The Burdens That Standards Bring--Roger Dickeson

Acceptances, change orders, proofs, approvals, production and delivery progress, invoices and payment drafts fly back and forth between customer and printer over the Internet—computers speaking the same digital tongue or an instantaneously translated language.

The clamor for standards of all sorts to achieve this synergy nirvana is mounting. Bill Gates, or Son of Bill, where are you now when we need you? Come achieve critical market mass and impose a de facto standardization between 50,000 printers and millions of print buyers. I've listened to the tapes of Seybold 2000, followed the threads of computer forums, walked the floor at Graph Expo 2000, and received the literature of the trade associations and committees. At the moment it's e-grope, not e-commerce for want of standards.