What is a Standard?

Standards are technical details (specifications) that an industry group had agreed to implement or follow when manufacturing certain products.  Standards help ensure that products from various vendors or manufacturers work together so product incompatibilities are minimized within a larger non-vendor controlled environment. For example, WiFi standards ensure that laptops and mobile devices from various vendors are all able to access and use WiFi networks anywhere without users having to worry if the devices would be compatible with a particular wireless network.