Lorcan Dempsey highlights the report of the NISO commissioned Blue Ribbon Panel. Their brief was to advise NISO on their strategic planning process.

The report is now available [pdf] and having read it I can only echo Lorcan’s description that it:

makes compelling reading for anybody interested in how standards work is organized – or not organized – in our space.

The old joke that “the trouble with standards is that there are so many to choose from” is just as relevant today as it always has been. This report gives interesting insight in to how NISO, a well established industry specific standards body, needs to look to its self and work out how it should operate in the current iteration of the ever changing world that we operate in.