while nobody can be an owner of all the standards that matter to him/her, it is ultimately everybody's own choice whether to become an owner of a certain standard or a driver for the work for and around a standard. Standards are made by ordinary people (who are hardly ever being paid for making standards - rather the opposite: in Germany we have to pay annual fees - on a per person/per committee basis - to be allowed to participate in national and international standardization work) . 

While it is true there has been (less and less) government and similar funding for some organizations, and while some leading manufacturers have contributed significantly in the past (and continue to do so), each and every bit of what the group of ECI, Fogra, bdvm, Ifra and Ugra have developed in the last 20 or so years is a mix of contributions also from many 'smaller players' (smaller printing houses, media service providers, ...), all the way down to freelance professionals. In many cases people have mostly invested their personal / private time - quite a few contributors who are employees do their work 'on the side'/as a hobby, and the same is true for freelancers.

The ultimate question is: do you care enough (or do you feel enough pain) to get involved and help take next steps, or not? If there is not enough pain, let's wait until it gets bigger... (or goes away?) ;-)

Maybe one day someone looking for improvements/further developments around the standards he/she uses will ask: What is needed to get there? How can I help?

Olaf