Energywise Could Have Been A Whole Lot Wiser

摘要

There's a constant tug of war in our industry between the value of intellectual property to originating companies and the potential of standards to either create or greatly accelerate the growth of whole new industries. You can pretty much pick your industry, and the creation of standards will be an inflection point for broad acceptance and greater overall economy and efficiency. Certainly, TCP/IP and HTML are great examples of standards that changed our world. Usually, companies get this. It's pretty clear, for example, that society benefits when there's a limited range of outlets into which you can plug appliances. But it's not just at a level so mundane. When compatibility and cost stifled the wireless communications market, clever vendors formed the Wi-Fi Alliance and brought the technology to the masses.