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GSA
attract key individuals who have helped build and out there.
shape the organisation; people with deep experience We continue to explore more efficient ways to
in many disciplines and across all levels of gaming. disseminate the core knowledge globally. The target
audience are those that know gaming and
CI: There must have been many challenges programming at a higher level. So a solid technical
along the way, while you were developing your background combined with gaming is required. We
G2S standard… also would like to provide educational support for the
PD: The biggest challenge we have had as a non- regulatory community and are considering ways to
Mission
profit organisation, like many other similar provide that support with limited resources.
statement:
organisations trying to develop open standards, is
intellectual property. How do you deal with
The Gaming
intellectual property? It’s a key asset to many of our Technology moves forward
Standards
members. It’s taken us a while to fine-tune a policy
that is acceptable to the industry. As a result of our
at a rapid pace, and to
Association (GSA)
new policy, we were able to get all the major vendors achieve interoperability, and
is an
fully committed to GSA. All our members fully
reducing the pain of
comprehend and support the power of open
international
standards. It’s taken 12 years, but the industry and
deployment of new
trade association
business impact is profound.
technology, technical
Thanks to the new games and systems developed by
that creates
the vendors and fueled by GSA’s open standards,
agreements need to be
benefits for
operators will be able to offer a gaming experience
struck and GSA can fill that
that is simply not available or possible at present. You
gaming
walk into a casino today, you’ll see a stepper machine,
vital role.
manufacturers,
for example, and young players looking for the
experience video style games offer, because that’s CI: Presumably with the adoption of the new
suppliers,
what they’re used to. Today, most casinos do not have standard then, your role as an organisation is
operators and
the infrastructure to provide games and experiences going to change massively…
for these players; because of GSA efforts, the industry PD: We’ve been the evangelists for 12 years,
regulators. We will be able to move quickly in this direction. It’s very convincing the industry that open standards are
facilitate the
satisfying to see all the new concepts vendors are great and will enable innovation; the industry has
identification,
introducing to the marketplace. Note that right now seen the light now, the products are there to be
they are only just scratching the surface. You’ll see delivered – but the foundational GSA technologies
definition,
the industry mature and rapidly grow because of that drive this innovation will need to be maintained,
development,
these underlying standards. Honestly, you won’t enhanced in a controlled fashion by the industry.
believe what some of these companies are planning Therefore GSA’s role will be to continue to provide
promotion, and
using G2S. support to our members by enhancing or creating
implementation
standards to the benefit of the community.
CI: How do you go about creating something Technology moves forward at a rapid pace, and to
of open standards
so… profound and fundamental as a protocol? achieve interoperability, and reducing the pain of
to enable
And once it’s out there, something so technical – deployment of new technology, technical agreements
how do you communicate that to the right people need to be struck and GSA can fill that vital role.
innovation,
in the industry? On top of that, we need to ensure certification
education, and
PD: Technical committees comprised of member programs are put in place because having an open
volunteers, as it is with any standard-setting standard and not having a way to validate the correct
communication
organisation, develop our standards. The challenge implementation is not a good way to move forward.
for the benefit of
with this is that you have a small group of people Although the technical committees and our technical
with a high level of unique knowledge. Typically 30 or staff are very meticulous when crafting the language
the entire
40 people in the committee understand what’s describing the messages, there are still opportunities
industry.
happening; how do you then communicate this to the for slightly different interpretations that result in a
rest of the world? We’ve recognised this challenge, different implementation. Note that GSA is
and a couple of years we ago established GSA collaborating with consultants to get the standards
University. We reached out to various areas in the vetted before releasing them to our membership for
world, notably Asia through our partner Macau vote. The certification program’s sole purpose is to
Polytechnic Institute (MPI) in Macau, with whom we try to eliminate or reduce the challenges that arise
continue to share a strong relationship. from plugging multiple vendors’ devices and
GSA University started with 69 students in 2008; components together.
in 2009, we trained 100 students from 33 countries. Additionally, we will continue to be faithful to our
To date we have trained 159 students from 39 mission statement by assisting the industry with
countries representing nine companies. We have technology challenges they have identified as
provided training in five different countries. We’re needing to be fixed in an open standard way. There
trying to grow our education, and the word is getting are a variety of areas where we can see that standards
30 FEBRUARY 2010
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