Since mid-1995, exponential growth of the Internet has broughtthe number of pages on the World Wide Web from about seven millionto approximately 800 million by mid-1999, according to a statisticcited by Gas Industry Standards Board (GISB) Executive Director RaeMcQuade.

Explosive growth of the Internet has been nothing if not a boonto GISB. “When GISB first started coming up with Internetstandards, people said, ‘It’s not ready. It’s not secure enough.Some kid in his garage in Ohio is going to be reading ournominations,'” said Jim Buccigross, chairman of GISB’s executivecommittee and director and general counsel for the NationalRegistry of Capacity Rights. “This amazing thing happened. TheInternet has simply taken off. It has simply grown beyond even thewildest expectations. GISB is now taking, I believe, full advantageof that and will continue to do that into the future.”

Bolstering his argument for the Internet future, Buccigrossnoted that IBM has said it expects 25% of its revenues this year tobe generated by electronic commerce. He made his remarks at GISB’sfifth annual meeting in San Antonio, TX, last week.

And similar to the way deregulation is bringing supplier choiceto gas consumers, GISB and the growing Internet are bringingcommunications choices to gas industry players. Buccigross notedthe industry can communicate electronically using electronic datainterchange (EDI), interactive Web sites, informational postings tothe World Wide Web, and there is more to come.

GISB members are in the process of wrapping up recentlydeveloped standards for the Internet and publishing them for theindustry, said McQuade.

And GISB itself is moving along, dispatching far more quicklythe standards development tasks at hand. Buccigross said justrecently GISB has been dealing with requests for initiation,clarification and interpretation of standards more quickly thanthey are coming into the organization. In fact, GISB is now poisedto offer its own seal of approval to those developing softwaresystems that embrace its standards.

GISB is offering certification to companies that have developedsoftware to meet GISB’s standards. “Virtually every other standardsorganization in the world does some type of certification,”Buccigross said. “Think of Underwriters Laboratories, the number offire safety certifications.”

Those seeking certification of their software products will paya $7,500 fee to GISB if they are GISB members. The fee fornon-members is $10,000. Certification will be done throughindependent certifiers approved by GISB. So far, four companieshave applied to GISB to be certifiers. “GISB can now certifysoftware through these independent certifiers and go out and verifyand say, ‘Yes, this software will meet this criteria for GISBstandards.'” Buccigross also said the certification process “willmake a little money for GISB.”

McQuade said the fees planned for GISB certification arereasonable when considered along side fees that other standardsorganizations charge for certification. “I think that you’ll end upgetting some of the software product companies coming through thedoor that will want to be certified. Then we also have pipelinesthat may choose to do it as well and have stated their interest. Ithink as you see more and more companies going through it, I thinkit’s going to be a snowball effect. It will start slow this yearbut then you’ll see a pick-up in it next year.”

GISB now has 174 members. Last year there were 164 members;however, the group lost 24 members who did not renew memberships,so the increase this year represents a number of new companiesjoining GISB. “What happened was a lot of the companies that hadindividual memberships in GISB chose to consolidate in onemembership. So while they still participated, we lost them asmembers because they consolidated,” McQuade said. “And the increasein membership has been from companies that aren’t in the energybusiness. Microsoft, Network Associates, those are big companiesthat have a lot to say in what our technologies are going to be andhow Internet security is employed. And they’re joining GISB. Ithink that says a lot.

“When we’re concentrating on Internet-type standards, you’regoing to get companies joining GISB where that is their interest.If we go off in another direction. I think you would see thatsegment grow, and the complexion alter to meet the interests ofthat period. The problem is trying to retain when that happens, andthat’s a challenge.”

Joe Fisher, Houston

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