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Siemens on added value for standards users New ISO 9000 video

ISO FocusVolume 5, No. 11, November 2008, ISSN 1729-8709

The Magazine of the International Organization for Standardization

e -s tandardization

ISO Focus is published 11 times a year (single issue : July-August). It is available in English.Annual subscription 158 Swiss Francs Individual copies 16 Swiss Francs

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ISSN 1729-8709Printed in Switzerland

Cover photo : iStock.

Contents1 Comment Elio Bianchi, Chair ISO/ITSIG and

Operating Director, UNI, A new way of working

2 World Scene Highlights of events from around the world

3 ISO SceneHighlights of news and developments from ISO members

4 Guest ViewMarkus J. Reigl, Head of Corporate Standardization at Siemens AG

8 Main Focus

ISO Focus November 2008

The nuts and bolts of ISOs collaborative IT applicationsStrengthening IT expertise in developing countries The ITSIG/XML authoring and metadata projectZooming in on the ISO Concept database In sight Value-added information servicesConnecting standards Standards to go A powerful format for mobile workers Re-engineering the ISO standards development processThe language of content-creating communitiesBringing the virtual into the formal Workflow management UNIs success story

37 Developments and InitiativesConference on e-business standards Standardization course for managers Protecting standards Future energy management standard

42 New on the shelfNew ISO 9000 video Release of ISO Survey 2007 New standard helps travellers plan their trip New electronic version of Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement

45 Coming up

e-standardization

ISO Focus, www.iso.org/isofocus

CommentA new way of workingA commonly accepted notion in todays business environment is that the inadequate manage-ment of an organizations information systems can have dire consequences for its efficiency and competitiveness whether it is a large or small, private or public, non-profit or governmental business or organization.

In fact, Information Technolo-gy (IT) structures are now considered to be fundamental pillars supporting the core business activities of organi-zations. Increasingly, these organiza-tions see in IT one of the most impor-tant tools for enabling the future of their business.

In a global environment character-ized by rapid and continuous changes in state-of-the-art technology especially true in the field of information technol-ogy assessment, guidance and control mechanisms are fundamental to assist top managers when adopting the future policies and strategies of their businesses and organizations. This scenario also applies to standard bodies, be they inter-national, regional or national.

Indeed, during the past decades, standards organizations have signifi-cantly invested in their IT systems in order to provide their clients with a better service : whether users of stand-ards or the experts participating in the standards development process. But due to continuously evolving techno-logical developments, these organiza-tions still find themselves today hav-ing to tackle the latest challenges pre-sented by emerging technologies in the field of IT.

It is in this framework and tak-ing these needs into account that the ISO Information Technology Strategy Implementation Group (ITSIG) an advisory body to the ISO Council has worked and will continue to work in the years to come.

Indeed, in recent years, ITSIG has been providing assistance on the design and implementation of IT appli-

Elio Bianchi, Chair ISO/ITSIG ; and Operating Director, UNI Italian Organization for Standardization

ITSIG has been actively introducing tools

to support collaborative work amongst

the experts engaged in the standards

development process.

1 Comment Elio Bianchi, Chair ISO/ITSIG and Operating Director, UNI, A new way of working

2 World Scene Highlights of events from around the world

3 ISO SceneHighlights of news and developments from ISO members

4 Guest ViewMarkus J. Reigl, Head of Corporate Standardization at Siemens AG

8 Main Focus

The nuts and bolts of ISOs collaborative IT applicationsStrengthening IT expertise in developing countries The ITSIG/XML authoring and metadata projectZooming in on the ISO Concept database In sight Value-added information servicesConnecting standards Standards to go A powerful format for mobile workers Re-engineering the ISO standards development processThe language of content-creating communitiesBringing the virtual into the formal Workflow management UNIs success story

37 Developments and InitiativesConference on e-business standards Standardization course for managers Protecting standards Future energy management standard

42 New on the shelfNew ISO 9000 video Release of ISO Survey 2007 New standard helps travellers plan their trip New electronic version of Guide to the Expression of Uncertainty in Measurement

45 Coming up

cations and services in support of ISO international standardization processes. For instance, to facilitate standards development; the dissemination of doc-uments; data management of users and groups and their respective roles; and electronic balloting a fairly complex Web-based application due to the par-ticular requirements of the ISO ballot-ing system.

ITSIG has also been actively involved in introducing tools to sup-port collaborative work amongst the experts engaged in the development process of International Standards. These projects were treated with the highest priority and contributed to a substantial improvement in the effi-ciency of the standardization system. Moreover, they are certainly open to further evolution.

In the years to come, the aim is to provide guidance for a harmonized approach to address emerging require-ments from users continuously press-ing for more convenient and flexible access to standards and standardiza-tion at large.

In particular, there is a need to focus on what has been defined as intelligent and interactive standards a concept that embraces a variety of developments, including the possi-bility to offer thematic access to con-tent (covered by a plurality of publi-cations), mathematical formulas and software tools with user-configurable and interactive features and machine readable database standards, along with many others.

Of particular interest is the design and implementation of new working tools based on the innova-tive technologies which are trans-forming the way Internet is used and the management of content (e.g. Web 2.0, XML).

ISO and ITSIG are thus cur-rently working to actively address these issues. We are open and keen to exchange views, ideas and suggestions from inside the standardization com-munity, as well as from industry and open community representatives. In the following pages you will be able to sample a taste of what has been done and what can be done enjoy !

ISO Focus November 2008 1


World SceneISO strengthens partnership with WMOISO and the World Meteoro-logical Organization (WMO) have decided to increase their cooperation and avoid duplica-tion in the development of Inter-national Standards related to meteorological and hydrological data, products and services.

ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden and WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud signed an agreement in September 2008 in Geneva, Switzerland, to for-malize the partnership.

Procedures are now in place for the accelerated adoption by ISO of WMO documents as ISO standards. WMO and ISO will develop, approve and publish common standards based on WMO technical regulations, manuals and guides.

The WMO Secretary-General stated that the new procedures would clarify the authority of WMO documents and enhance their international recognition and dissemination. This will be of particular importance to the activities of national hydrological and meteorological services in addressing standard issues.

Mr. Bryden underlined that the agreement was an illustration of the increasing collaboration between the UN system and ISO.

ISO and WMO have been work-ing in close cooperation since the granting of consultative status to ISO by the WMO Executive Council at its fifth session in 1954. The WMO has liaison status with nearly 30 of ISOs technical committees developing standards in hydro-metry, air quality, water quality, soil quality, geographic informa-

tion, solar energy, petroleum and gas industry, information technologies, marine technology, quantities and units.

BIC celebrates 75th anniversaryThe Bureau International des Containers et du Transport Intermodal (BIC) celebrated its diamond anniversary with a conference in Malta in October 2008. Over one hundred dele-gates representing carriers, man-ufacturers, operators, lessors and forwarders attended the event.

The conference included thematic panels on the environment, secu-rity authenticity of cargo, infra-structures and investment. Participants had the opportunity to exchange views on ISO stand-ards, including working docu-ments relating to the identification of containers and mechanical and electronic seals, as well as discuss the implementation of the ISO 28000 series on security management systems for the supply chain.

agreements and regulations for the benefit of world markets and economy. Mr. Bryden congratu-lated BIC on 75 years of remarkable accomplishments in support of global trade.

Focusing on next generation standardsThe International Federation of Standards Users (IFAN) held its 35th Members Assembly in Geneva, Switzerland in Septem-ber 2008. Some 30 participants from 10 countries attended (photo below), representing national members from standards user organizations and corporate members from both industrial and commercial sectors.

NATOs reliance on International Standards Achieving interoperability through standardization was the theme of a conference of the North Atlantic Treaty Organiza-tion (NATO) organized by the United States Department of Defense in Lansdowne, Virginia in September 2008.

World Scene

Over the last several years, NATOs Standardization Agency has adopted a policy of whenever possible using standards devel-oped by civil standards bodies rather than creating unique military standards. This policy also includes transferring NATO Standardization Agreements to civil standards bodies for maintenance purposes where appropriate.

