Casting the standards play - which are the roles?

Internet technology has brought new opportunities and ways of working for companies all over the world. The number of possible and available business partners in business-2-business (B2B) e-commerce has risen dramatically with the global nature of this new technology. Interoperability of this kind is often realised through standards-based communication. It is therefore not surprising that such standards nowadays are receiving quite a lot of attention from a number of stakeholders. We identify six different roles that all have an interest in B2B standards during their existence. Each role is described, and relationships between them are identified. We argue that all roles must be considered if standards are to be improved. Solely using the development perspective is not enough to achieve standards of high quality and of great use.