Who Knew NIST Could Be So Sexy?
The National Institute of Standards and Technology has been in existence since 1901--responsible for promoting economic development via standards setting and measuring. Vital work, to be sure, but seemingly dull, at least to the non-measurement scientists among us. But now something really intriguing his happening. The onrush of the smart grid, cloud computing, green energy, sustainable manufacturing, e-health, and a new wave of cybersecurity threats has suddenly placed NIST in the middle of some of the most crucial technology advances of our era. One result: it's a great time to be Pat Gallagher, the newly appointed NIST director. "NIST has never been asked to perform such significant, high-visibility roles as it is now. Its day has come," he says.
Think about it this way. NIST is responsible for making sure the physical and technical interfaces in the nation's infrastructure fit together well. In the past, it concentrated on things like fire hydrant connections, so any fire hose could connect to any hydrant. Now it's handling digital systems of all types. Its role is becoming ever more vital as the world is increasingly networked.
The smart electrical grid is an example of the kind of role NIST is playing these days. Gallagher and his colleagues have come up with a three-phase approach that they hope will hasten the adoption of smart grid technologies and the energy savings they promise.
Phase I: NIST has been convening all of the parties with economic or business interests in transitioning to smart grids. In the past, most of the players in any standards discussions were in a single industry, but because of the importance of info tech in these initiatives, new players are coming to the table. So NIST's role as a convener is important. It's bringing people together and helping them identify the standards that already exist that can be used or adapted. Then it's working to identify the gaps and help to define the system architecture that needs to be put into place. This phase has been underway for 6 months.
Phase II: It's putting together a permanent governance model for ongoing standards and measurement deliberations. Last week it announced the formation of a panel to oversee the development of standards--with 20 members elected by companies, trade groups, and government agencies. Members include Google's Vint Cerf, Intel's Matthew Theall, and the Consumer Electronics Association's Brian Markwalter.
Phase III: Getting the participants in smart grid initiatives to agree on measurement techniques and testing procedures. You want to make sure that devices and digital systems really do interoperate--that the interfaces really work. This is key, says Gallagher: "The real challenge isn't mal intent; it's the complexity of the system. When you put three and four devices on a network that have to talk to each other, with different ways of talking to each other, the complexity increases so fast that you can have 'emergent behaviors'--new behaviors you didn't anticipate when you look at the components in the system piece by piece." This phase also starts now.
Gallaher's approach points to one of the big challenges emerging in the 21st Century. Because of the application of digital networks to most every physical and electronic system, everything is increasingly connecting with everything else. And all those systems have to interoperate. So you don't just have to understand the inner workings of an individual system; you have to understand the inter workings of intersecting systems. So I'm talking about systems of systems.
This stuff is crazy complex.
But I'll predict this: The nations and companies and individuals that come to understand the interrelatedness of systems and take problems on holistically will be thriving a couple of decades from now. The ones who try to handle things the old fashioned way will lose out.