As part of this strategy, NATO has signed technical cooperation agreements with a number of civil standards bodies, including ISO and the International Elec-trotechnical Commission (IEC).The NATO Standardization Agency was thus one of the sponsors of the event in Virginia. The conference was attended by some 150 participants from 26 countries, and provided a valuable opportunity to explain this policy and some of the other steps that are being taken to streamline and rationalize NATOs standardization activities.

Greg Saunders chaired the conference organizing committee, he is also Chair of the NATO Civil Standards Management Working Group.

WMO Secretary-General Michel Jarraud (left) and ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden signed an agreement to formalize the partnership between the two organizations.

Michel Hennemand, Bureau Veritas, Chair of BIC and of ISO/TC 104/SC 1, General purpose containers.

In an opening video message, ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden underlined the excellent collaboration between ISO and BIC which, he added, supported a positive globalization. He recounted how this successful partnership had started with the creation of the ISO technical committee on freight containers (ISO/TC 104) in 1961. Since then, ISO and BIC have worked together to meet the needs of the industry, so that today numerous ISO standards are fully referenced in intergovernmental conventions,

The open session included presentations from ISO, the International Electrotechnical Commission and the International Telecommunication Union, giving the highlights of recent developments and strategic plan-ning within their organizations, with a view to the next generation of standards.

Three separate groups participated in a brain-storming session focusing on identifying issues to be put forward to International Standards developing organiza-tions with regard to the next editions of their strategic plans. The results will be input to the development of agreed IFAN proposals.

The 2009 IFAN Members Assembly will be held in Berlin, Germany, hosted by the German Committee of Standards Users (ANP). Looking forward to the next triennial IFAN international conference, to be held in 2010 in conjunction with the 37th

Members Assembly, it was agreed that this would be held in Indonesia, hosted by the national IFAN member, Masyarakat Standardisasi Indonesia, together with Badan Standardisasi Nasional.

2 ISO Focus November 2008


ISO Scene

The meeting was one of the largest ISO standards develop-ment meetings ever held, with 386 experts attending from 76 ISO member countries and 33 liaison organizations. The open-ing ceremony included speeches by the Chilean Minister of Economy, Hugo Lavado; the Minister of Labour, Osvaldo Andrade and Executive Director of INN, Sergio Toro.The plenary reached consensus on a number of key topics which had emerged from over 5 000 comments received on the latest working draft of the future ISO 26000 standard giving guidance on social responsibility. As a result, a resolution was passed approving the circulation of the document as a committee draft, which is expected to be released within three months.

The progress made in passing this important development stage was seen as an indication of the high level of consensus being built among the multi-stakeholder representation with-in the WG SR. Representatives of six stakeholder groups parti-cipate in the process : industry ; government; labour; consumers ; nongovernmental organizations ; and service, support and research.For further information: www.iso.org/sr

Kenya invests in quality educationThe launch by the Kenya Bureau of Standards (KEBS) of its new National Quality Insti-tute, recently installed in new premises in Nairobi, was the occasion of a well-attended and publicized workshop on Inter-national Standards in support of development and trade, and also an opportunity to advocate the dissemination of the quality culture in the country.

ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden presented recent developments in ISO and met H.E. Henry Kosgey, the Minister for Industrialization, as well as key Kenyan stake-holders. Mr. Bryden also visited the headquarters of the African Regional Standards Organiza-tion, currently chaired by Dr. Mangeli, Managing Director of KEBS and member of the ISO Council.

Chile and Perus increased involvement with ISOINDECOPI, the ISO member for Peru, has recently upgraded its ISO membership. A visit from the ISO Secretary-General in August 2008 provided an opportunity to highlight the benefits of increased participa-tion in ISO to public authorities, industry and the media, at a time when the legislative framework for standardization and accreditation in the country is being refined and strength-ened.

INN, the ISO member for Chile, is already actively involved in ISO, but new opportunities are emerging as it strives to diversify economic activities into innovative fields currently 80 % of exports are based on copper, timber, agro-food and fish products, which are all areas where ISO standards are available.

In addition to meetings with industry and public authorities, the ISO Secretary-General met the President of the National Council for Innova-tion and Competitiveness, Mr. Bitrn Colodro, to discuss how participation in and anti-cipation of International Standards development can be major assets for promoting new activities with the latest technology, as well as services. He also appreciated the concerted and widespread effort to promote quality management in public services, based on the implementation of the ISO 9000 series.

ISO Secretary-General Alan Bryden meets with the President of INDECOPI, Dr. Jaime Thorne Len, and Peruvian Government Officials.

Financial services pay their wayThe 27th annual plenary of ISO/TC 68, Financial services, was held in Helsinki, Finland. Rep-resentatives from 19 participating member countries took part in the event, which included new observer member Brazil attend-ing its first conference. The plenary was followed by a meeting of the ISO 20022 Reg-istration Management Group.

H.E. Henry Kosgey (right), Minister for Industrialization and ISO Secretary- General Alan Bryden unveil the inauguration plaque of the Kenya National Quality Institute.

Whilst in the region, Mr. Bryden took the opportunity to meet with the management of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) at their headquarters in Nairobi to con-sider enhanced collaboration. Before leaving, he gave a lecture at the University of Nairobi on the contribution of ISO to sustainable development.

Consensus moves social responsibility into next levelThe 6th plenary meeting of the ISO working group on social responsibility (WG SR), hosted by the Chilean National Institute for Standardization (INN), took place in Santiago, Chile, in September 2008.

The ISO/TC 68 plenary was held in Helsinki, Finland.

Presentations on the ISO 20022 series of standards on Financial services UNIversal Financial Industry message scheme, were given by the ISO 20022 Registra-tion Authority, followed by receptions with local bankers and corporations to raise aware-ness of the importance of stand-ards in the financial services industry.

The meetings were sponsored by the Financial Markets and Payments Systems of the Fed-eration of Finnish Financial Services and showcased by the Finnish market, which arranged for standardizers and market players to interact.

Following the success of this experience, ISO/TC 68 decided to include, as part of future plenaries, structured events for interaction between market players in the sponsoring country and standardizers, thus bringing the standards to the users.

The plenary included a presen-tation from the Universal Postal Union (UPU) addressing how, as a facilitator of financial transactions moving away from paper-based systems, it could benefit from ISO/TC 68 membership and standards.

Historic moment : the resolution to elevate ISO 26000 to committee draft status is approved and greeted enthusiastically at the 6 th plenary of the ISO working group on social responsibility. Photo : Jens Henriksson



Guest View

Markus Reiglarkus J. Reigl is Head of Corporate Stand-

ardization at Siemens AG in Germany. After complet-ing his studies in applied physics and electrical engineering at the German Universities of Darmstadt and Wiesbaden with a Master of Engineering (Dipl.-Ing.) in radio systems and microwave radar technology in 1986, Mr. Reigl joined Siemens AG and began his career in engineering design of military radio and radar systems.

Throughout the 1990s, Mr. Reigl held various positions in the Siemens Defense Electronics Group, leading product and project management departments.Mr. Reigl joined the Siemens Public Communications Group in 1999 as Business Manager with some EUR 180 million annual turnover in the South-East European region, holding offices in Vienna, Austria, and Munich, Germany.

In 2006, he became Head of Siemens AG Standardization Department on a corporate level. His team of 24 professionals currently manages the strategy and operations of Siemens AGs standardization work globally throughout its 15 operating divisions. The team coordinates the more than 3 000 Siemens individual contributors to standardization committees, which are primarily involved in ISO and the

ISO Focus : What in your view are the advantages of international stand-ardization? How has Sie-mens benefited from the application of Interna-tional Standards, and how does it perceive the ISO system for interna-tional standardization?

Markus Reigl : For over 100 years, standardization has been a key issue for Sie-mens. The company had its beginnings during the Ger-man industrial revolution. Soon after, in the middle of the 19th century, the compa-ny started exporting electrical machinery to other European countries and overseas.

Harmonized safety, performance and function-al requirements included in International Standards not only benefited the company, but were also of value to other vendors, resellers, independ-ent solution providers, public authorities and, of course, the

individual users. Siemens was thus an ear-ly and dedicated supporter of internation-al standardization.

