Sunday, Oct. 14 is World Standards Day. Why should you care? When asked about the importance of standards, Mary Saunders, director of the National Institute of Standards and Technology's Standards Coordination Office, pointed to how the city of Baltimore, Maryland, was almost entirely leveled by fire, due, in part, to the fact that no standards were in place to specify the size of fire hydrant valves.

In 1904, , taking out buildings across 140 acres and . To help extinguish the blaze, firefighters came in from other cities as far away as New York, Philadelphia and Washington. Their equipment was of limited use, however, because the country had not yet settled on a standard size for coupling hydrants to hoses.

While no one may be throwing a party this weekend in honor of standards, is a reminder to reflect on the importance standards play in the world, and in IT.

About 80 percent of global commerce, or $13 trillion in economic activity each year, has some connection with standards, according to Joe Bhatia, president and CEO of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).

IT companies have traditionally been reluctant to embrace standards when building new products, instead hoping to command an entire market with a proprietary technology only they can provide. Such an approach can be short-sighted, argue standard advocates.