Use of Standards

I just read Adam Cooper's blog post on the standards process. He suggests we're at a time where conditions allow for standards to "emerge rather than be created in anticipation." I see a common theme in Adam's narrative that I recently heard at the U.S. DOD Modeling and Simulation conference.

The last day of the conference was a standards meeting. Each of the Services has an M&S supporting organization (e.g., Army M&S Organization). It seems the primary role of such organizations is to support their Service programs use of M&S standards. The meeting began with each of these organizations providing a short presentation, which was easily forgotten. The memories began when the Q&A session started. A representative of a major (i.e., billion+) program passionately proposed a new business model for the the organizations. The representative suggested the organizations observe actual experiments where standards are used.

This theme focusing on use seemed to be clearly stated by Ed Walker at the 2008 ID+SCORM meeting. His presentation "Get Ready for the Second Wave!" describes the nature of this second wave. In fact, Brenda Bannon-Ritland's presentation, also at ID+SCORM, furthers this focus on use in an instructional design context. She described her work with Design Research and highlighted its focus on use in the field and observation.

I recall talking with a student at the conference who was reading David Kelly's Ten Faces of Innovation. The book offers ways of creating innovation through the power of observation. I think I'm going to take a look at that book again.