Created: 3 June 2022 by CTSoc SCS

Approved: 18 July 2022 by Stuart Lipoff, VP ISA

Included in CTSoc P&P:  30 September 2022

  

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1]	"CTSoc Bylaws," [Online]. Available: https://ctsoc.ieee.org/images/files/GoverningDocs/Consumer_Technology_Bylaws_Effective_December_2_2021.pdf
[2]	"IEEE SA Standards Board OpMan," [Online]. Available: https://standards.ieee.org/wp-content/uploads/import/documents/other/sb_om.pdf
[3]	"IEEE SA Training," [Online]. Available: https://standards.ieee.org/about/training/
[4]	"IEEE templates," [Online]. Available: https://standards.ieee.org/develop/drafting-standard/resources/
[5]	"IEEE SA Style manual," [Online]. Available: https://mentor.ieee.org/myproject/Public/mytools/draft/styleman.pdf
[6]	"Draft Review Checklist," [Online]. Available: https://mentor.ieee.org/myproject/Public/mytools/draft/chklist.pdf
[7]	"Mandatory Editorial Coordination," [Online]. Available: https://standards.ieee.org/develop/drafting-standard/mecform/

 

 

Abbreviation

BoG:                    Board of Governor

CTSoc:                 Consumer Technology Society

FDC:                    Future Direction Committee

FOI:                      field of Interest

OpsMan:            Operating Manual

PAR:                    Project Authorization Request

P&P:                    Policies and Procedures

RevCom:             Review Committee

SA:                       Standards Association

SCS:                     Society Committee on Standards

SCs:                     Standards Committees

SASB:                   Standards Association Standards Board

WG:                     Working Group

1.    Introduction

As defined in the Consumer Technology Society (CTSoc ) bylaws[1] the Society Committee on Standards (SCS) is “responsible for identification of standards projects that are relevant to the field of interest of the Society, and the liaison and coordination between the Society and IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA) including sponsoring projects conducted under the authority of IEEE SA. Responsibilities shall include the organizing and management of Standards Committees and Working Groups recognized by IEEE SA.”  

In the CTSoc bylaws, six functions specify the SCS Committee’s duties at a high level. This Operations Manual (OpsMan) defines more precisely the Committee’s duties, the SCS acceptable operational requirements, and is intended to be of sufficient breadth and detail such that a Society member unfamiliar with the CTSoc technical standards activities and with the SCS is given adequate guidance to oversee and aid all of Standard Committees within the Society initiate or maintain healthy standardization activities within their FoIs.  This OpsMan is not intended to overlap or duplicate any Standards Association policy, but rather to compliment it by facilitating efficient and effective management of standardization activities and a stronger partnership with the Standards Association for standards development.

The IEEE Governing Documents and the CTSoc Constitution and Bylaws and take precedence over this OpsMan.

CTSoc Standards Committees are governed by both SCS and SASB, as a result both the SA Standards Board Operations Manual and this OpsMan take precedence over the SC P&Ps.

 

2.    Membership of the SCS

As per the bylaw, this Committee is comprised of 1 Chair and up to 6 members. Committee members are required to be IEEE, Society and Standards Association members in good standing.

Nomination of the SCS members: The chair of the SCS proposes candidates to the VP Industry and standard, who appoints them as members to the Committee.  

Duration: the members of the committee are appointed for one year. Members of the committee can be reappointed for a second consecutive term. After a one year hiatus, previous members of the committee can be re-appointed.

Resignation of a member: In the eventuality that a member resigned, a new SCS member shall be appointed for the remainder of the term.

 

3.    Structure and meetings of the SCS

Meetings: The SCS generally meets quarterly at dates proposed by the Chair and in consultation with the SCS members. The SCS review the progress and deliverable related to the 6 functions of the SCS.

Document management: The SCS will use the IEEE Collabratec® system to exchange its documents.

Structure: The SCS may perform all its task at its regular meetings or may rely on ad-hoc committees.

