For any sort of 'new' description to be accepted where it counts - in the Marketplace, it's going to have to fulfill a number of criteria. And before competition takes away the market...
- Who is going to 'declare', ratify or back the standard?
It has to be an existing organisation, and with some clout.
Could the IETF or ICANN be persuaded? If not them, then who?
- It has to be 'accessible' to the people that will use it.
Barriers to Entry have to be low - or it will take decades to get used, even a little.
- Cost of basic materials have to be low. Near zero is possible if they are published on-line like RFC's and W3C standards.
- The basic manual has to be short and not intellectually difficult. This has to be implemented in 'The Real World' by real, ordinary I.T. professionals - especially those who have families, commitments and outside interests.
- Training costs have to be reasonable - no more than a few hundred dollars per person, and something freely available over the net.
- Consulting, training and "Operational Evaluations" have to be available at modest costs.
- There have to be convincing business arguments for change available for owners and managers.
- Supporting Software, Templates and proformas
- 'Reference' implementations need to be available - for free.
These can be as simple as spreadsheets and formatted documents - or real software.
- There are enough good Free Open Source packages available to use as a base.
- Professional Associations. Somewhere to 'network', find good consultants, swap war stories, give those interested a place to learn more.
- A viable continuous update process. Like the IETF's RFC process.
Like the Internet, any sort of standard can never be 'finished', only 'complete as of now'. The world keeps on changing - those pesky engineers keep inventing stuff!
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