ISO Focus : Can you tell us more about Siemens heavy involvement in some of the technical committees developing International Standards ?

Markus Reigl : Siemens employees hold more than 60 Chairs and Secretariats on various technical committees, subcom-mittees and working groups of interna-tional standardization bodies. Because of Siemens focus on electrotechnical products, we substantially participate

For over 100 years, standardization has been a key issue for Siemens.

M

International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), but also in the European Committee for Standardization (CEN) and the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), together with various national committees and working groups.



Markus Reigl: When the goal is broad international consensus, the success of the standardization effort depends largely on wide involvement, consultation and active participation of as many diverse and interested parties as possible.

Catering to such a vast network of professionals to ensure they can com-municate effectively is a must, but is not an easy objective. ISOs e-standardiza-tion tools are highly appreciated, as they successfully simplify the sometimes com-plex processes of standard development, thereby reducing effort and cost for par-ticipants.

The use of state-of-the-art infor-mation and communication technology applications such as Web-based collabo-ration tools is increasingly becoming the accepted and preferred means of work-ing. In this domain, ISO has invested in a

Siemens Munich Perlach and the office of Corporate Technology, Munich, Germany.

Siemens power package for hospitals

and offices.

Siemens wind turbines.

in IEC committees. Similarly, we also have manifold expert contributions and Chair/Secretary positions in ISO in a number of non-electrical as well as hori-zontal subjects.

ISO and its sister bodies thus enjoy an excellent reputation for the qual-ity of the International Stand-ards. Their wide international consensus, in particular, is of great value for multinational businesses, a quality which we recognize is not an easy one to achieve !

ISO Focus : This issue of ISO Focus is dedicated to e-standardization: what is your perception of the role that ISOs IT tools have for facilitating participation, promot-ing efficiency and providing resource-saving solutions?

ISO e-standardization tools are highly

appreciated, as they successfully simplify

the sometimes complex processes of standard

development.

Concerning converged technol-ogies and generic subjects, we appre-ciate the readiness of ISO to liaise with other organizations developing Interna-tional Standards. In this way, ISO com-plements core competencies and avoids duplication of efforts in order to maintain global coherence, integrity and quality of deliverables.



number of tools that greatly ease the stand-ards development process. In the future, such tools will ultimately replace more tra-ditional means of collaboration.

ISO Focus : Siemens has introduced an intranet portal which facilitates access to standards. Can you elabo-rate on this initiative and the func-tionalities available to its users ? What was the rationale behind it and what benefits has the system shown ?Markus Reigl : For a multinational com-pany, any initiative that can help to con-tinuously increase efficiency of collabora-tion ranks high on the priority list. For the Siemens community of more than 15 000 users of standards, we have established a single-source database server which will host the latest standards and related docu-ments always up to date and available at any time.

Markus Reigl : Knowledge management system (KMS) platforms, such as SharePoint or Livelink, are not only about increasing efficiency of collaboration. One should not underestimate the value these platforms can also deliver in terms of information man-agement, e.g. avoiding multiple versions of a document as when attached in multi-ple e-mails, and no cumbersome manual search, retrieval, clarification and valida-tion of document versions. In other words, information and communication technolo-gy-based knowledge management delivers data quality, ensures its integrity and saves human and machine resources.

A key success factor while rolling out a KMS is user acceptance. Providing ease of use by offering a simple, not too complex and feature-rich man-machine interface will lower the entry barrier and generate not only satisfied, but enthusi-astic users.

ISO Focus : Does Siemens employ other IT tools for its corporate stand-ardization work which could be of interest to our readers ?

Markus Reigl : Well, there are numer-ous additional, mostly Web-based tools both on a corporate level and operated by business divisions. Many of them are interlinked to enable a hierarchical infor-mation structure.

Guest View

Users are charged an internal usage fee, but they are definitely prepared to pay for quality ! The official German distrib-utors and other relevant sources, such as the publishing departments of national committees, are of course being correct-ly compensated for licences to use these centrally-pooled documents.

ISO Focus : Siemens is a large glo-bal user of Livelink, one of the key software platforms currently used by ISO and several national standards bodies. What are the most important aspects of Siemens implementation ? Are there functionalities that could be of interest, in your view, to stand-ards developers and users ?

Providing electronics solutions

Siemens AG (Berlin and Munich, Germany) is a global powerhouse in electronics and electrical engi-neering, operating in the indus-try, energy and healthcare sec-tors. The company has around 400 000 employees working to develop and manufacture prod-ucts, design and install complex systems and projects, and tai-lor a wide range of solutions for individual requirements.

For over 160 years, Siemens has stood for technological excel-lence, innovation, quality, reli-ability and internationality. In fiscal 2007, Siemens had rev-enue of EUR 72,4 billion and profit of EUR 3,9 billion (IFRS). Further information is available at : www.siemens.com.

Siemens steam turbines.

Siemens digital manufacturing.



e-standardization

One example is our database on Siemens membership in national, region-al and international committees. This ena-bles any Siemens employee worldwide to find the experts for all relevant standardi-zation issues.

Our information platforms are anoth-er example, for instance on market access conditions like technical regulations and referenced standards for key target mar-kets. In particular, we provide consider-able information and know-how on the European Directives, the interpretation

and implementation of these binding reg-ulatory frameworks applicable through-

out Siemens product scope.Our regional companies and oper-

ating divisions have also provided their individual knowledge bases, which con-tain specific information, experiences and interpretations. All these initiatives not only contribute to a more efficient require-ments handling but, in addition, ultimately safeguard legal compliance arising from product safety obligations.

ISO Focus : As we move forward into an increasingly interrelated world linked by information and communication technol-ogy (ICT), what tools or processes would Siemens envision as future accomplish-ments for e-standardization?Markus Reigl : In ICT, it is difficult to say what comes next. Not long ago, I learnt about the success of some aca-demic research which provided practi-cal proof that molecular substances can be transferred at the speed of light from one place to another, using quantum phys-ics. I can now only wonder whether one day ISO will offer a beam me up to my committee meeting teleportation ser-vice to its members.

ICT-based knowledge

management delivers data

quality, ensures its integrity and saves human and machine resources.

Siemens from screening to diagnosis.

Siemens Sharepoint Services.



Main Focus

e-standardizationThe nuts and bolts of ISOs collaborative IT applications

by Reinhard Weissinger, Group Manager, Project Management and Electronic Services, Standards Department, ISO Central Secretariat

ISO is a highly decentralized organi-zation operating in many sectors of technology and business with, cur-rently, the participation of 157 nation-al members. To support this large and diverse user community, and to fit the

different national conditions and organi-zational structures, ISOs IT applications need to be highly flexible.

To give a good picture of the var-ious applications involved, this article highlights the three main applications used in standards development and dis-semination, and gives an overview and summary of all the ISO IT applications (see Table page 10).

Principles of development

ISOs IT applications are devel-oped through extensive consultation processes operated under its Informa-tion technology strategy implemen-tation group (ITSIG), which reports to the ISO Council. All major ISO IT projects are steered by project teams operating under ITSIG with participa-

tion from many ISO members. Con-sequently, ISOs IT applications can be adapted to the national specifics of ISO members and at the same time provide the necessary integration and coherence to operate globally harmo-nized processes.

To support the use of its IT appli-cations, ISO operates an extensive train-ing programme with courses targeted to key staff in ISO committees and to ISO members. Information about ISOs training programme can be found on ISO Online (www.iso.org/training).

Consequently, ISOs IT applications can

be adapted to the national specifics of ISO members.



e-standardization

About the author

Reinhard Weissinger, Group Manager, Project Manage-ment and Elec-tronic Services, Standards Department, ISO Central Secretariat

Enabling standards development and document sharing The ISOTC server

The ISOTC server offers a host-ing environment for all ISO technical committees, subcommittees and working groups. Its primary purpose is to pro-vide the secretariats of ISO committees with the tools to autonomously manage their electronic working environment in a decentralized manner.

The environment provided by the ISOTC server is aimed at enabling secretariats of ISO committees to make documents available to their members, send notifications, obtain input from their members and provide links to applica-tions such as balloting, file submission to the ISO Central Secretariat, etc.