3.1. Ad-hoc committees

Creation: The chair of the SCS may propose and form one or more Ad-hoc committees reporting to the SCS to perform a specific task or to be charged with one of the six high level responsibilities of the SCS. An ad-hoc is led by one of the members of the SCS.

Membership:  Any member of the SCS may participate in all ad-hoc groups.  Chairs of the standards committees overseen by SCS may be invited, by the chair of the SCS or by the chair of the ad-hoc group to participate in an ad-hoc group.

The chair may invite other participants involved in CTSoc Standards activities.

Meeting: an adhoc committee may meet as often as is necessary to progress its tasks and shall report its progress at the next SCS meeting.

Deliverable: The deliverables of the ad-hoc committees are reviewed and approved by the SCS  

Closing: Upon completion of its tasks an ad-hoc group is closed by the chair of the SCS, in consultation with the SCS members.

 

 

 

4.    Functions of the SCS

4.1. Promotion and advancement of standards activities in the field of interest of the Society.

The SCS shall encourage the SCs to identify standards topics of interest that should be submitted to the Standards Association (SA) as a Project Authorization Request  (PAR).  The SCS will have oversight by the VP of ISA and in addition to any informal interactions will be required to engage with the VP of ISA as follows:

●        A yearly report shall be prepared, based on inputs from the SCs, listing all active PARs and their status in a form suitable for sharing with the Board of Governor (BoG) as well as in a form suitable for posting on the CTSoc website.  This report should include as minimum the number and title/subject description of the PAR as well as the target milestones and estimated percentage of completion. The yearly report shall be finalized by early Q4.

 

 

4.2. Fulfilling the needs of the Society and Society members related to standards.

The SCS may create surveys or outreach committees to understand the need of the Society and Society members. Upon analysis of responses received the SCS will define a plan to be implemented by SCs with support from SCS.

 

4.3. Overseeing the Standards Development in the Field of Interest (FOI) of the Society.

In accordance with the bylaws[1], this includes:

·       the management of subcommittees called Standards Committees (SCs) and working groups,

·       the development and coordination of standards projects including their maintenance after their approval as standards.

Standards will be developed consistent with SA policies and procedures.

 

4.3.1.   Management of Standards Committees and working groups

4.3.1.1.       Governance

The Chair of SCS shall have the authority to appoint chairs of standards committees recognized by SA and shall serve on each such committee.  The appointment of SC chairs shall be for a term of no more than three years and may be reappointed.  The existing SC chair may continue to serve until a successor is appointed.   If necessary, the SCS chair may also appoint a replacement SC chair before the end of the incumbent SC chair’s term.

The SCS may recommend candidate officers for SC chairs to consider for appointment.  However, the SCS chair serves as ex-officio non-voting member on each SC.

Standard Committees are established to promote technical activities in the fields of interest of CTSoc and to position CTSoc as the leading technical organization for consumer technology professionals.

SCS will ensure that Standard Committees Chairs will report periodically to the SCS on the status of the membership and inform about unresponsive or inactive members, who could lose their Standard Committee member status to the particular committee.

The SCS shall monitor the progress of each Project Working Group and shall have the authority to make any changes that may be necessary:

·       SCS can create new Standard Committees or new projects/working groups. New Standard Committees could also be proposed by submitting a petition including name, scope, tentative program for the first year, and approximate numbers of interested and potential members of the proposed Standards Committee. Petition shall be signed by 25 CTSoc members and sent to the SCS via the Chair.

·       Standard Committees and/or Projects/Working Groups may be merged, modified, or dissolved by resolution of the SCS as necessary to ensure continued relevance and effectiveness. Proposals to create/merge/modify/ dissolve Standard Committees and / or project shall be sent to the SCS chair for consideration and approval by the SCS.

 

4.3.1.2.       Structure

4.3.1.2.1.           General

SCS shall assist and support the establishment and evolution of standards development organizational structures.

