NIST uses standards forum to showcase "art of the possible"
By Staff -- Manufacturing Business Technology, 6/1/2006 12:00:00 AM
The National Institute of Standards (NIST) hosted its first Interoperability Week in Gaithersburg, Md., in tandem with several other industry sessions being held during the same week in March.
"We thought people in health care might find value talking to people in manufacturing to compare issues and see what they can learn from one another," says Simon Frechette, NIST program manager for system integration in manufacturing applications. "If you're working in automotive manufacturing, you typically only get to meet other automotive manufacturers, but not someone from, say, the process industries," Frechette says. "They might have very similar problems, but confront them in a different way."
As part of the event, Karla Norsworthy, VP of software standards for IBM, joined two U.S. Congressmen in a plenary panel discussion open to all attendees.
"I look at open standards from the customer perspective to understand why such standards are so important—and what they enable you to do," says Norsworthy. "Open standards give you flexibility in building connections between IT solutions that you might never have thought possible. They also give you speed and agility."
Norsworthy herself learned some things while attending several sessions on health care. "There were fascinating conversations about the 'art of the possible.' I saw a lot of commonality across industries. It was valuable to realize we each didn't have to reinvent the wheel 13 times."
Hearing from people on Capitol Hill also proved valuable, particularly among those who are "making sure governments communicate with one another," explains Norsworthy. "The last thing we need is the U.S. government developing standards independent of other countries."