The role of the ISO Central Sec-retariat is restricted to maintaining the working environment, including help-desk and backup services. The docu-ments and other content on a commit-tees work area are under the complete responsibility of the committee secre-taries and their support staff.

Managing users and roles The ISO Global Directory

The registration of users, as well as the management of their roles as members of ISO technical com-mittees, subcommittees and working groups, is undertaken through the ISO Global Directory. User registration and role assignment are both organized in a decentralized manner under the respon-sibility of each ISO member body for the

users in its country. Amongst the roles managed via the global directory are those of committee secretaries, chairs, members of committees and working groups, balloters, etc.

Supporting national mirror committees The ISONMC server

The ISONMC server is an impor-tant new development that provides ISO members with the ability to efficiently manage and control the read-only access of their national mirror committee (NMC) members to working documents in the ISO technical programme.

The service comprises the dis-semination to national stakeholders of all documents under development in ISO committees and working groups, such as project management documentation, reports of meetings and resolutions, ballots and comments, working drafts, committee drafts, draft and final draft International Standards. The ISONMC server is, how-ever, not intended for the dissemination of published ISO Standards, nor for the development of national standards.

To adapt to the requirements of dif-

ferent ISO members, this service is made available in two options (see Figure 1).

Using the server to their advantage

Option 1 offers dissemination through the ISONMC server, maintained by the ISO Central Secretariat (ISO/CS). Choosing the ISO/CS-hosted NMC serv-er is particularly useful for ISO mem-bers having little or no existing national electronic dissemination infrastructure for ISO working documents.

All working documents devel-oped by an ISO committee or working group are automatically copied to the ISONMC server. National users who have been registered by their ISO mem-ber body as a participant in one or more national mirror committees can access the documents of the corresponding ISO committees through the national mirror committees to which they have been assigned. The main function of the ISONMC server is to disseminate the documents developed by ISO com-mittees or working groups to the cor-responding national committees it does not provide an environment to run specific national standards devel-opment efforts (e.g. developing nation-al standards).

To support the use of its IT applications,

ISO operates an extensive training programme.

Figure 1 Details of Service options available from the ISONMC server.

ISOTC server

(maintained by ISO/CS)

Two options for the dissemination of ISO documents to National Mirror Committees Other servers

hosting ISO/TCs and SCs

(maintained by MBs or other organizations)

ISONMC server

(maintained by ISO/CS)

National servers

(maintained by member bodies MBs)

Replication of documents and metadata to the ISOTC server

Upload of documents and metadata to national server

Replication of documents and metadata to the NMC server

Automated download of files and and metadata

Option 1 Option 2



Main Focus

Two steps are required for this service to operate: firstly, national mirror committees must be created in the ISO Global Directory and mapped to corre-sponding ISO committees and working groups. In a second step, national users must be registered and assigned to the national mirror committees.

Making the most of existing infrastructure

Option 2 is for ISO members that wish to disseminate ISO working documents through their own national servers and not via the ISONMC serv-er. To meet this need, ISO/CS provides access to the documents and their meta-data to the ISO members for uploading onto their own national servers.

With this option, there is no need to register national mirror committees and their members in the ISO Global Directory.

New horizonsISOs IT applications are increas-

ingly integrated into seamless, end-to-end processes. In particular, through the NMC services, ISO documents made available in a committee or work-ing group can be disseminated near-

ly instantaneously to all stakeholders around the world.

At the same time, tools like the ISO Concept database and the XML-authoring template are being devel-oped with a view to exploiting con-tent from standards by storing it in a more granular form and in re-usable formats. In addition to providing sup-port for the standards development work, such tools allow standardized content to be integrated into compu-ter applications run at the site of cus-tomers and clients, and will provide the basis for the combination of such content into new products and servic-es derived from standards.

ISOs IT applications are increasingly integrated

into seamless, end-to-end processes.

Overview of ISOs IT applications

ISO portal and general information on ISO standards and standardization

ISO Online ISO Online is the portal to all information on ISOs activities, ISO standards and public project infor-mation, reference documents, policies, news and the ISO Store. All other IT applications can be accessed from ISO Online.

www.iso.orgIn operation since 1994, major upgrade in 2007.

Integrated help functions

Publicly accessible Information on ISO Online is maintained by the ISO Central Secretariat.

Standards development

ISOs core business. Standards development involves around 50 000 individuals worldwide, who participate as field experts or in other functions in the global standards development process. A majority of ISOs IT applications have been developed to support standards development, with continuing emphasis on decentralized and collaborative work.

The process starts with the registration of users to certain roles in ISO committees, working groups and other bodies (see ISO Global Directory). Committees have a collaborative, shared platform for their work (see ISOTC server). Key stages in standards development are the voting stages (see ISO electronic Balloting Portal). A list of all the links to ISOs IT tools can be found at www.iso.org/eservices.

Authentication of users, registration to roles and access management

ISO Global Directory The ISO Global Directory (GD) is a comprehen-sive management system for all users and roles involved in the ISO standards development process, which includes balloting for all ISO technical committees, subcommittees, working groups and other technical bodies.

https://directory.iso.org

In operation since 2005, major extension in 2007.

User guide at : www.iso.org/e-guides

Requires login Data in the GD is maintained jointly by the ISO member bodies and the ISO Central Secretariat.

Collaborative work and document repository for ISO committees and working groups

ISOTC server The ISOTC server hosts all ISO technical commit-tees, subcommittees, working groups, policy devel-opment committees and other bodies involved in standards development. It is the most important site for collaborative standards development.

www.iso.org/isotc

In operation since 1998, major upgrade to be released in early 2009.

User guide at : www.iso.org/e-guides

Publicly accessible with protected areas

Files on the ISOTC server are maintained remotely by committee secretaries, their staff and other authorized contributors.


e-standardization

Support for voting and decision making

ISO Electronic Balloting Portal

ISO has applications to support all instances of balloting in the ISO system. Most of the ballots are operated by the committee secretaries them-selves in a decentralized manner (committee ballots). Other ballots are operated by the ISO Central Secretariat centrally, such as ballots on draft and final draft International Standards (DIS/FDIS).

http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/eb3/home.do

In operation since 2000, major extensions occurred in 2003 and 2007.

User guides at : www.iso.org/e-guides

Requires login Maintained by committee secretaries or their staff and the ISO Central Secretariat.

Project management and process control

ISO Project Portal The project portal provides access to up-to-date information about all ISO projects by project reference, committee, stage, registration dates and other criteria. It provides information about internal process stages in ISO/CS and gives alerts in case of exceeded deadlines.

http://isotc.iso.org/pp

In operation since 2008. User guide at : www.iso.org/e-guides

Requires login Data accessible through the project portal is maintained by the ISO Central Secretariat.

Meeting management

ISO Meeting Management ISO Meeting Management will support committee secretaries and working group convenors in calling meetings, and participants in registering for meet-ings and obtaining relevant working documents.

To be released in 2009.Will require login

Business event communication and alert functions

ISO Business Notifications The business notification application provides a customizable tool for the notification of users on any relevant event occurring in standards devel-opment. Users can customize their notifications ; they can choose to opt out from receiving them or they can choose to access the information through reports.

http://isotc.iso.org/biznotifIn operation since 2007. User guide at:

www.iso.org/e-guidesRequires login The settings of event notifications are

under the control of each user.

Controlled input into the production of draft and final standards

ISO Submission Interface The submission interface (SI) constitutes a central access point for the transmission of draft ISO standards developed inside ISO committees to the ISO Central Secretariat for further processing, e.g. for preparation for balloting or for final publication.

http://isotc.iso.org/livelink/siIn operation since 2006. User guide at:

www.iso.org/e-guidesRequires login Files are loaded into the SI by ISO

committee secretaries and their support staff.

Support for standards writers and standards authoring

Authoring template The authoring template for the drafting of ISO standards (the ISOSTD template) provides a structured method for the writing of ISO standards and other deliverables. All standards need to be prepared with the template.

Note: An XML-based template is under development for release in 2009.

www.iso.org/templates

In operation since 1997, new version to be released in 2009.

Guidance documents are available with the templates.

