Sorting through standards
Summary Description Many IT products and
services rely on key standards, but who determines them and how?
Newswire's 5 Minute Guides has the answers.
Author
Publication
Roullas Top10 Simon Vandore
Newswire
No
Editorial InformationArticle Location
Article Topic 5 Minute Guides
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Story Group 000903
Post Date 28/08/2000 06:44 AM Status Posted Entered by Simon
Vandore on 23/08/2000 10:21 PM
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What is a 'standard'?
Across all industries, a standard is an agreement or technical
specification used to certify that products and services are
produced and delivered in the accepted and correct way. It is
published as a document describing the requirements for the
standard to be met.
For example, a standard might describe the accepted thread
spacings to be used by metal screw manufacturers, or state that
traffic lights should use red for stop, amber for caution and
green for go.
Within the IT industry, a standard can also be an agreed-upon way
of producing something to perform a particular task, ensuring
compatibility with another manufacturer's software or hardware.
For example, standards exist for power-saving modes on
motherboards and monitors, while File Transfer Protocol is an
Internet standard for uploading and downloading data in a certain
way.
Across the industry there are international standards, regional
standards and national standards, but the trend is towards
internationalisation. In IT, there are open standards set by
committee to which anyone can conform on a voluntary basis, and
proprietary standards owned by companies, to which other
manufacturers often conform for financial reasons.
Who defines standards?
A standard can come about simply through convenience and
popularity. For example, the QWERTY keyboard became the most
popular of early typewriter variations and was therefore carried
over into the computer age.
International standards are set by world bodies such as the
International Organisation for Standardisation (ISO, derived from
the Greek word 'isos', meaning 'equal'), the International
Telecommunication Union (ITU) and the International
Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). ISO is the most well-known as
the others are specialists in particular fields.
Locally, Standards Australia (founded in 1922) is an independent
company that has a memorandum of understanding with the Federal
Government to be the peak standards body in this country. Many of
its standards are mandatory in industry and it represents
Australia in ISO and IEC meetings. Its standards are often
regional efforts with Standards New Zealand. One recent
collaboration was AS/NZS 4444, a standard relating to ecommerce
certifying an organisation's online transaction security.
On the Internet, standards are usually defined by the Internet
Engineering Task Force (IETF). The entire online community is
invited to take part in the process through RFC (request for
comment) documents, which are created by interested parties and
distributed online.
Thanks to the Internet's loose organisation, an RFC can end up as
a de facto standard, but once a high degree of technical maturity
is attained, the IETF generally declares an Internet Standard.
The World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) was founded by the Web's
inventor, Tim Berners-Lee, and supervises development of the
standards that make up Web serving and browsing, such as HTTP,
HTML and XML.
What are the benefits of standardisation?
Engineering standards help increase product safety. Uniformity in
manufacturing leads to greater efficiency and reliability.
Global trade depends greatly on the acceptance of standards.
Conformity makes it easier to import and export. For example,
containers carried by ships and trucks are all built to a
specific standard for easy transport. Banking and financial
services in different countries can easily perform transactions
with each other. Products made in one country can be
interchangeable or interoperable with those made in another.
The benefits can be seen in everyday objects such as credit cards
and smartcards, which all fit an international standard for size
and thickness. Non-digital cameras use 35mm film which can be
found anywhere in the world and is an ISO standard. Paper sizes
such as A4 are another global standard.
Organisations can apply to a standards body for certification;
proof that their methods are in line with the standard.
What's with all the talk about ISO 9000?
The ISO 9000 set of standards relate to quality assurance and
environmental obligations. They are regarded as important for a
company's image, though intangible. Businesses often promote
their ISO 9000 certification on documentation and in advertising
as it is regarded as a guarantee to customers that quality
methods existed in production and they will get what they paid
for.
How do I push my own standard?
A standard is only as strong as its level of acceptance, so the
best way to go about having one created is to propose it to a
standards body. A true standard is created in response to public
demand (including that of an industry sector) and is not biased
towards the wishes of a particular party. They are generally
developed by technical committees representing broad interests in
the subject matter.
In Australia, if an international standard already exists,
Standards Australia will usually adopt it (and has the authority
to issue it locally). If a new Australian standard is required, a
technical committee will form and eventually issue a draft for
public comment, voting on a final draft once reactions have all
been considered and 75% consensus has been reached.
On the Internet, a standard is supposed to start with an RFC
document and feedback from the user community, but in recent
years, unofficial 'standards' have emerged such as Real Networks'
RA format for streamed sound and video, and CompuServe's GIF
image format, both of which are supported in most relevant
applications.
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Bulletin Summary5 Minute Guides: Sorting through standards
Many IT products and services rely on key standards, but who
determines these and how? Newswire's 5 Minute Guides has the
answers.
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