I'm not sure if I'm right about this, but it seems that the desire to develop "industry wide" standards through a forum of stakeholders is an aging concept. I'm an idealist, and an optimist but it just does not seem to be the way the world is going - especially in the high tech sector. And like it or not, physical security is much more in the high tech sector than any other at this point.
I've seen that Axis, Bosch and Sony are working on a "Standards Forum" for IP based video details. Axis is the driving factor, and along with Sony represent the upper crust of the IP video (in camera) market. I applaud the effort, and I'm interested in seeing what they come up with but I'm not holding my breath.
In the same vein, there is a more broad viewed "Physical Security Interoperability Alliance" made up of; Adesta, ADT, Anixter, Axis, Cisco, CSC, DVTel, GE Security, Genetec, HID Global, IBM, IQinVision, Johnson Controls, March Networks, Milestone, Orsus, Panasonic, Sony, Texas Instruments, Pelco and Verint.
This looks like a "you're with us or against us" forum at first glance, or they are holding meetings in more desirable venues but I'm not close enough to the action to form much of an opinion other than the basic concept. But do a search for this alliance (in quotes) and you'll see how much buzz is around it (I found two sites).
One case-in-point for this is the smart card industry. How many formats and technologies do we have? This argument can go either way because there were groups formed to standardize the technology and there were also companies that blazed ahead following their own way. What we ended up with is a mess by most people's definition.
I know there are standards forums across high tech, not just for security. But I don't see any substantial impact from them. Change occurs when a new technology is released and that technology is the right fit (or is sold successfully). It's up to the company releasing the technology to gauge the impact that integration will have on it and vice-versa. It's a calculated risk, but maybe it's best if the company with the technology does a good job working with users and other manufacturers to make sure it's going to be a good fit with most systems. Most of the "big boys" do a good job of this already if they want their product to be part of the more intelligent integrator's convergence arsenal.