Publicly accessible

Continued overleaf



Main Focus

Storage, development and re-use of structured content

ISOConcept The ISOConcept will contain a comprehensive collection of terms and definitions, symbols, coding systems, product properties and other concept items managed through a workflow-based database. It will provide search and download services for end users and serve also as a repository for standards writers (see also article page 18).

To be released in 2009.

Content will be maintained by the originating committees.

Dissemination services

Dissemination of standards in the early drafting stages and of other information and documents guarantees that input from many fields and stakeholder groups in various countries can be obtained (see ISONMC server). Dissemination of published standards is key to their use and practical implementation (see ISOSTD server and ISO Store).

To support ISOs governing and policy bodies, ISO operates a server especially for these groups (see ISODOC server).

Global dissemination of ISO committee documents for wide national stakeholder input

ISONMC server The ISONMC server is used to disseminate documents developed by ISO technical committees, subcommittees and working groups to national stakeholders around the world. The server functions according to mapped relation-ships between ISO committees and corresponding national mirror committees.

https://nmc.iso.orgIn operation since 2008. User guide at:

www.iso.org/e-guidesRequires login Files and metadata on the ISONMC server

are synchronized automatically from the ISOTC server. ISO members can add national metadata to the ISO documents.

Standards distribution to ISO members

ISOSTD server The ISOSTD server hosts all ISO standards and other deliverables as well as their drafts in various electronic formats (revisable, non-revisable, SGML and others).

www.iso.org/isostd

In operation since 1996, last upgrade in 2006.

A user guide is available on the ISOSTD server.

Requires login The ISOSTD server is maintained by the ISO Central Secretariat.

Sales and standards distribution to commercial end users

ISO Store The ISO Store is accessible from ISO Online and allows commercial end users to purchase ISO standards or other deliverables, including draft International Standards, for immediate download as PDF files.

www.iso.org/isostore

In operation since 2000, new version to be released in 2009.

Guidance is available on ISO Online.

Requires registration The ISO Store is maintained by the ISO Central Secretariat.

Support for ISO governing and policy bodies

ISODOC server The ISODOC server hosts documents of the governing bodies of ISO (General Assembly, Council, TMB) as well as of policy development committees (CASCO, COPOLCO, DEVCO) and other strategy groups (such as ITSIG).

www.iso.org/isodoc

In operation since 1996, last upgrade in 2005.

Guidance is available on the ISODOC server.

Requires login The ISODOC server is maintained by the ISO Central Secretariat.



Strengthening IT expertise in developing countries

by Beer Budoo, Director, ISO Development and Training Services, and Graham Kimberley, Information and Related Support Services, ISO Central Secretariat

International standardization has come a long way since ISO began operations over half a century ago. Not only has the concept itself opened the world to international exchange of goods, knowledge, research, etc., but the methods of developing the standards have also undergone a profound trans-formation thanks to vastly improved means of communication.

While this 21st century commu-nication infrastructure facilitates coop-eration and interaction between all ISO members, whatever their size or location, it also means that accessing and partic-ipating in international standardization requires the ability to use and implement information and communications tech-nologies (ICT).

Virtual tools for effective participation

This need has been recognized in the ISO Action Plan for developing coun-tries 2005-2010 which aims to :

assist ISO members in developing countries to strengthen their infor-mation and communication technol-ogy infrastructures ;

encourage the use of the comprehen-sive range of e-services and IT tools developed by ISO and made availa-ble to its members.

More specifically, key objective 4 of the Action Plan states :

Develop electronic communication and expertise in IT tools to participate in international standardization work,

reach out to stakeholders and make efficient use of ISO e-services.

To this end, in 2008 the ISO Secretary-General instigated an inter-nal project at the Central Secretariat to review the assistance on IT tools pro-vided to ISO member bodies.

An important part of the project was the review and update of Manual 11: Standards work on the Net which was originally published by ISO in 2001 (revised 2003) as a core component of the Mediterranean 2000 project (see Box overleaf). This manual intends to : provide guidance in choosing the min-

imum set of ICT tools and connectiv-ity for a national standards body ;

enhance awareness of the strategic role of ICT in standardization ;

help identify tasks that can be carried out more efficiently with ICT support and the best procedures for carrying them out ;

provide guidance on ISO e-services and how to benefit from them.

The revised and updated manu-al will be published before the end of 2008 under the title Standards work on the Web: the ISO solutions. The new title reflects the importance of using the Web as the principal component of working electronically to partici-pate in international standardization. The manual will be freely available for downloading from the ISO Mem-bers Portal (www.iso.org/member-sportal) in a new section intended to

March 2006 Rwanda Bureau of Standards (Copyright photo: Principi)

June 2007 Barbados National Standards Institution (Copyright photo: Tiedemann)

March 2008 Agence de Normalisation et de Transfert de Technologies, Gabon (Copyright photo: Egger)

Onsite ICT training missions

e-standardization



Main Focus

The ISO Action Plan has proven its effectiveness

to identify the needs of developing countries.

provide easy access to all the train-ing materials for IT tools available to ISO members.

An important element of the revised manual will be the description of the ISO e-services provided for the benefit of all ISO members. Since use of the ISO Global Directory and the ISO Electronic Balloting application is mandatory, there is a recognized need to train ISO members to use these tools. The ISO training programme there-fore includes specific courses for these e-services (information on ISO training courses can be found at www.iso.org/iso/about/training_at_iso.htm).

Med 2000 and beyond

Starting in 2000-2001, ISO participated in the Mediterranean 2000 (Med 2000) programme financed under the auspices of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD). With the overall aim of helping small and medium-sized enterprises to compete in fully-liberalized markets, this three-year capacity-building programme was promoted by the Italian government with a fund of USD 5 million. Five international agencies cooperated in the project.

ISOs role included working on guidance for developing countries on the use of information and communications technologies for participation in international standardization. A practical manual entitled Standards work on the Net was produced on how to best implement the IT infrastructure of a standards body.

In addition, an assistance package combining equipment (pre-configured computers and software) and onsite support and training services was developed and implemented from 2001 to 2003, with nine beneficiary ISO members from countries in the Mediterranean basin and the horn of Africa.

Targeting developing countries and SMEs

With the end of the Med 2000 project, the ISO ICT programme for ISO members in developing countries has continued to help ISO members through the provision of equipment, onsite assistance and training. In this way, it seeks to ensure their ability to effectively participate in international standardization activities, using the relevant IT tools.

For example, by accessing and retrieving online information on standards sourced by ISO and IEC (International Electrotechnical Commission) and other international standardization bodies, as well as information made available by regional and national standardization bodies (NSBs).

NSBs must also disseminate information on standards and standardization activities to national businesses, including SMEs, and this can be achieved by setting up and maintaining a Web site. For this reason, one of the specific features of the programme has been to provide guidance, training and onsite assistance for the development of an NSB Web site based on a template of basic and recommended elements.

Ultimate goalThe ISO Action Plan has proven

to be a useful and effective basic tool in helping to identify the needs of develop-ing countries, developing relevant solu-tions and monitoring progress towards the ultimate goal of full and effective participation by all ISO members. The Action Plans stated aim of defining actions intended to mobilize ISO mem-bers, regional organizations and donor agencies has also borne fruit with con-crete and generous contributions aimed at meeting specific actions of the plan. ISOs commitment to this process is ongoing.

About the authors

Beer Budoo is Director of the ISO Development and Training Services at the ISO Central Secretariat.

Graham Kimberley is working in the Information and Related Support Services at the ISO Central Secretariat.

Even more assistanceFollowing the publication of

Standards work on the Web: the ISO solutions, it is proposed to increase the number of countries receiving assistance through the ISO ICT programme (see Box). After assessing the current situ-ation with respect to ICT capabilities of ISO members in developing coun-tries, the ISO/CS internal project group identified four ICT packages consist-ing of equipment, software and techni-cal assistance that could be deployed to ISO members as from 2009.

