Re: [802SEC] purchasing IEEE 802 standards
Pat-
I have beating this drum for some time now. Last spring I attempted to use
the IEEE sales portal to get a list of the "current" IEEE 802 standards
(specifically, the list of standards available via the GetIEEE802(tm)
program plus those standards which had been published and were awaiting
their 6-12 month timeout to go into the program. (6 months later I still do
not have such a list in hand, but that is another story.)
It was an exercise in frustration.
I came to the conclusion that the IEEE had not been doing their part in
maintaining a reasonable sales effort (i.e. keeping their sales tools at
least nominally equal to market expectations) and, thus, were not
"entitled" to the numbers they said were needed for "revenue replacement".
I said as much in July. I believe that position had more than a little to
do with the restoration of the original terms (i.e. 6 months and flat
$75/head/plenary) of the agreement.
While I am glad to have the original terms of the program, I find it
embarrassing that the formal sales channel for our output works in a manner
that is so contrary to the normal expectation of the buying public. The
quality of search engine used by the IEEE may have been acceptable 15 years
ago (when you KNEW you had to get your librarian to order a standard for
you AND there was a print catalog alternative). It is clearly not viable in
today's market.
Hopefully
the IEEE will get this fixed.
we can keep delivery of 802 standards at arm's length from this
problem.
Best regards,
Geoff
At 05:21 PM 9/26/2007 , Pat Thaler wrote:
>
> > For kicks, I searched for "802.11b". No hits, even though it turned
> > up when I searched for "802.11". Mysterious.]
>
>You peaked my curiosity so I followed the path starting with putting
>"ShopIEEE" into Google. I found the usability of the site pretty lame -
>all the items you described. I can shed some light on this one. The
>search is apparently case sensitive so "802.11B" finds it but not
>"802.11b".
>
>By the way, I continue to get the feeling that Get802 gets expected to
>make up for the lack of standards sales, but many of us are subscribed
>to IEEE/IEL through corporate subscriptions. Get802 has a more direct
>user-friendly interface for downloading so I usually suggest that rather
>than IEEE/IEL when someone wants to download a standard that is on
>Get802.
>
>IEEE/IEL search has its quirks too. It has all the old versions of the
>standards which is great when one wants one for historical record but if
>I search for 802.3 the early versions and all the supplements/amendments
>show up first making it difficult to go directly to a current version of
>the standard. I've also found that if I put in IEEE 802.3 the search
>comes up empty because it is looking for exactly IEEE 802.3 and the
>title in the system is IEEE Std 802.3 so if the user doesn't realize
>that they won't find it.
>
>During the last year, I received multiple offers from IEEE for a free
>short duration subscription to IEEE/IEL so apparently any IEEE member
>could have downloaded standards for 3 months for free last year through
>that offer.
>
>Pat
>
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