{"id":1083,"date":"2019-08-11T22:04:42","date_gmt":"2019-08-11T22:04:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rdmprotocol.org\/rdm\/?page_id=1083"},"modified":"2019-08-13T15:09:51","modified_gmt":"2019-08-13T15:09:51","slug":"the-cpwg-and-task-groups","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.rdmprotocol.org\/rdm\/developers\/standards-development\/the-cpwg-and-task-groups\/","title":{"rendered":"The CPWG and Task Groups"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Control Protocols Working Group (CPWG) of ESTA is \nthe official voting body that the RDM and other control protocol \nstandards are developed under. While the real work of developing a \nstandard happens in the Task Groups, the Working Group is the larger \nbody responsible for reviewing and approving the release of all Public \nReview drafts and the final version of all standards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Working Group also serves as an arbitrator for settling questions\n or issues that can\u2019t be fully resolved within the smaller Task Group \nbody. Members of the CPWG include all the various Task Group members as \nwell as other members that represent a broad cross-section of the \nindustry including: manufacturers, dealers, end-users, consultants, \nrental companies, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more information about the ESTA Technical Standards Program, or for information on how to get involved, visit ESTA site<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An application for joining the CPWG can be found here<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RDM Task Group<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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2006 RDM Task Group Members receiving the Stewart Volunteer of the Year Award <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Contrary\n to popular belief, technical standards don\u2019t just write themselves. It \ntakes a group of dedicated individuals countless hours, often of their \nown personal time, to develop and write these standards. It\u2019s a \ngenerally thankless job, but the rewards are in creating new \ntechnologies that enable countless new products to be created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The RDM Task Group is comprised of a group of about 15 industry \nprofessionals from the Control Protocols Working Group that meet \nface-face 4 times a year and sit in mostly windowless hotel conference \nrooms banging out the nitty gritty details in the Standard and \ndiscussing the numerous ways a paragraph can be phrased and different \nways it can be interpreted. The goal is to clearly describe each and \nevery detail in a very non-ambiguous way. Anytime there can be more than\n one interpretation of how a detail is to be implemented then it can \nmake the difference between two products being able to communicate \ntogether, or frustration for the end-user trying to figure out why they \ndon\u2019t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many of the members of the Task Group work for various leading \nmanufacturers in our industry, but membership is open to anyone with an \ninterest in participating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following are the core members of the RDM Task Group responsible \nfor the 2006 and 2010 editions of the standard. Most of them also \nparticipate in other Task Groups within the Control Protocol Working \nGroup working on other standards as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n