Although not short of standardization bodies the IT industry (and the smart card sector in particular) is full of proprietary solutions, often but not always due to the Customer's demands for innovation.
In the smart card space, one of the major bodies is GlobalPlatform who has set itself the mission to simplify and accelerate the development, deployment and management of smart card applications. I have worked on GlobalPlatform specifications for over 9 years, back when they were called OpenPlatform and originated from a small group at Visa International. So I am definitely biased and I think there is something positive in their approach, so you have been warned.
Recently, CardBASE the company I am working for has delivered two Smart Card Management Systems, to my surprise in both cases the Customer was but impressed with some GlobalPlatform features. Some of their complaints were related to the complexity of the GlobalPlatform Messaging and the verbosity of the Profiles definition.
I felt like the prisoner in Plato's cave, and started to wonder if GlobalPlatform hasn't seen the reality but only a representation of it? Surely my Customer's criticisms were at the heart of GlobalPlatform's mission to simplify and accelerate the development.
Standardization is hard work. And credit to GlobalPlatform they have done a good job on the card specifications, which have been re-used by many others (e.g. in JavaCard 3.0), and the GlobalPlatform Card Committee has demonstrated a rather effective organisation. However the idiosyncrasies of integration and interoperability are definitely giving trouble to the GlobalPlatform System Committee. Since they issued specifications 5 years ago (a lifetime in the current technology world), there had been no major updates. The expected revisions of Profiles and Scripting have disappeared of their web site. If they have set a clear direction, they haven't made it publicly known.
In terms of system integration and interoperability, this is a strategic mistake. It would be beneficial for GlobalPlatform to become more open in order to be the Prometheus they wish to be. The Profiles and Scripting were an attempt at tackling real life integration and interoperability problem. The world is moving, and it would be beneficial for the GlobalPlatform System Committee to take into account technical advances such as web-services. Being more open would facilitate the exchange with the open source communities who are leading the way in the middleware integration and interoperability space.
As often there is a fine line between being Prometheus or the prisoner in Plato's Cave.
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