SCS recommends that the following standards development organizational structure is used:

1.       A standards development organizational structure that consists of Top-Level Standards Committees only.

a.       One or more Top-Level Standards Committees reporting to the SCS may be established, each covering a specific technical area. The scope for each Top-Level Standards Committee being formed shall be within the FoI of the Society.

b.       The initial Chair, officers, and members of each Standards Committee shall be appointed for the initial two-year term.

c.       Further, each Top-Level Standards Committee shall have their Policy and Procedure (P&P) approved by the Standards Association Standards Board (SASB) prior to starting standards development work.

d.       Upon approval of the P&P by SASB and upon termination of the initial term in office, the selection of the Chair and other officers as well as membership are subject to these P&P.

SCS will approve the structure and the scope of each Top-Level Standards Committee.

 

4.3.1.2.2.           Current Standards committees

SCS currently oversees 6 Standard Committees:

·       Emerging Technology Standards Committee (CTSoc/ETSC)

·       Blockchain Standards Committee (CTSoc/BSC)

·       VR/AR Standards Committee (CTSoc/VRARSC)

·       Smart Devices Standards Committee (CTSoc/SDSC

·       Digital Finance & Economy Standards Committee (CTSoc/DFESC)

·       Electronic Games & Sports Standards Committee (CTSoc/EGSSC)

 

4.3.2.   Initiating a new standard activity

When a new project in the FOI of the society is considered, SCS will require the proponent (e.g. future chair of the activity) to provide information relative to the criteria defined in Annex A along with a draft PAR.

The proponent will complete all the activities outlined in Annex A and submit to a SC.  The SC will review the PAR and the Annex A form ensuring that all questions are answered appropriately.  The SC may request mentorship from SCS as necessary.  The SC will inform SCS that a new PAR has been approved for submission to NesCom.  A proponent may submit directly to SCS for guidance if there is no appropriate SC.

SCS will review the information provided and may ask for further clarifications. When SCS considers that the information is complete, the SC or Working Group (WG) must maintain this form in addition to the PAR submission and will use it as a basis for tracking the progress of the project until its conclusion. 

 

4.3.3.   Progressing a standard activity

SCS will evaluate the progress of all standard activities on a regular basis. SCS will request the Standard Committees and Working group Chairs to provide Metrics in accordance with  Annex C at least once per year, or more as necessary, and no later than end of Q3 of each calendar year.  The SCs shall collect this data from the WGs and provide it to SCS.

Performance metrics are developed by the SCS to help evaluate the performance of each Standard Committees and working groups standards activities. The list of performance metrics can be found inAnnex C.

Upon analysis of the metrics, if the progress of a project is unsatisfactory, the SCS can take the following actions:

·       Contact chair, officers or members

·       Propose mentorship to complete work

·       Evaluate and propose restructure options such as merge with other projects or terminate the project.

In the eventuality that despite all actions, a project is not progressing, SCS shall take a final decision no later than 6 months after the first indication that the project is not on track.

4.3.4.   Concluding a standard activity.

When a project is about to be proposed/promoted to a standard, SCS will require that the Chair of the working group and Standard Committee to provide information relative to the criteria defined in Annex B.

The WG will complete Annex B and submit to a SC.  The SC will review the standard and the Annex B form ensuring that all questions are answered appropriately.  The SC may request mentorship from SCS as necessary.  They will inform SCS that a standard has been approved for submission to the Review Committee (RevCom).

SCS may ask to review the information provided and also ask for further clarifications.

 

4.3.5.   development and coordination of standards projects

4.3.5.1.       development of standard projects

4.3.5.1.1.           Training

The SCS shall facilitate the mentoring of SC/WG leadership.

As per the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual  [2], SCS shall Ensure that all Working Group Officers have successfully completed i) the IEEE SA Standards Working Group Chair Fundamentals training and ii) the Understanding IEEE SA's Antitrust, Competition, and Commercial Terms Policies training prior to or within 60 days of appointment, or as assigned.

SCS will contact the WG officers upon appointment, and after 6 months to track the completion of the training.

