Stanford University, Center for Integrated Facility Engineering, Technical Report 131, 2002 (PDF, 630 KB)
The World Wide Web is based upon a very successful set of standards. The Hypertext Markup Language (HTML) provides a standard medium for exchanging documents, and its use to transmit information from computer to human has characterized the first phase of the Web. The Extensible Markup Language (XML) provides a standard medium for data interchange, and its use to transmit information from computer to computer is the basis for what many feel will be the next phase of the Web. XML is only the basis, however. It is a language in which data interchange standards may be written, and the development of such XML standards has only recently begun.
Though the development of XML data interchange standards is relatively new, the development of information technology standards has a long history, and in Section 2 we examine best practices for the development of such standards, which have been applied across a wide range of technologies. In Section 3, we examine how these best practices have been applied in one of the most successful XML standardization efforts thus far, RosettaNet. In Section 4, we examine the mixed results of standardization efforts in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industry. Finally, Section 5 contains conclusions and recommendations that apply to the AEC industry and more generally.