Internet Info 1994 March/Internet Info CD-ROM (Walnut Creek) (March 1994).iso/answers/comp/standards-faq

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From: [e-mail] (Markus Kuhn)
Newsgroups: comp.std.internat,comp.std.misc,comp.protocols.iso,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: Standards FAQ
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Date: Fri, 4 Mar 1994 23:49:56 +0100
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Summary: Answers to questions such as what are ISO standards, where can I
         get standards, what are ISO/ITU/ANSI/etc., what standards are
         there relevant to computing, ...? This is a periodic posting in
         comp.protocols.iso, comp.std.misc and comp.std.internat.
Keywords: international standards, ISO, ANSI, ITU, CCITT
Xref: bloom-beacon.mit.edu comp.std.internat:1399 comp.std.misc:388 comp.protocols.iso:2183 comp.answers:4040 news.answers:16023

Archive-name: standards-faq
Last-modified: $Date: 94/03/02 19:43:43 $
Version: $Revision: 1.15 $

Frequently Asked Questions about International Standards with Answers
---------------------------------------------------------------------

This text is a monthly posting to the USENET groups comp.protocols.iso,
comp.std.misc and comp.std.internat. Its purpose is to give answers to
some of the questions appearing most often in these groups and to
collect interesting information about standards that appeared in USENET
discussions.

If you have a suggestion how this text might be improved or have a text
that you would like to be added, please send it to Markus Kuhn
<[e-mail]>. Contributions, that I can
simply copy into the text are especially welcome. If you can't send
e-mail, you can also send documents or disks/tapes with material relevant
to the FAQ or the ftp archive (ftp.uni-erlangen.de:pub/doc/ISO/)
to Markus Kuhn, Schlehenweg 9, D-91080 Uttenreuth, Germany.

This FAQ is crossposted to news.answers and won't expire there on
well-managed news systems until the next version has been posted. As a
consequence of being crossposted to news.answers, this text will also
be automatically archived on many FAQ servers all over the world
(e.g., look with ftp at server rtfm.mit.edu (login: anonymous) in
/pub/usenet/news.answers/standards-faq). You'll also find there
many other answers to frequently asked questions.

This FAQ is perhaps one of the first that uses an 8-bit character set
on USENET, because there are many non-ASCII characters necessary for a
correct ISO member address list. Nearly the full USENET is 8-bit
transparent, and the character set is announced in the message header
as defined in RFC 1341. If you can't see the right characters then
check your environment (fonts, stty settings, newsreader options,
code pages, ...), because the character set ISO 8859-1 is available on
many computers, but often simply not activated. A few test characters are
Ω=e+^, ╡=greek mu, ⌐=copyright sign and ╜=fraction 1/2. If you see
j, 5, ) and = instead, then the highest bit has been stripped off.
The portable program iso2asc.c that you'll find with anonymous ftp on
ftp.uni-erlangen.de in pub/doc/ISO/ converts ISO 8859-1 text files
to 7-bit US-ASCII and to IBM PC character set if you can't display
these characters directly.

Don't be angry if anything in this text is incorrect. As with all
information exchanged on USENET, you only get what you pay for and the
current author isn't paid a single pfennig for this FAQ. Better mail
me the correction!

I hope you enjoy it ...

Markus


Contents
--------

  What are ISO, ITU, CCITT, ANSI, ...?
  Why can't I ftp ISO standards?
! Where can I get standard documents?
  How can I get in contact with the committees?
  How can I get electronic versions of CCITT/ITU-T recommendations?
! Which Internet resources provide information about standards?
  What's the meaning of CD, DIS, IS?
  ISO standards relevant to computing
  ISO standards of general relevance
  Some ITU-T/CCITT recommendations
  ISO paper sizes
  What is ISO 9000?
  What's the address of my national standards body?
  References

A '+' in the first column marks a topic that has been added since this
FAQ was last posted the last time and a '!' marks a change. Trivial
typographic changes are not marked.



What are ISO, ITU, CCITT, ANSI, ...?
------------------------------------

Many countries have national standards bodies where experts from
industry and universities develop standards for all kinds of
engineering problems. Among them are, for instance,

     ANSI     American National Standards Institute       USA
     DIN      Deutsches Institut fuer Normung             Germany
     BSI      British Standards Institution               United Kingdom
     AFNOR    Association francaise de normalisation      France
     UNI      Ente Nazionale Italiano di Unificazione     Italy
     NNI      Nederlands Normalisatie-instituut           Netherlands
     SAA      Standards Australia                         Australia
     SANZ     Standards Association of New Zealand        New Zealand
     NSF      Norges Standardiseringsforbund              Norway
     DS       Dansk Standard                              Denmark

and about 80 others.

The International Organization for Standardization, ISO, in Geneva is
the head organization of all these national standardization bodies.
Together with the International Electrotechnical Commission, IEC, ISO
concentrates its efforts on harmonizing national standards all over the
world. The results of these activities are published as ISO standards.
Among them are, for instance, the metric system of units, international
stationery sizes, all kinds of bolt nuts, rules for technical drawings,
electrical connectors, security regulations, computer protocols, file
formats, bicycle components, ID cards, programming languages,
International Standard Book Numbers (ISBN), ... Over 10 000 ISO
standards have been published so far and you surely get in contact with
a lot of things each day that conform to ISO standards you never heard
of. By the way, "ISO" is not an acronym for the organization in any
language. It's a wordplay based on the English initials and the
Greek-derived prefix "iso-" meaning "same".