Further, SCS shall ensure that SCs and WGs chairs and editor register and complete the relevant IEEE SA training:

·       Working Group chair fundamentals [3]

·       Editorial guidance [3]

·       Other Society training as appropriate.

4.3.5.1.2.           Workshop

 

SCS will organize two types of workshops, one with all SC / WG leadership, and one focused mentoring program for individual chairs.

All leadership program:

·       Cadence – once or twice yearly

·       All leadership workshops sharing best practices

·       All leadership training

Focused mentoring program:

·       Per chair sessions with guidance

• SA process requirements (e.g., minutes, roster, voting)
• Guidance on best practices

·       SCS representative designated by the SCS chair will be in attendance at WG or SC meetings to provide guidance

 

 

4.3.5.2.       Coordination of standards projects

SCS will ensure the coordination of standard projects and will verify that the

·       Proposed scope of a Standards Committee/project is within the FOI of the Society.

·       A Standards Committee/project has sufficient distinct identity with respect to others.

 

An SC shall ensure the scope of a Standards Project is within its FoI.  Upon request, SCS shall mediate and resolve issues related to possible conflicting scope of different Standards Committees/projects, after a good faith effort has been made to resolve the issue among the parties. 

When an SC or project overlap with another Society, SCS shall facilitate coordination with the other Society and facilitate a cooperation agreement (e.g., though a memorandum of understanding). If necessary, a committee may be formed in order to coordinate and mediate the issue. The members of this committees are chosen from the SCS membership and the other Society membership.

 

In making the determination whether a proposed scope is within the FoI of an SC, the following indicators are to be taken into consideration:

a.       Existence of Standards Committees with recently published standards (within three years) and/or current standards development projects within the proposed scope.

b.       Existence in a Standard committee of a working group whose scope includes the proposed scope.

 

4.3.6.   Maintenance of approved standards

SCS shall ensure that the SCs have developed a plan in their respective P&P/bylaws to ensure the maintenance of approved standards, taking in account the following aspects:

·       Enabling the development of corrigenda when errors are found.

·       Enabling the development of amendments and updates as required

·       Ensuring standards are revised every 10 years as per the IEEE process.

The SCS may advise SCs to either:

·       close a working group that has completed its work, in which case the maintenance is performed either at the SC level or by re-creating a working group

·       give a working group an “hibernate status” which enable to reactive the working group easily when maintenance actions are due.

 

4.4. Overseeing the Standardization Programs.

As per the bylaws, this includes:

·       Pre- and post-standardization activities such as compliance testing.

·       Coordinating with IEEE Standards Association (IEEE SA).

4.4.1.   Pre-standardization activities

SCS requires the Standard committees to:

·       Provide technical and operational leadership in defining the strategic directions for Society and Council based IEEE standards activities. SCS may request each SC to provide a 5-year plan.

·       Position their IEEE standards activities within the FoI of the Society. SCS may review on a regular basis that the activities are within the FoI of the SC.

·       Pursue engagement with industry, consortia, and alliances with the objective of identifying standardization opportunities for the IEEE.

·       Proactively engage industry practitioners, industrial and academic researchers in the discovery/identification of standardization opportunities in emerging technologies and markets. It is recommended to leverage the IEEE technology initiatives, including those originated in the Future Directions Committee (FDC).

4.4.2.   Post-standardization activities

The SCS shall encourage and oversee the development of Post Standardization Activities by the SCs.

Post Standardization Activities related to promotion, implementation or deployment of published standards, such as open-source product development, conformity assessment of products and/or services to a standard, and standards compliant product and/or service certification programs.

The SCS will verify that the SC or WG has formed a sub-group or established a process with an external alliance to promote its standard activities. The SCS will advise the SC and WG that IEEE SA marketing group can assist the SC or WG.

The SCS will encourage the SC and WG to identify whether a conformity/compliance activity is needed and will advise on the best ways to initiate such activities.

 

4.4.3.   Coordination with IEEE SA

All SCs and WGs are responsible for coordinating with IEEE SA according to their P&P.

