Standardisation of global telecommunication services-expertise or market shares?

Standards are one of the key components of information technology today. Yet, despite their public and widespread implications, the underlying standardisation processes are something of a “black box” to outsiders. This begs the question how standards are determined, and by whom. The paper will look at the lowest, and most technical level of this process, where the basic technological decisions are made. The results of a survey of standards professionals and standards users are presented and analysed. We examine the composition of international committees charged with defining and maintaining standards for electronic mail systems, report the views of senior committee members, including their opinions of the process, how it could be improved, and their reactions to increased user representation. We then present and analyse corporate users’ views on participation in standards setting. Finally, the implications of our findings for standards setting are discussed and recommendations made for addressing the problems revealed.