Free Data; Free Standards
In the December 2007 issue of Discover Magazine I read an interview with Hans Roling, a Professor of International Health and inventor of the Trendalyzer software program used to analyze trends in statistical data, which Roling uses to come up with solutions for international poverty and health issues. I’d like to quote one question and answer from the interview:
“Statistics from the U.N. and government agencies are readily available for purchase, but you argue strongly for dropping fees completely. Why is this so important?
Public statistics are owned by taxpayers. These data, which cost about $10 billion in tax money to collect, belong to everyone. And governments are selling them. The World Bank gets statistics for free from the world. They put them together and sell them back to the world for $275 per copy. This hampers entrepreneurs, activists, and politicians from getting access to public statistics. The money is not the only cost: It is cumbersome to pay, it takes time to get the data, and you are not allowed to make the data available to others. Businesses realize that statistics should be free. And there is is very strong support from middle-income countries — China, South Africa, Brazil, Mexico. They desperately need statistics because their countries are changing so rapidly and they want to trade. Their entrepreneurs can’t afford to pay for data.”
OK, what does this have to do with standards? Roling isn’t talking about standards at all, but the points he’s making about statistical data is exactly what I’ve said before about standards: they should be free. Re-read the above response but substitute “standards” for “data” and “statistics,” and “standards organizations” for “governments” and “World Bank.”
I’m not necessarily advocating that everything should be free; for example, pirated music downloads deprive musicians of compensation for their work. But standards have already been paid for through the work of volunteer participants who developed the standard; their employers paid for their participation because of the benefits to the company or industry in general once the standard is adopted. Where the standards organization adds value it should be compensated, and there are a variety of ways that the organization can add value such as by providing educational or certification activities. But putting a price on obtaining standards inhibits their adoption, and a standard that is not adopted is wasted cost and effort. Additionally, adoption of standards by small businesses and by middle- and low-income countries has a societal benefit in that standards can help them grow; putting a price on purchasing standards can discourage their use.