 

4.5.  Monitoring outside activities in the FOI of the Society.

As per the bylaws, this includes:

·       Monitoring standards in the FOI of the Society that are proposed or established by other organizations.

·       and reporting to the Vice President of Industry and Standards Activities.

The SCS will request the SCs and WGs to provide SCS with the above information during their report and may create a questionnaire for that purpose. SCS will aggregate the information for reporting to the VP ISA.

 

4.6. Providing training and other information on standards to the Society.

As per the bylaws, this includes:

·       hosting webinars and workshops,

·       organizing sessions in Society conferences,

·       and submitting articles to Society publications.

 

The SCS shall encourage and oversee the SCs activities in the areas listed below. The SCS may create an adhoc group or assign an SCS member to this task.

1.       Development of possible standards related products, for example:

a.       Publications

                              i.      Feature topic issues in Society magazines

                            ii.      Special issues of the Society journals on standards related topics

                          iii.      Creation of journals on standards in the FoI of the Society

                          iv.      Standardization related whitepapers, roadmaps and vision documents, book of knowledge, etc.

b.    Meetings and events

                              i.      Standard tracks at portfolio conferences[1], notably at CES Show.

                            ii.      Academic conferences[2] on standards in the FoI of the Society

                          iii.      Industry events focusing on standardization in selected technical areas

                          iv.      Exhibitions in conjunction with a conference for standards related products and services

c.    Educational Material

                              i.      Tutorials on standards in the FoI of the Society

                            ii.      Standards related courses for academic curricula and for continuing education programs

                          iii.      Accreditation of standards related academic programs

                          iv.      Certification of standards professionals in the FoI of the Society

 

2.    Promote the development of and publicize the value proposition of engaging in standards activities to various classes of Society members.  For each of the following subsections, SCs would consider developing whitepapers, presentations and/or webinars for distribution leveraging the many IEEE publicity channels within and outside of the Society.

a.    SCs members – IEEE Mission/Vision fulfilment

                              i.      Societal Impact

·       Standards have the potential to have tangible impact in society.

·       Standards are often the most visible aspect of the IEEE to industry (i.e., users and manufacturers), researchers, and academia on a global scale.

                            ii.      IEEE mission “IEEE’s core purpose is to foster technological innovation and excellence for the benefit of humanity”

·       Standards have the potential to move technical innovations through research, development, product, and service pipeline enabling them to benefit all people on a global scale.

                          iii.      IEEE vision “IEEE will be essential to the global technical community and to technical professionals everywhere, and be universally recognized for the contributions of technology and of technical professionals in improving global conditions”

·       Standards provide a foundation on which future technical innovations may be built, benefiting technical professionals by recognizing their contributions to the body of technical standards worldwide.

                          iv.      Society mission/vision – specifics are Society dependent

b.       Researchers/Academics

                              i.      Consulting opportunities

                            ii.      Grants for programs from governments and companies

                          iii.      Peer and institution recognition for standards contributions

                          iv.      Academic career advancement

c.       Practicing engineers

                                 i.            Professional value enhancement, peer and corporate recognition

                               ii.            Corporate value

                             iii.            Full time employment, job and consulting opportunities

d.       Business development executives

                                i.            Market creation and growth

                               ii.            Increased economic efficiencies

                             iii.            Partnership opportunities

                             iv.            Competitive intelligence

                               v.            Vendor relationships

 

Annex A

Criteria for consideration of project proposals to
be overseen by the IEEE-SA Consumer Technology Society Group (CTSoc)

 

Please supply information about the following 6 criteria (no less than a few sentences, no more than 10 lines for each of the 6 criteria. The bullet points illustrate the information that is sought).

1.    Market potential:

·       Describe the applicability of the project to a set of markets (Which markets / industry / verticals are addressed)?

·       How many vendors and users will benefit from the project?

·       Which geographic markets are addressed? (e.g. regional, national, continental, international)

·       List potential difficulties that may be known upfront.

 

2.     Technical feasibility

·       Provide evidence of technical feasibility for the project What level of technical details will be provided to ensure that independent implementations are feasible from the standard?