The four ICT packages will be targeted to different groups of member bodies in developing countries and their deployment will meet a specific action of the ISO Action Plan for developing countries aimed at promoting developing

country participation in ISO and build-ing capacity through technical assist-ance programmes.



e-standardization

The ITSIG/XML authoring and metadata project

by Joanna Goodwin, Manager, ISO Standards Production services, and Sebastian Rahtz, Text Encoding Initiative (TEI)

I SO has developed over 17 000 In ternat ional Standards on a wide range of subjects, and approximate-ly 1 100 new ISO standards are published every year. Each standard represents hours of investment on the part of the experts, industry, the standards bodies, and the ISO Central Secretari-at. ISO and its member bod-ies need to get the best possible return on this investment, i.e. the content of ISO standards.

An example of text in (from top) Word

2007, XML and rendered HTML.

To make the best use of this con-tent, we must capture and manage it in such a way that we can use (and reuse) intelligently the information it con-tains, and deliver it in all sorts of dif-ferent ways.

A solid baseThe ISO community has been

standardizing, talking about, and using document content markup for a number of years. The SGML standard ISO 8879, Infor-mation processing Text and office sys-

tems Standard Generalized Markup Lan-guage (SGML), was published in 1986 ; not everyone real-izes that the H y p e r Te x t Markup Lan-guage (HTML) was inspired

ISO is aiming to optimize its ROI and to satisfy

simultaneously the needs of its standards developers,

member bodies and customers.

by SGML tagging. In fact, HTML has been managed as an SGML applica-

tion since version 3 1). The Extensible Markup Language

(XML), published as a World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) Recommendation in 1998, is essentially a subset or abbre-viated version of SGML, designed for easier implementation and in particular for easier delivery and interoperability over the Web. More recently, ISO has developed the ISO/IEC 19757 family of powerful validation standards, and the office standards ISO/IEC 26300 and ISO/IEC 29500 (see Box overleaf). So the ISO community has plenty of his-tory in this area.

In the mid 1990s, the ISO Informa-tion Technology Strategy Implementation Group (ITSIG) set up the ITSIG SGML project, which agreed on the structure and document definition for standards, and developed and distributed the first ISO template for the preparation of ISO and

ISO/IEC documents. Since that time, several versions of the template have been made available, through to the current version STD 2.1. ISO has also been exchanging project meta-data amongst the member bodies in XML format since early 2000.

1) circa mid 1990s



Main Focus

Ambitious objectivesThe current ITSIG/XML author-

ing and metadata project builds on ISOs experience gained in previous projects and brings together the document author-ing and metadata worlds under a sin-gle architecture. The objectives of the project are numerous, and include as major deliverables : an XML schema that defines the struc-

ture of standards and their content ;

a new template for use with common word-processing software, having a similar look and feel to the current ISO STD template and context-sen-sitive help a basic version and an automated version are being developed to replace the current versions ;

services to provide validation of doc-ument structure and content, import and export of document content and metadata, conversion to and from XML, and conversion to and display as HTML.

The ITSIG/XML authoring and metadata project comprises represent-atives from the ISO Central Secretariat and ISO member bodies who are work-ing together to respond to a number of ambitious objectives.

Basic requirements are to be able to import documents created using pre-vious versions of the ISO templates, and to provide for a mechanism for a central updating of any changes in drafting rules and boilerplate texts. Also wanted is the ability to mark up certain parts of the document content (e.g. normative ref-erences, terms and definitions, decimal symbols) that are candidates for reuse elsewhere or for representation in a dif-ferent way for different needs and for different media.

Another aim is to create liv-ing standards which clearly show the original standard along with any mod-ifications, and in which the reader can trace the origin of each of the changes. To ensure the best return on investment, the member bodies themselves must be able to adapt the XML system to their needs, and to derive another language version directly from a standard (as an aid to the translation process).

Quick referencePublished ISO 8879:1986, Information processing Text and office systems Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML)

ISO/IEC 19757, Information technology Document Schema Definition Language (DSDL)

Part 2 : Regular-grammar-based validation RELAX NG (2003)

Part 3 : Rule-based validation Schematron (2006)

Part 4 : Namespace-based Validation Dispatching Language (NVDL) (2006)

ISO/IEC 26300:2006, Information technology Open Document Format for Office Applications (OpenDocument) v1.0

To be published

ISO/IEC 29500, Information technology Document description and processing languages Office Open XML File Formats

Part 1 : Fundamentals and Markup Language Reference

Part 2 : Open Packaging Conventions

Part 3 : Markup Compatibility and Extensibility

Part 4 : Transitional Migration Features

ISO 30042, Systems to manage terminology, knowledge and content TermBase eXchange (TBX)

Abbreviations

CALS Continuous Acquisition and Life-cycle Support

HTML HyperText Markup Language

ITSIG ISO Information Technology Strategy Implementation Group

RELAX NG REgular LAnguage for XML Next Generation

ITS Internationalization Tag Set

MathML Mathematical Markup Language

PDF Portable Document Format

ROI Return On Investment

RSS Rich Site Summary

SGML Standard Generalized Markup Language

TEI Text Encoding Initiative

W3C World Wide Web Consortium

XML Extensible Markup Language

XSL Extensible Stylesheet Language

XSLT XSL Transformations

A choice fitSo why choose XML to sit behind

all this ? XML gives us :

markup which is easy to process using off-the-shelf tools ;

validation of content, from a simple structure to complex business rules ;

content which is separate from pres-entation ;

internationalization mechanisms ; and



e-standardization

easy transformation between vocab-ularies (e.g. RSS or HTML).

In short, it can do everything that is needed by the members of the ITSIG/XML authoring and metadata project.

One of the decisions which needed to be made was whether to develop a new set of markup tags or to build on an exist-ing system. In March 2008, it was agreed to work with a team from the Text Encod-ing Initiative (TEI) Consortium, and to base the markup for ISO on the TEI.

Additional advantage The TEI has been developed since

1987 to provide an international and interdisciplinary standard for the repre-sentation of textual and linguistics data by libraries, museums and publishers. It is hardware and software independent, and is characterized by :

high-quality guidelines for encoding data, building on other standards (Uni-code, W3C pointers, ISO RELAX NG schemas, etc.) ;

a rich framework of semantically defined elements and attributes ;

a modular and extensible architecture that provides the possibility of inte-grating specialist vocabularies such as MathML for mathematics and CALS for tables ;

reference documentation available in many languages: English, French, Ital-ian, Japanese, Spanish, and Chinese.

For the purposes of the project, the additional advantages of the TEI were that:

the consortium had already done a lot of work on XSLT scripts for conversion from XML to PDF, HTML, Open Office XML and Microsoft Office XML;

the TEI has specialized markup for describing XML-based standards ;

the markup has already been used to write a W3C Recommendation on internation-alization (ITS) and a draft ISO stand-ard on terminology (ISO 30042).

Looking forward to a flexible future

In addition to being able to reuse standards in the current template, stand-ards developers will benefit from the import of XML metadata from project databases, such as project information, extraction of titles and/or validation of normative and informative ISO and ISO/IEC references.

Once a concept database is in pro-duction, they will also be able to import and refer to concepts contained in the concept database, such as terms and def-initions and graphical symbols.

The system being created will offer more flexi-ble standards doc-

uments, but without losing either the high editorial standards (for which ISO is known) or the advantages of print pub-lication.

Standards writers will have facilities to validate the document structure against the rules provided in the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2, Rules for the structure and drafting of Internation-al Standards, to get help on drafting, and to have immediate access to the latest forewords and other administra-tive texts.

The ISO Central Secretariat and mem-ber bodies will be able to extract project information, concepts (e.g. terms and definitions and graphical symbols), graphics files, XML fragments, etc. with no additional investment.

The member bodies will be able to modify easily marked-up document content such as the decimal and thou-sands symbols, and to extend the tem-plate to their needs as required (mem-ber body project information, addi-tional content and presentation).

Standards consumers will benefit from the possibility of acquiring intelli-gent products of ISOs intellectual property.

First deliverablesThe first phase of the project has

developed the underlying schemas, a com-pletely new template for use with Word 2007, the software to transform between Word (Office Open XML format) and the new ITSIG XML markup, and Web servic-es to manage the process. In the next few months this will be tested by the project team and developed further (to include sup-port for Open Document Format, addition-al markup and additional services), before release to the member bodies.

