Thread Subject: Re: Combined HardwareSubcommitteeProposal

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From: Randy Marsden
Date: Mon, Dec 18 2006 6:10 PM

A few more thoughts, after some in-person conversations today:

1. ³Self-Contained², and ³Closed² are not synonymous. A self-contained
product can still be accessible.
2. Many Self-Contained products do not fit comfortably into the same barrel
as computers (such as office equipment like copiers, fax machines, etc).
3. Re-emphasize: ³Closed² is not a category of product, but an attribute
that can describe a product in all of the categories (if it can¹t be
accessed by people with disabilities).
4. ³Hardware² seems to be too broad a category (but ³Desktops & Portables²
too specific). ³Computer Hardware² would nicely cover desktops, laptops,
portable handhelds, the computer portion of Smartphones, etc. It would
likely also cover the gadgets that have not been invented yet, but will be
between now and the next 508 refresh.

So, a possible revision to the ³merger² proposal would be the following:

Leave the current sub-committees in place, but tweak their names &
scopes as follows:

OLD NAME: ³Self-Contained & Closed Systems²
NEW NAME: ³Self-Contained²
SCOPE: E&IT products which are self-contained, meaning they are
not typically open to third-party software or hardware add-ons. They are
not ³computers² in the traditional sense.

OLD NAME: ³Desktops and Portables²
NEW NAME: ³Computer Hardware²
SCOPE: E&IT products that provide for third-party software
and/or hardware add-ons. For greater certainty, this includes, but is not
limited to: desktop computers, notebook computers, PDA¹s, handheld
computers, Tablet PC¹s, UMPC¹s, Smartphones, and Dataphones. In the case of
converged devices (such as Smartphones), the Computer Hardware subcommittee
would deal with the computer-specific aspects of the hardware only, and
leave the device-specific aspects of the hardware to the other respective
sub-committees (ie. Telecom, A/V, etc). In other words, Telecom still deals
with issues related to carriers, TTY¹s, etc. A/V still deals with TV tuner
issues, etc. Computer Hardware deals with computer industry-standard ports
and interfaces (like USB, etc).

So where do media players fit? (ie. iPod, Zune, etc). At the moment, I
would say they are Self-Contained.

Comments?

-Randy Marsden
ATIA

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