8 - Special-interest groups

Summary

When a new technology is established as a standard, it gains a degree of validation. Standardization is a statement that the industry has largely consolidated its opinion around an approach for a new technology. This is important from a market-development perspective because it sets the technology onto a path of broad recognition and acceptance. Many people believe that when the standard is completed, the work of coordination in the market is done and the market will develop on its own from there.

The development of the standard is usually the first and most public of a series of activities designed to coordinate the market evolution. The work in the standards body is only meaningful when it is properly coupled with work done in special-interest groups (SIGs). These organizations insure interoperability, establish terms for access to intellectual property, manage brands, speak on behalf of the industry and generally take responsibility for the ongoing management of the market. It is not uncommon for special-interest groups to take an existing standard that has multiple modes or options, which may have been included to obtain political support for the standard, and whittle those down to the essentials. While participation in the standardization process is undoubtedly important to a company developing UWB products, participation in the SIG is at least equally so.

There is no set process through which the industry decides to structure a SIG. As a rule of thumb, a SIG is created when the industry perceives the need to coordinate the activities of manufacturers.