A retrospective analysis of Teletext: An interoperability standard evolving already over 30 years

In this paper, we report on our research to improve the creation, implementation, and evolution of interoperability standards. Our approach was to systematically investigate a particular evolving interoperability standard, i.e., Teletext, to obtain relevant and beneficial insights that might generalize to other standards. In particular, our approach consisted of the following steps. One, define clear and generic quality criteria to evaluate and analyze evolving interoperability standards. Two, find weaknesses as perceived by users of the Teletext standard. Three, look for possible solutions to overcome these weaknesses. Four, analyze these weaknesses and their solutions using the defined quality criteria to arrive at underlying root causes and fundamental principles that might generalize to the creation, implementation, and evolution of other evolving standards. For standards definition, we extracted two principles: the need for explicit documentation of potential issues, and the need for a long-ranging vision, such that new options can be incorporated in a pre-competitive stage. For standards implementation, a fundamental principle is the use of defensive programming techniques.