·       Are you aware of the different system components that will be needed to implement the technology developed in the project?

·       Are you aware of similar testing, modeling or simulation tools or work that could be used to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the technology developed in the project?

 

3.    Readiness for standardization

·       Was the project discussed in a study group under one of the societies, were feedbacks taken in account?

·       Describe intermediate deliverables, their timeline and expected completion date

·       When is the market for that project expected to mature? (e.g. 5 years, 10 years, 15 years timeframe)

·       Describe dependencies on other technologies or factors that may impact the standardization timeline.

 

4.    Distinct identity

·       Provide a short gap analysis:

o   Describe and provide evidence of substantial technical merits when compared to other standards.

o   Describe potential relation with other SDO specifications and how duplication and overlap will be avoided.

·       Is the project a distinct continuation of a previous project, and is compatibility required?

·       Are coordination and communication with other SDO/Societies/projects planned?

 

5.    Adequate participation

Ensure that adequate participation will occur for the length of the project:

·       For Entity project:

o   List at least three companies willing to become voting members in the project

o   List the countries and ensure that at least two/three different countries are represented to ensure diversity and international coverage

·       For individual project:

o   At least 10 individuals willing to become voting members in the project

o   From at least 3 different product types, verticals or industries

 

6.    Candidate Working Group Chair

·       Include the name and company affiliation of the individual who would like to become the Working Group Chair.

·       Please detail that individual's experience in standards development, noting any experience and leadership roles within IEEE. [Note: The Working Group Chair may be asked to complete the IEEE SA Standards Working Group Chair Fundamentals training modules at https://standards.ieee.org/about/training/index.html]

·       Is there potential endorsement of the candidate by other interested participants?

 

 

 

 

Annex B

Criteria for consideration of finalization of project to be overseen by the IEEE-SA CTSoc

Please supply information about the following criteria.

 

1.    Clarity/editorial elements:

·       Was an IEEE template [4] used to develop the standard?

·       Was the IEEE SA Style Manual [5] followed?

·       Was the Draft Review Checklist [6] used?

·       When was / or will be the mandatory Editorial coordination [7] initiated?

·       Did the editor complete the editorial guidance course[3]?

 

2.    Policy elements:

·       For normative reference, does the normatively referenced material in the document meets the restrictions on commercial terms (see 6.2.2 of the IEEE SA Standards Board Operations Manual[2] )?

3.    Technical elements:

·       Is each technical clause self-explanatory?

·       Are there enough precise descriptions in the technical clauses for anyone to understand and be able to develop an implementation of the standard? (e.g. a technical clause should not be limited to high level bullet points).

·       Were the “shall/should/may/can” requirements carefully considered and reviewed?

·       Is the standard implementable when only the “shall” requirements are considered?

·       Is there a conformance plan proposed with the standard?

·       Is there existing supporting technical material for the standard? (e.g. a software proof of concept, a reference implementation)

Annex C

Metrics

▸      Metric 1. Man-hours spent by all participant on the project (Please give an estimate of the last 3 months to the best of your knowledge. The estimate should include efforts at meetings and between meetings.)

▸      Metric 2. Meetings held including number of attendees (Please provide the number of meetings held during the last 3 months followed by the typical or average number of attendees in the format MM / AA. Please also summarize your plan for next meeting.)

▸      Metric 3. Estimated progress toward a ballotable draft (Please give an estimated percentage.)

▸      Metric 4. Progress in collation of content and material for inclusion in the standard (Please briefly describe the status in getting permit for copyrighted material to be included in the standard, or input ""Not Applicable"" if you don't need to do that.)

▸      Metric 5. Identification of problem areas (Please briefly describe the problems that you currently have, or input ""None"" if everything is ok and you don't have any problems.)

▸      Metric 6. Identification of assistance needed in making progress (Please describe any assistance that you may need from the CTSoc, the SA, and the IEEE, or input ""None"" if you don't need assistance for now.)"