meaningful form of the experience while ence. September, 1992, 43(8). other students engaged in research on it. We Bonino, M.J. and Spring, M.B., Standards 1 Spring, M.B., Information System Stan- have outlined these possible extensions of as Change Agents in the Information dards Education. Bulletin of the American our work with NIST but have not yet for- Technology Market. Computer Standards Society for Information Science, Febru- malized a proposal to develop the materials. and Interfaces. 1991, 12(2), pp 97–107. ary/March, 1990, 16(3), pp. 28–29. 2 Spring, M.B. What Have We Learned about The full set of materials produced under Ledrick, D.P., and Spring, M.B., Interna- Standards and Standardization. Homo Oeco- this project is available at http://its.sis.pitt. tional Standardized Profi les. Computer nomicus, Fall 2011, 27(4), pp 501–518. edu/NIST. Interested faculty may download Standards and Interfaces. 1990, 11(2), 3 Spring, M.B., Information Technology all the materials on the site, or may request a pp 95–103. Standards. In Martha E. Williams (Ed.) DVD containing the complete website along Spring, M.B., Andriati, R. and Vathano- Annual Review of Information Science and with all of the materials in a form that can phas, V., Usability of a Collaborative Technology, Volume 26, 1991, pp 79–111. be quickly mounted at any institution and Authoring System for Standards Devel- 4 www.astm.org/HISTORY/hist_chapter1. modifi ed or enhanced. We are already work- opment: Preferences, Problems, and html ing with students to expand and enhance Prognosis, Proceedings of the First IEEE 5 http://html5readiness.com/ the website at Pitt. For further information Conference on Standardization and Inno- 6 http://html5test.com/

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