Technology standards pros aid homeland security

On 15 November 2001, the executive board of the International Committee for Information Technology Standards approved a new CD-based geographic information standard. Security experts consider this standard to be integral to homeland security because military facilities and commercial airports will use it in key functions such as site and environmental planning. Two weeks later, the INCITS executive board announced the formation of a new technical committee, MI, devoted to biometrics standards. In this case, standards professionals and other subject matter experts will directly support the US Patriot Act through their work. These two examples show how de jure standards work through a streamlined process that enables emerging technologies to solve urgent problems. They belie a popular notion that market-driven, relevant standards must come from consortia formed on the fly