With the use of the new XML authoring template and related services, ISO is aiming to optimize its ROI and to satisfy simultaneously the needs of its standards developers, member bod-ies and customers.

About the authors

Joanna Goodwin is Manager of the ISO Stan-dards Production services. She is responsible with-in the ISO Central Secretariat for the ISO drafting rules (ISO/IEC Directives, Part 2)

and the ISO standards authoring templates, both past and present. She has a degree in environmental sciences and a career in publishing. Ms. Goodwin recently co-authored the Uniform Resource Name Namespace Identification (URN NID) for ISO.

Sebastian Rahtz is Information Manager at Oxford Universi-ty Computing Services, imple-menting XML-based solutions. He was educated in classics and in archaeology, but

has been working in computer science since 1984, specializing in document mark-up, typesetting and humanities computing. Since 2001, he has been Oxford Universi-tys representative on the Board of Direc-tors of the Text Encoding Initiative (TEI), and a member of its Technical Council.



Zooming in on the ISO Concept database

by Reinhard Pohn, co-founder and Managing Director of Paradine, and Reinhard Weissinger, Group Manager, Project Management and Electronic Services, Standards Department, ISO Central Secretariat

Even the smallest error can have enormous consequences. Take for instance the case of the Mars Cli-mate Orbiter, one of the two spacecrafts of the NASA Mars Surveyor 1998 pro-gramme. Launched from Cape Canaver-al Air Force Station in December 1998, its mission was to study Mars climate and resources.

The Mars Climate Orbiter was lost on its approach to Mars before beginning its actual mission. Preliminary findings by NASAs Jet Propulsion Laboratory indicate that a failure to recognize and

The European Union alone, for example, has over 22 different official languages. How can its countries ensure consistency and harmonization when communicating with each other ?

Translation is by no means an easy feat. Take for instance the word arm . Out of context, an arm could be a weapon, a part of our body, the arm of a chair, a lever, a sleeve, etc. Clear-ly, reliable information on the intended meaning and usage is necessary.

International Standards are sources of terminology and requirements, which provide bridges in an increasingly glo-balizing world. However, to maximize their efficiency they must adapt to the rapid changes in ways of working result-ing from developments in information and communication technology.

ISO has thus given some thought to addressing these challenges so that indus-try can successfully work in a global elec-tronic environment. Its solution takes the form of the ISO Concept database (ISO/CDB), a new state-of-the-art development which plans to release standards in the form of an accessible database.

The traditional and the status quo

Until now, the standardization process has been based mainly on the production of standards in the form of documents. An examination of standards development activities shows that :

their development takes place within technical committees (TCs), of which the majority are organized vertically based on industry segment and work-ing topic ;

cooperation between committees can be established in the form of liai-sons ;

even if one of the basic principles of standardization is to have an industry-wide perspective, work on a standard often has a very specific scope ;

many TCs have their own subcom-mittees (SCs) for terminology ;

TCs and SCs develop and use their own databases to support their work ;

correct an error in a transfer of informa-tion between the Mars Climate Orbiter spacecraft team in Colorado and the mis-sion navigation team in California led to the loss of the spacecraft.

Results indicate that one team used Imperial units (e.g. inches, feet and pounds) while the other used met-ric units for a key spacecraft operation. This information was critical to the manoeuvres required to place the space-craft in the proper Mars orbit. The mis-sion costs were a total of 327,6 million US dollars 1).

In industry, an error of this type would cause, in addition to huge finan-cial repercussions, substantial delays in time to market. Ensuring that all players are speaking the same language is thus a matter of great importance.

What is an arm ?International Standards can help.

Their goal is to promote consistency and harmonization, thus ensuring that stake-holders are on the same page. This is par-ticularly important when dealing with global markets. The international nature of these markets offers great opportuni-ties, but also opens the way for a myriad of challenges.

1) Source: NASA: http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/msp98/orbiter


Main Focus


e-standardization

for the most part, standardized code sets like country codes (ISO 3166), language codes (ISO 639) or curren-cy codes (ISO 4217) are published in the form of standards documents ;

in some areas, like graphical sym-bols, we are seeing the first standards to also be made available in the form of databases ;

national members of ISO have started to offer collections of terminology of national and international standards (e.g. DIN-Term of the German Insti-tute for Standardization).

Its mandate was to review the grow-ing trends in ISO committees to use

databases for the maintenance and also, increasingly, for the development of cer-tain types of standardized content which can be referred to as collections of items . Examples of such content include terms and definitions, graphical sym-bols, codes, data sheets and other kinds of structured content, which are either contained in specific types of standards (e.g. vocabulary standards) or constitute part of the content of standards (e.g. a clause containing terms and definitions in addition to other content).

A generic procedure for the devel-opment and maintenance of standards in database format was approved by the TMB in 2007 2). The procedure is intended as the basis for an ISO Concept database (ISO/CDB), which contains terms and defini-tions, graphical symbols, codes and other types of collections of items . The con-cept database will comprise content from existing ISO standards, but is also intended to provide a platform for the development of new standards as well as the mainte-nance of existing standards.

The new conceptAfter a selection and verification

phase, ISO/CS decided to work with Para-dine3) as partner for the ISO Concept data-base. The project uses Paradines eptos software which has been successfully implemented by several standards devel-oping organizations and integrates it with software applications developed by ISO. The main functions and expec-tations for the ISO/CDB are :

to host concepts , i.e. items which are already standardized or currently subject to standardization. The ISO/CDB will become the repository for such content in ISO ;

the lack of a single approach makes it very hard for both volunteers devel-oping standards and industry using standards to make efficient use of existing databases and avoid misin-terpretation.

Getting to the coreHowever, releasing standards

as databases constitutes a Herculean task. The major initial difficulty being the lack of a standard on how to han-dle this kind of data, as no process had been defined for developing, maintain-ing and publishing standards data in the form of databases.

To use data in standardization work or in industry it must be proven and reliable. Because of a demand for pro-viding such data, some committees had started developing their own solutions, and this had resulted in an increasing and divergent variety of committee databas-es. Furthermore, most of these databas-es were, and are, private to the com-mittees or organizations involved they are not designed for wider use by other committees or by industry.

In this context, the ISO Technical Management Board (TMB) established in 2005 the TMB ad hoc group Standards as databases , which comprised representa-tives from 14 ISO committees as well as from six ISO member bodies.

About the authors

Reinhard Pohn is co-founder and managing director of Para-dine GmbH, Vienna, Austria. He has been a member of sev-eral national and international standardization

committees since 1987. Mr. Pohn received an education in mechanical engineering and marketing, and has 23 years of experience in the software business and mechanical engineering. He has extensive experience in the implementation of metadata dictionaries in standardization bodies, industry associations and corporations.

Reinhard Weissinger is Group Manager for Project Management and Electronic Services in the Standards Department of the ISO Central Secretariat.

Prior to this position he worked for several years for the ISO Technical Management Board. Before joining ISO he worked for several years as a long-term expert for the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ) in Beijing in the intergovernmental project Establishment of a standards information system in the Peoples Republic of China.

However,

in everyday work, there is a lot of redundancy in investigating and defin-ing terms and definitions ;

different registration and licens-ing schemes, inconsistent usage and unclear intellectual property rights statements often confuse potential users of existing databases ;

It will be easy to search for terms, definitions or graphical symbols throughout an entire collection of items.

2) Annex ST (normative) : Procedure for the development and maintenance of standards in database format, of the ISO Supplement : Procedures specific to ISO, to the ISO/IEC Directives, Part 1: Procedures for the technical work (http://www.iso.org/directives)3) Paradine GmbH, Vienna, Austria (www.paradine.at)



Main Focus

to give cross-standard and cross-committee visibility of standardized content or content currently under development ;

to make inconsistencies and overlaps visible and serve as input for harmo-nization ;

to support a structured development process (e.g. workflows, version con-trol for items, etc.) and allow faster development and maintenance ;

integration with existing IT infrastruc-ture of ISO (e.g. role bases access control, balloting system, etc.) ;

end-user access: subscription, down-load and API-access for customers and businesses (with ISO Web store integration).

