Newsgroups: comp.std.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Vendor representatives on committee
Message-ID: <1989Nov22.223410.4008@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <11134@riks.csl.sony.co.jp> <15217@haddock.ima.isc.com> <1643@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <1989Nov17.205004.19236@cs.rochester.edu> <1653@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <11645@smoke.BRL.MIL> <1989Nov20.124013.28617@algor2.algorists.com> <1662@crdos1.crd.ge.COM> <1989Nov21.150638.26925@splut.conmicro.com>
Date: Wed, 22 Nov 89 22:34:10 GMT

In article <1989Nov21.150638.26925@splut.conmicro.com> jay@splut.conmicro.com (Jay "you ignorant splut!" Maynard) writes:
>I'm sure this was answered here before, but it's slipped my mind:
>How are committee members chosen?

Basically, anyone who has the time to read the interminable flow of paper
and the resources to attend meetings from time to time can be a member of
ANSI standards committees.  As I recall there is a modest fee, but it's
less than the cost of buying copies of a couple of the drafts from Global.
The ANSI standardization process is specifically required to be open to
all interested parties; that's how standards organizations avoid trouble
with the anti-trust people.

Don't underestimate how mind-numbing it can be to read the same dumb ideas
for the tenth time (people who've never been involved in standards efforts
have no idea of just how many cranks come out of the woodwork with 50-page
proposals), or pore over the twenty-seventh draft of something you were
sick of by the fifth draft.
-- 
A bit of tolerance is worth a  |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
megabyte of flaming.           | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu