Standards body

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Standards Organizations are bodies, organizations and institutions that produce, and in some cases measure, standards.

Standards Organizations are constituted at the national, transnational and international levels - e.g. the British Standards Institution, the European Committee for Standardization), and the International Telecommunication Union.

The subject of their work can be narrow or broad - e.g. the World Wide Web Consortium concentrates on matters concerned with the World Wide Web), whilst the International Organization for Standardization deals with standards over a broad range of disciplines. Standards organizations are generally concerned with two types of standards: Interface standards detail how products interconnect with one another (e.g. a plug fitting properly into a 3-pronged outlet throughout most of the United States); Quality and safety standards establish characteristics required for a product to be either certified by a standards body or sold in the marketplace (e.g. flammability standards for children’s clothing, recyclable materials, postage stamps).

Overlapping or competing standards bodies tend to cooperate purposefully, by seeking to define boundaries between the scope of their work, and by operating in a hierarchical fashion in terms of national, transnational and international scope; international organizations tend to have as members national organizations; and standards emerging at national level (such as BS 5750) can be adopted at transnational levels (BS 5750 was adopted as EN 29000) and at international levels (BS 5750 was adopted as ISO 9000).

Some standards groups are government agencies (like NIST). Some are private research institutes that act like government agencies (like ANSI). There are also private volunteer associations (like IETF), and private industry consortia (like W3C).

Although it can be a tedious and lengthy process, formal standard setting is essential to developing new technologies. For example, since 1865, the telecommunications industry has depended on the ITU to establish the telecommunications standards that have been adopted worldwide. The ITU has created numerous telecommunications standards including telegraph specifications, allocation of telephone numbers, interference protection, and protocols for a variety of communications technologies. The standards that are created through standards organizations lead to improved product quality, ensured interoperability of competitors’ products, and they provide a technological baseline for future research and product development. Formal standard setting through standards organizations has numerous benefits for consumers including increased innovation, multiple market participants, reduced production costs, and the efficiency effects of product interchangeability.

International Standards Organizations

  • ASTM International
  • BIPM, CGPM, and CIPM - Bureau International des Poids et Mesures and the related organizations established under the Metre Convention of 1875. Website
  • FAI - Fédération Aéronautique Internationale - Website
  • IEC - International Electrotechnical Commission - Website
  • IEEE - Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers - Website
  • IETF - Internet Engineering Task Force - Website
  • ISO - International Organization for Standardization - Website
  • ITU - The International Telecommunication Union - Website
    • ITU-R - ITU Radiocommunications Sector (formerly known as CCIR)
    • ITU-T - ITU Telecommunications Sector (formerly known as CCITT)
  • IUPAC - International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry - Website
  • OASIS - Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards - Website
  • SI - Système International d'Unités (International System of Units) - this is a standard, rather than a standards organization. See BIPM above (ISO and many other standards organizations ar also involved in maintaining this standard). Website
  • WMO - World Meteorological Organization
  • W3C - World Wide Web Consortium - Website
  • Accellera - Accellera Organization - Website

Continental and Transnational Standards Organizations

  • CEN - European Committee for Standardization - Website
  • CENELEC - European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization - Website
  • ETSI - European Telecommunications Standards Institute - Website

National Standards Organizations

See also

External links

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