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Hello.

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I'm Tineke Egyedi.

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I am a senior researcher Standardization at
the Delft University of Technology,

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director of DIRoS,
a company that focuses on standardization

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research,
and board member of the European Academy for

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Standardization .

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I am keenly interested in how standards affect
the development and evolution of infrastructures.

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I led the NGInfra Foundation project Standards
and the flexibility of infrastructures on

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which this lecture is based.

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Let me begin by saying that most people think
standards are things that freeze technology

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development and prevent change.

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And,
there are good arguments to think so.

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Let’s take GSM (Global System for Mobile
Communications),

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a standard first published by the European
Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI)

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in 1990.

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GSM is a well-known standard for mobile telephony

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It was initiated in the early 1980s by a number
of national Public Telephone Operators.

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The idea was to develop a pan-European mobile
network.

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To allow this to happen,
a European Directive was issued that reserved

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special frequency bands for GSM.

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GSM is now used almost everywhere in the world.

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In the GSM standard,
certain technological choices are specified

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and frozen.

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These choices are implemented in products,
testing procedures etc..

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Moreover,
to support GSM uptake and use,

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all kinds of arrangements and facilities are
created.

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That is,
GSM becomes institutionalized.

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You can imagine that,
once its uptake reaches a critical mass,

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a self-reinforcing process of entrenchment
sets in.

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Path dependency develops.

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A radical change of technology becomes difficult.

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For example,
because of vested commercial interests or

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because new technologies conflict with GSM-aligned
regulation.

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and GSM is not an exception.

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This is what happens with all popular standards.

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In fact a high degree of socio-technical entrenchment
goes hand in hand with the wide adoption of

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standards.

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But in the coming two videos I want to invite
you to take a different outlook and explore

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how standards can function as catalysts of
change.

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More specifically,
can standards increase infrastructure flexibility?

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Can they even catalyze more radical infrastructure
transitions?

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I will use the ISO container for freight transport
as a running example because it involves such

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a straightforward technology.

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Before I can start you need to know some
more about standards.

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There are many kinds of standards:
standards for measurements,

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nuts and bolts,
clean drinking water,

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food safety,
building materials,

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treatment of diseases,
etc.

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These standards are developed in committees,
mostly by technical experts and representatives

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of industry and government.

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(Note that in such committees citizens and
NGOs are often absent.) Such committees reside

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under official standards bodies like the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO),

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governmental bodies,
professional organizations,

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industry consortia and to name some exclusively
infrastructure-oriented ones:

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the International Union of Railways (UIC)
and the International Telecommunications Union

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(ITU).

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The list of organizations is endless.

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This picture shows a festive moment during
an event organized by the Bureau of Indian

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Standards (BIS).

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BIS is one of the 164 national standards bodies
that are member of ISO.

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It is important to note that these committee-based
standards,

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on which I will focus,
differ from what we call de facto standards,

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that is,
products that become standard because they

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have a dominant market share.

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Think of the technology war between Blu-ray
and HD-DVD.

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The winner of this war,
Blu-ray,

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has become the de facto standard.

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In contrast,
committee standards are negotiated and agreed upon.

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They result from an attempt to align interests.

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They are meant to be used widely and therefore
documented and publicly accessible.

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That is,
committee standards are designed – and,

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as we will see,
this is important if we want to ‘design

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in’ system flexibility.

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Developing standards is often quite difficult
and lengthy.

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Not least because competing companies are
sitting at the table and the standard is likely

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to be used in different operational contexts.

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Committees must therefore compromise on interests
and requirements.

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Take the example of the standardization of
freight container dimensions.

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The standard was developed by an ISO technical
committee.

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While some key decisions were already taken
in 1962,

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it took until 1968 to publish it officially.

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Now who participated in this committee?

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First of all,
ocean shipping companies (e.g.

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naval architects),
railway and road transport companies,

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manufacturers of containers and container
handling equipment,

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shippers,
etc..

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These had very different interests and requirements.

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But also various governments officials tried
to influence the process.

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For the size of the container had to comply
with road regulation (allowable width and

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lengths of transport vehicles),
with the height of train tunnels

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Moreover,
most countries had an industry policy on transport

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that supported their national champions.

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The standard specifications should preferably
meet the needs of these national transport champions

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Indeed, all this underscores the highly interest-driven

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political nature of most standards.

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Earlier,
I said that I would be focusing on committee standards.

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But I need to even further narrow down my
focus.

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While measurement standards,
safety standards,

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quality standards etc.

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are all relevant to infrastructures,
I will focus on compatibility standards

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(also called interoperability or interface standards).

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These standards make subsystems compatible.

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They specify how subsystems need to interface
and/or interwork.

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Why focus on compatibility standards?

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Because they often constitute the core of
an infrastructure 

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You could even say that they ARE the infrastructure!

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Think,
for example,

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of the family of Internet protocols developed
in the International Engineering Task Force

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(IETF),
and the GSM or ISO container standards.

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Now,
why are compatibility standards interesting

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in the light of infrastructure flexibility?

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Quoting David and Bunn, the authors of The Economics of Gateway Technologies

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and Network Evolution,
standards create: compatible complements,

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which is when subsystems A and C can be used
together,

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as with a plug and a socket; and • compatible
substitutes,

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when subsystems A and B can each be used with
C,

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e.g.

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when both a digital camera (A) and an external
hard disk (B) can connect to the USB interface

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of a computer (C).

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Now let’s have a look at the following table.

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You will recognize that a standardized interface
need not be a designer’s first option.

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Perhaps he or she prefers to connect subsystems
by means of a dedicated gateway in a proprietary way.

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Like the vendor-specific plugs for mobile
phone chargers,

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which makes the chargers non-exchangeable.

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Compare this with the ISO paper format standard.

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This standard is a generic gateway.

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It specifies the paper sizes which paper processing
machines (e.g.,

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copying machines,
telefaxes and printers) and office requisites

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(e.g.,
folders,

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computer software) work with.

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Let’s zoom in and take a look at our running
example,

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the ISO container.

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At the start of the ISO process containers
of various shapes and sizes were being used.

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But the committee decided not to use existing
dimensions in order not to favour a particular

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party and create a level playing field.

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So it set the dimensions at 8 ft x 8 ft x
10/20/40 ft.

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Indeed, these are
modular lengths so that a 40 ft container

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carrier would also be able to accommodate
e.g.

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two 20 ft containers.

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Looking at the effects,
it made containerized freight transport within

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and across transport modes much more efficient.

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It facilitated automated container handling
in ports and storage areas.

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But also:
there was more room for shippers and their

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customers to choose and combine transport
modes.

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In Europe,
for example,

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road,
rail and inland shipping became substitutes

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for containerized freight transport,
as is captured in the figure you see on the screen.

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Now let’s say your government has signed the Kyoto agreement and wants to reduce CO2 emissions.

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The - intermodal - ISO container allows your
country to shift its freight transport more

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readily from road to rail and inland shipping.

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That is,
a standard,

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if well-designed,
can increase infrastructure flexibility.

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Let’s take a brief break before digging
a bit deeper.

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In the next video I will address two follow-up
questions:

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Do certain standards characteristics increase
infrastructure flexibility better than others?

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And can standards also catalyze radical infrastructure
transitions?

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Thank you for your attention!

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See you back later.