The role of standardization in information society

Already a decade ago, up to 80 percent of global trade (equivalent to around $4 trillion annually) was affected by standards or associated technical regulation. Today, standardization is a cornerstone issue for a company seeking to enter new or extend existing markets, whether the company is driving a market innovation or being market driven. This critical role of standards holds for virtually any business operation, from new products or processes design, to responding to customer requirements, to outsourcing or devising globalization strategies. Companies develop and adopt standards in numerous fields, from technical design to corporate governance, to financial reporting, to product development. Standards and standardization effectively became inseparable part of the wider discussion of business and societal operation. Despite the enormous importance of standards and standardization, only few non-standards-professionals likely know what influence the international standards have on the modern society. In today’s service-oriented, information societies, information itself is both a raw material and a product. This doubly important role of information in economic development means that institutions related to knowledge exchange may influence economic outcomes as much, or more than, they may influence productive efficiency or innovation . Companies and governments that are quick to act smartly in the standardization arena, may be able to define the standards and thus achieve substantial competitive advantage. We feel it is timely to offer a critical assessment on standardization as a form of regulatory tool in maintaining the mutual dependencies between the public and private domains of the contemporary world. [...]Taikomosios informatikos katedraVytauto Didžiojo universiteta