Too much of a good thing!

At least on the creation side, government has gotten some momentum going on setting standards for information sharing!  Great deal - it will save lives, money, time and pave the way for more collaborative efforts between business and government and international....IF...

....the various agencies and groups cooperate and don't reinvent their wheel or make their efforts incompatable with others.  This is classic government craziness, understandable in a time before the internet and the web lets everyone know what everyone is doing, but certainly a waste of effort now.

A great example is Common Alerting Protocol by OASIS.  It has become used by many groups around the world - FEMA, DHS, private entities, Australia, Canada, software companies, and more.  It is a very good, lightweight, easy to understand and utilize standard.  However, there are many alerting areas that still need to be incorporated (food, financial, and more) - but it makes no sense to utilize some other standard or create a new, proprietary method.  THE WAY IS ALREADY PAVED!!!!

One of hte biggest possible losses is having the 9-1-1 capability in the US go some other  direction - 112 in Sweden (and 112 is a EU standard) has already piloted CAP for emergency calls.

This same issue applies for more standards that are starting to develop - smart grid, health, and many others - they need to examine the existing standards and work to move them forward versus creating parallell efforts.  Building on the shoulders of already existing efforts will make a major difference.

Pete