W. E. Burr 23 MAR 1988 GETTING YOUR IDEAS ACCEPTED IN X3T9 A lot of people come to meetings of X3T9 or its TGs because they have something they wish to propose to the committee. They may wish to change something in a draft standard, or to add something, or to get something eliminated, or even to start a whole new standard. The purpose of this section is to give some advice on how to go about getting your ideas or proposal accepted. First, except for comparatively minor points, it's hard to get much done strictly by mail. You have to be prepared to come to some meetings. The reason is simple. The TGs are busy with the proposals of the people who do come to the meetings to get their point across. A letter to the Chair may be useful to start people thinking, and will nearly always be distributed to the members, but is usually sufficient only when the point is simple and definite, for example to point out a clear error in a draft. If your idea is complex, difficult or controversial you will have to come to meetings, probably several meetings, and may have to become a member and do a lot of work. Remember that what seems sensible to you may seem silly and wrongheaded to others. So be sure you have some commitment to whatever it is you wish to do before you start and be prepared to do some work. Think out just what it is you wish to accomplish, then call the Chair of the appropriate TG and talk it over with him. He can usually help, for example, by suggesting that the appropriate place to present you idea is a specific working group, or by putting you in touch with others already working on the same problem. He can also include copies of a written proposal in the committee mailings or supply you with a mailing list. Since committee mailings are put together shortly after each meeting, at two month intervals, it may be helpful to make a mailing yourself for an urgent item. It's better to get your proposal to the committee before the meeting, so members can look it over before the meeting. No one likes surprises. Even if you don't get anything to the members before the meeting you still need something on paper. The members need something to study and it is much easier to come to agreement about a specific written proposal than an just an oral presentation. Try to provide the exact words or values you wish to see in the standard. It's much easier to agree to specific words than to agree to something in principle, then determine the words later. There is a good chance that a decision will be deferred to consideration by a working group if the proposal is complex or controversial in any way, so the paper is necessary. Even though you have written something up, however, expect to be asked to give a brief presentation or explanation (usually 5 to 10 minutes). Be prepared to defend your idea, and don't be surprised if you get a hostile reaction from some members. Few ideas are so good that they fail to find their detractors among the ablest of men. The style of the TGs varies somewhat. X3T9.2 and X3T9.3 tend to work from papers, while viewgraph presentations are more common in X3T9.5. Paper or viewgraphs, bring enough copies for everyone. That means at least 75 copies for plenary meetings of X3T9.2 or X3T9.5 (100 copies is better), while 25 to 50 copies are sufficient for X3T9.3 and most working group meetings. Some things are more difficult than others. If you make some sort of component, for example, a driver, receiver or connector, which you think would be ideal for application to a particular interface standard, rest assured that someone else makes something which is incompatible and which he wishes written into the standard. Most of the members simply will want to draft the standard so that as wide a choice of components as possible can be used while still permitting interoperability. It is very hard to get something tailored simply to your part. Expect violent opposition if other component vendors are likely to perceive your proposal as giving you some proprietary advantage, even a transient one. Be prepared to license needed patents. Don't expect the committee to design around your product, however good it is, unless there are other suppliers, at least in prospect. In some cases it has taken a full court press of three or more years, and a major retooling, to get a connector accepted as the baseline for the standard. If you want to propose, say, a new SCSI Command Set for Left Handed Widgets, expect to be asked to head a working group on the subject. The committee won't know much about Left Handed Widgets, but will generally want to be sure that something put in the SCSI standard is broadly acceptable to the Left Handed Widget industry. This may take time, because it will involve publicizing the effort. If you face opposition, it is likely to come from other makers of Left Handed Widgets, rather than from the folks who are already on the committee. In general they want to see SCSI used for everything from soup to nuts. At the same time, they won't want to delay publication of the next revision of the standard just for Widgets. This is not necessarily a bad thing, a lot of products can be and have been built around committee drafts, and sometimes it's a good thing to get some market experience before the final thing is "frozen" in the standard. In summary, it can be a rewarding and productive experience to propose your ideas for inclusion in an interface standard, but it is nearly always a lot of work. If you see a return on your effort, then do it, but expect to spend some time and effort at it and to learn a lot while you are doing it.