08/01/2017

Lessons on Sunsetting an Industry Standard

Technology standards do outlive their usefulness and it's important to retire them

Adobe’s decision to finally close the door on the Flash era of the internet highlights a coordinated response that from which any organization with an official technical standard might learn something. When an industry coalesces around an official technology standard and follows through with it, that’s usually a good thing.

But eventually, the standard might outlive its usefulness, and that requires a sunsetting of that technology—which might be harder than it sounds, especially if you can’t sell industry stakeholders on following suit.

All of this makes what Adobe is doing with its long-popular Flash software something that associations should keep an eye on. The Flash media player may not be an official standard, but it is a de facto one.

Please click here to read the complete article from Associations Now.