These definitions should be provided in a clear and unambiguous way that leaves absolutely no room for interpretation. Most internet standards come from the IETF or from W3C. In broad terms, IETF handles the hardware-related stuff, such as TCP/IP and HTTP, while W3C handles the "soft" stuff such as HTML and XML. Where possible, both provide their definitions in a special format called Extended Backus-Naur Format, or EBNF. EBNF is also used to define the syntax and operation of programming languages. EBNF is so precise you can create EBNF processing software that is able to run any programming language for which it has the EBNF definition.
EBNF achieves this precision by avoiding words and using symbolic notation instead. For example, the definition for a vowel would look like this in EBNF:
Vowel := A | a | E | e | I | i | O | o | U | u
As you may have guessed, "|" is used as "or." Notice the precision. There is no possibility of ambiguity or misunderstanding -- a computer could understand this. This is the level of precision you need in order to build software that can implement your rules.
By contrast, the WAA's definition of a page is "an analyst definable unit of content." In other words, a page is whatever you say it is. That's not just a vague definition, it literally is no definition at all. What this says is "whatever you want." I cannot implement that in web analytics software; I cannot check to see if someone is compliant with the standard because (by definition) everyone is; I can't even compare my data with someone else's because I don't know if they are measuring the same thing as me.
EBNF is not an academic ideal. HTTP, HTML, XML and many other standards are written in EBNF. In other words, the web runs on EBNF. For example, here's the EBNF definition for specifying the version of HTTP in a message:
HTTP-Version := "HTTP" "/" 1*DIGIT "." 1*DIGIT
Some people have argued it is not possible to achieve this level of precision in web analytics. That is, of course, rubbish -- it has already been done, and done many times.
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