One stop shopThis functionality will support the

standards development process in a new dimension. The most immediate benefit is that it will be easy to search for terms, definitions, graphical symbols and other concepts throughout the entire collection of items in ISO standards and standards under development. Thus, it becomes a simple matter for technical committees to identify and make use of work already delivered from other TCs.

Deep integration with the exist-ing ISO IT infrastructure and re-use of modules developed for other standards developing organizations will avoid redundant work. User registration and access is controlled by the ISO Global Directory, which is the user management system currently in operation through-out all the ISO committees. Further, use of ISOs balloting application will ensure look and feel as well as func-tionalities that are already familiar to many users.

The ISO/CDB will serve as a one stop shop for all types of concepts. In addi-tion to the maintenance, withdrawal and

Figure 2 ISO/CDB representation of a graphical symbol.

Figure 1 ISO/CDB representation of a term.

introduce new processes and new forms of collaboration within and between tech-nical committees. The implementation of online standardization processes and online collaboration will benefit smaller ISO members and members with limited travel budgets, as more work can be done via the Web which simultaneously con-tributes to supporting the environment.

ISO plans to implement a four-layer access model, which will include access to basic information free of charge. Indus-try will be able to purchase commercial licences to use standardized concepts.

In supporting online standardiza-tion processes, implementation of the ISO/CDB will allow for more efficient use of resources and better streamlining in the processes themselves. Industry will ben-efit in getting reliable and easy-to-access concepts faster. And bonus the online collaboration will contribute to saving our living environment.

The ISO Concept database will open up a whole new area in

standards development and publication.

publishing of existing concepts, it will also support the development of new ones.

First releaseThe first phase of implementation,

which includes content and integration-related topics, is in progress. The con-cepts selected to be implemented in this first phase are : terms and definitions ; graphical symbols ; units of measurement ; codes (for various types of objects).

The first version of the ISO/CDB is expected to be released to selected TCs in the first quarter of 2009.

All-round benefitsThe ISO Concept database will

open up a whole new era in standards development and publication. Publishing standards in the form of databases will



e-standardization

In sight Value-added information services

by Claude Merle, Director of AFNOR Publishing, Association franaise de normalisation

The information industry has under-gone sweeping change in the past ten years. Electronic media, the Internet and accompanying cutting-edge technology have changed the habits and

service expectations of customers-turned-Internet users.

Standards conveyors of knowl-edge and tools supporting business and the globalization of markets are by their very nature vital items of information that should be distributed throughout organizations to all profes-sionals at their workstations. Informa-tion technologies provide standardiza-tion bodies with a real opportunity in their mission to disseminate standards as broadly and effectively as possible. Further, the progressive lowering of technical barriers to finding, accessing and using standards has become a per-manent challenge.

Clearly expressed needs

Internet and information technologies have grown, and continue to grow expo-nentially, paving the way for market inno-vation in standards products and servic-es. In just a few short years, paper cop-ies with limited workplace accessibility have been replaced by electronic docu-ments that can be networked and made immediately available on every PC. The way companies organize themselves has also evolved, as documentation services move steadily towards distributed docu-ment information systems.

Electronic distribution has evolved in such a way that today it provides max-imum flexibility that can meet the needs of both large corporations and small to medium-sized enterprises. The level of distribution can be adapted from a sin-gle standard to packages targeting a spe-cific market niche, through to solutions enabling companies to deploy global document information systems in their spheres of activity.

Companies have clearly expressed their needs for improved search engines, better database descriptions of standards, better quality links between standards and related technical information reg-ulations, patents, etc. as well as needs relating to the applicability of standards. Although it alone cannot meet all the expectations for simpler, easier-to-read standards, leading-edge technology does have a role to play here.

Moving towards interactivity

As yet, we have barely scratched the surface of what value-added solutions can provide. Indeed, the solutions on the market are most often still what can only be termed as static document access systems : online shops and subscription databases that basically offer a means of searching, consulting and tracking doc-ument collections.

AFNOR Publishing is focusing its service efforts on the relevance of search results, for example with seman-tic approaches, and on highly person-alized and advanced tracking systems all of which entails a major market-



Main Focus

ing and technological investment. But at the same time we are preparing what we believe to be the next generation of Web solutions, moving towards interac-tive systems.

About the author

Claude Merle is the Director of AFNOR Publishing, which covers marketing and development of information products and services, data-base production

and software and business to business sales forces. Prior to taking up this posi-tion in 1998, she was Corporate Director in charge of the coordination of Strate-gic marketing and commercial of the AFNOR Group. The initial focus of Ms. Merles career in AFNOR was quality system management in standard-ization activities, followed by an appointment as Quality Manager.

Among the mainstream Internet devel-opments that may ultimately, but in a positive manner, infect the world of standardization, we cannot ignore the need for interactivity and exchange within communities. Here, the stand-ard is the product of a community of players that share a common problem. It inserts itself into the user commu-nities of companies in which inter-active Web technologies, known as Web 2.0 , provide a real opportu-nity for evolution towards collective acceptance of the standard.

The mission of the standards edi-tor in a standardization system could therefore be oriented towards meeting a growing set of values such as catalogu-ing, access, personalization, interaction and ownership. In other words, the stand-ard must be disseminated, found, worked on, used and integrated into the users operational work process. The trends observed among private scientific and technical editors worldwide encourage us in this direction.

Colourful perspectivesOur own experience curve at

AFNOR Publishing, driven by custom-er comments made directly to our sales staff, very closely follows the same set of values. Our next-generation Internet document management products are being shaped by a demand for personalization and adaptation to each companys pro-fessional rationale and by a need for the appropriation of standards through col-laborative tools.

The wealth of available state-of-the-art technologies also allows us to contemplate new economic models and to engage companies in debate on the choice of services that add value to the raw material of a standards document, so as to move from the sole constraint of purchase to modalities allowing bet-ter use of standards.

We are willing to bet that the per-spectives offered by innovative e-services will be colouring the discussion of mar-keting strategies for ISO and its members for a good few years to come.

A strong imageWe are guided by two main con-

siderations :

the shift from the standard as a doc-ument to the standard as a working tool. This shift is probably for the near future, thanks to XML technology. If the standards document is broken down into sequences of basic text, marked and linked, both with each other and with external links, an entire library of standards could become a network of neurons . The image is deliberately strong. But the added value that can be envisaged thanks to this new tech-nology should be clearly differenti-ated from what is currently on offer to the user today.

As yet, we have barely scratched the surface of

what value-added solutions can provide.



e-standardization

Connecting standards Unlocking value, becoming indispensable

by Vincent Cassidy, Commercial Director, BSI British Standards

Standards have unrealized poten-tial. The key to unleashing it is to seize the possibilities presented by the virtual world. As globalization inten-sifies, so does the need for Internation-al Standards bridges in an increasingly complex interrelated world. But standards themselves must carefully avoid becom-ing paradoxically insular, and embrace the interconnectedness that this globaliz-ing world has to offer.

The last 15 years have seen an unprecedented revolution in the field of information. As a wave of information technology swept over society, centuries-old publishing processes and distribution models underwent revolutionary change. This has had a profound impact on many aspects of the information world.

For some, an inability to change has resulted in crisis look no further than the demise of encyclopaedia publishers. For others, it has offered great opportunities we have all used online booksellers and search engines.

It is noteworthy that this unpar-alleled revolution has been driven by the users themselves. Users that are hungry for more: more choice, more access and more flexibility in the way that information is provided, integrated and consumed.

Hopping along natural paths

Of course, this is hardly news to anyone who routinely uses the Internet at work or to pursue a hobby, stay in con-tact with friends or keep abreast of world events.

Indeed, the information revolution has touched us all in a myriad of ways Googling in search engines, interrogat-ing professional databases or effortlessly

Figure 1 It is called the World Wide Web for a reason : the mesh of links that are enabled between different documents and resources.

hopping between documents are just some examples of how we immerse

ourselves in todays extensive virtual inter-connected information network.

The ability to link between docu-ments in the networked world is a common advantageous practice, whether in news, academic articles, research reports, white papers, books, regulations, public records, patents and more.

Such links allow users to follow natural paths across diverse datasets and multiple information types, making discov-ery a seamless experience. This horizontal connection mirrors the way people work, saves time

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