International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some 146 countries, one from each country, consisting of 94 voting members, 37 correspondent members, and 15 subscriber members.

ISO, a non-governmental organization, was established in 1947. Its mission is to promote the development of standardization and related activities in the world with a view toward facilitating the international exchange of goods and services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity. ISO’s work results in international agreements that are published as international standards.

"ISO"  is not an acronym, but is a word, derived from the Greek "isos" meaning "equal."  This is the root of the prefix "iso-" that occurs in may terms, such as "isometric" (of equal measure or dimensions - Shorter Oxford English Dictionary) and "isonomy" (equality of laws, or of people before the law - ibid) . From "equal" to "standard," the line of thinking that led to the choice of "ISO" as the name of the organization is easy to follow. In addition, the name has the advantage of being valid in each of the organization’s three official languages, English, French and Russian. The confusion that would arise through the use of an acronym is thus avoided.

The scope if ISO covers standardization in all fields except electrical and electronic engineering standards, which are the responsibility of the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Together, ISO and IEC form the specialized system for worldwide standardization: the world’s largest non-governmental system for voluntary industrial and technical collaboration at the international level.

The work in the field of information technology is carried out by a joint ISO/IEC technical committee (JTC 1). The results of ISO technical work are published in the form of international standards. There are nearly 10,000 international standards and technical reports covering hundreds of industry fields.

ISO work is decentralized, being carried out by 2,850 technical committees, subcommittees and working groups organized and supported by technical secretariats in 35 countries. In these committees, qualified representatives of industry, research institutes, government authorities, consumer bodies and international organizations from all over the world come together as equal partners in the resolution of global standardization problems. The Central Secretariat in Geneva assists in coordinating ISO operations, administers voting and approval procedures, and publishes the international standards.

Developers of international standards are an estimated 30,000 engineers, scientists and administrators. They are nominated by ISO members to participate in the committee meetings and to represent the consolidated views and interests of industry, government, labor and individual consumers in the standards development process.

Approximately 500 international organizations are in liaison with ISO technical committees, including nearly all of the UN specialized agencies.

The major responsibility for administering a standards committee is accepted by one of the national standards bodies that make up the ISO membership. The member body holding the secretariat of a standards committee normally appoints one or two persons to do the technical and administrative work relating to the committee. A committee chairman assists committee members in bringing work to consensus. Generally, a consensus will mean that a particular solution to the problem at hand is the best possible one for international application at that time.

The Central Secretariat in Geneva acts to ensure the flow of documentation in all directions, to clarify technical points with secretariats and chairmen, and to ensure that the agreements approved by the technical committees are edited, printed, submitted as Draft International Standards to ISO member bodies for voting, and published.

Each member body interested in a subject has the right to be represented on a committee. International organizations, governmental and non-governmental, in liason with ISO, also take part in the work. ISO collaborates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) on all matters of electrotechnical standardization.

The ISO Technical Committee that develops standards for the graphic arts is TC 130. The U.S. Technical Advisory Group (US TAG) to TC 130 consists of experts from the graphic arts industry who provide guidance to ANSI on the development of the U.S. position on international standards relating to the graphic arts. ISO TC 130 and the US TAG to ISO TC 130 are described more fully in another section of this book.

How are ISO standards developed?

ISO standards are developed according to the following principles:
Consensus - The view of all interests are taken into account: manufacturers, vendors and users, consumer groups, testing laboratories, governments, engineering professions and research organizations.
Industry-wide - Global solutions to satisfy industries and customers worldwide.
Voluntary - International standardization is market-driven and therefore based on voluntary involvement of all interests in the marketplace.

There are three main phases in the ISO standards development process.

The need for a standard is usually expressed by an industry sector, which communicates this need to a national member body. The latter proposes the new work item to ISO as a whole. Once the need for an International Standard has been recognized and formally agreed, the first phase involves definition of the technical scope of the future standard. This phase is usually carried out in working groups which comprise technical experts from countries interested in the subject matter.

Once agreement has been reached on which technical aspects are to be covered in the standard, a second phase is entered during which countries negotiate the detailed specifications within the standard. This is the consensusbuilding phase.

The final phase comprises the formal approval of the resulting Draft International Standard (the acceptance criteria stipulate approval by two thirds of the ISO members that have participated actively in the standards development process, and approval by 75% of all members that vote) , following which the agreed text is published as an ISO International Standard.

Most standards require periodic revision. Several factors combine to render a standard out of date, such as technological evolution, new methods and materials, new quality and safety requirements. To take account of these factors, ISO has established the general rule that all ISO standards must be reviewed at intervals of not more than five years. On occasion, it is necessary to revise a standard earlier.

The membership of ISO
The membership of ISO is divided into three categories:
A member body is the national body "most representative of standardization in its country." Thus, only one body in each country may be a member of ISO. In the case of the United States, the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is the voting member.
A member body takes the responsibility for:informing potentially interested parties in their country of relevant international standardization opportunities and intiatives;ensuring that a concerted view of the country' s interests is presented during international negotiations leading to standards agreements;  providing their country' s share of financial support for the central operations of ISO, through payment of membership dues.

Member bodies are entitled to participate and exercise full voting rights on any technical committee and policy committee of ISO.

A correspondent member is usually an organization in a country that does not yet have a fully developed national standards activity. Correspondent members do not take an active part in the technical and policy development work, but are entitled to be kept fully informed about the work of interest to them.

A subscriber member is generally a country with a very small economy. Subscriber members pay reduced membership fees that still allow them to maintain contact with international standardization.