Susan K. Land

1
Standards Activity Board Membership

• Susan K. Land
• 2005 VP of Standards Activities
• IEEE Computer Society

2
SAB Membership Issues

• No funding for SAB board activities (Travel to
  required meetings for all members). The
  perceived value of the SAB.
• Sponsors pay to develop standards and then pay
  the IEEE for the use of the standard. Paying for
  participation in the SAB on top of this is not
  met with much enthusiasm. If more of the
  coordination could be handled electronically,
  e.g. via telecon or VTC, the cost would be less
  onerous.
• Look for ways to ensure that standards
  development is not a tedious process, and we need
  to keep the mechanics we need and use from making
  it boring or troublesome.

3
SAB Sponsor Marketing
Let the individual standards sponsors manage some
of their marketing. With direct funding, they can
accomplish much more in the area of direct
visibility, they support a direct
market. There is difficulty in maintaining
high levels of volunteer activity under the
present economic conditions. There is a need
business/marketing to community for industry
support of volunteer activities. Need some
effective way to better market standardization
activities. Explore industry partnerships as a
way to fund standardization activities.
4
SAB Sponsor - Funding

• Funding would help standards activities move
  along more smoothly. No line of funding for
  various SAB sponsor groups, making it hard to
  recruit participants in support of existing
  standards development and even more difficult to
  expand into new areas.
• A standards volunteer does not see much return
  for the membership fees. We need to show IEEE is
  spending more in its members by showing some
  effect on the services. A one way street can only
  lead to complaints and reduction in membership.

5
IEEE Standards Cost

• From a membership point of view I have seen most
  people not willing to pay the extra fee for
  Standards. They have complained about the raised
  fee.
• Explore ways of bundling standards and services
  together. This would be value-added to any
  customer. The idea is that the services have an
  associated fee, while the standards are free.
• Many standards development organizations make
  their standards freely available need to
  explore how they work this into their business
  model.

6
IEEE Standards - Perceived Value

• People generally do not realize (a) the value of
  standards and (b) the value of the standards
  process.
• The standards development process is viewed as a
  bunch of picky people writing really dull rules.
• In fact the process is research, design
  engineering, and consensus.
• Need to make everyone who is an IEEE member
  eligible to participate fully in the standards
  process.

7
IEEE CS Membership Issues

• We need to expand membership in the emerging
  countries like China, India, Brazil offering
  membership on a scale based upon average per
  capita income.
• We have so few members in these countries that
  lowering the dues there can only cause an
  increase in revenues. We may have to customize
  what is offered in support of each countrys
  membership in support of the lowered cost.