Within ISO, ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) deals with
information technology.

The International Telecommunication Union, ITU, is the United Nations
specialized agency dealing with telecommunications. At present there
are 164 member countries. One of its previous bodies was the
International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee, CCITT,
which is now after an organizational reorganization of ITU called
ITU-T (Telecommunication Standardization Sector). A Plenary Assembly
of the CCITT/ITU-T, which takes place every few years, draws up a list
of 'Questions' about possible improvements in international electronic
communication. In Study Groups, experts from different countries
develop 'Recommendations' which are published after they have been
adopted. Especially relevant to computing are the ITU-T V series of
recommendations on modems (e.g. V.32, V.42), the X series on data
networks and OSI (e.g. X.25, X.400), the I and Q series that define
ISDN, the Z series that defines specification and programming
languages (SDL, CHILL), the T series on text communication (teletex,
fax, videotext, ODA) and the H series on digital sound and video
encoding. The previous CCIR (International Radio Consultative
Committee and the IFBR (International Frequency Registration Board)
are now called ITU-R (Radiocommunication Sector). The previous BDT
(Telecommunications Development Bureau) is know called ITU-D.

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) adopts international
and national standards with the effect that all member bodies have to
withdraw contradicting material (e.g., ISO 9000 to 9004 were adopted
as EN 29 000 to 29 004). Regional standardization bodies are
mentioned in ISO/IEC Guides, and CEN seems to be the only one.

Since 1961, the European Computer Manufacturers Association, ECMA, has
been a forum for data processing experts where agreements have been
prepared and submitted for standardization to ISO, ITU and other
standards organizations.


Why can't I ftp ISO standards?
------------------------------

ISO standard documents are copyrighted by ISO, and their price is much
higher than the costs for printing and shipping the papers. This is
because the expenses of running ISO are partially covered by selling
the standards (but ISO also gets member fees from the national
organizations).  Consequently, ISO standards are NOT available as
public domain documents to Internet users.

Many people feel that this is a great disadvantage and ISO is at the
moment examining other methods of distributing the documents (e.g.
CD-ROM, magnetic tapes and online access) but the odds are very low
that ISO standards will become freely redistributable files like
Internet RFCs in the near future (i.e. this decade).

BTW: The costs of actually developing standards is borne by the
thousands of organizations which pay for the time and travel expenses
of the delegates to national and international level meetings.

As a consequence of ISO's price and copyright policy for their
documents, ISO standards are VERY unavailable to students and
researchers with limited budget. Even huge companies have often only
single copies of ISO documents which have to be time-shared by many
engineers. This is very much contradicting to the very purpose of
formal non-proprietary standards which is being easily available to
everyone. That fact that ISO standards are not available online on the
Internet is not a technical problem: the ISO Central Secretariat in
Geneva is connected to the Internet and other public networks, they
have the necessary hosts, software and people available and they use
Internet services like ftp, gopher and WWW internally. But these
databases are not available to the public. This is a political problem,
not a technical one.

Other international standardization organizations either offer their
documents on the Internet freely (e.g. ITU and IETF) or send you the
paper versions free of charge (e.g. ECMA and many other vendor
organizations).

If you are involved in the development of an international
standard and are interested in the availability of your results
for students, etc., then it is highly recommended not to give this
standard directly to ISO, but to cooperate with other organizations
with more useful copyright policies (e.g. ECMA, ITU, IETF, ...).

By a liaison contribution from ISO/IEC JTC1/SC6 to the Internet
Architecture Board (IAB), a very few OSI standards (e.g. ISO 8073, ISO
8473, ISO 9542, ISO 10589) ARE available as PostScript files with ftp
from merit.edu in directory pub/iso as files clnp.ps, esis.ps, isis.ps
and idrp.ps.


Where can I get standard documents?
-----------------------------------

ISO standards are sold by the national standards body members (e.g.
ANSI, DIN, ...), by special companies, and by the ISO General
Secretary in Geneva. The standard way to order standards is to contact
your national standards body (check the list in the chapter 'What's
the address of my national standards body?'). If you want to get the
standards directly from ISO, you may order them from

     ISO Sales
     Case Postale 56
     CH-1211 Geneve 20
     Switzerland

     E-mail: [e-mail]

ISO accepts VISA and American Express. They require the card number,
its expiry date, and an authorizing signature. Some people prefer to
order their standards directly from ISO in Geneva, because some
national member bodies (e.g. ANSI) reprint ISO standards locally, use
cheaper paper and charge more for ISO standards than the headquarters.

ISO publishes an 'ISO Bulletin' with information about current
standardization activities and articles about various standards. It
lists all the ISO standards published or withdrawn, the DISs
circulated, the CDs registered, etc. It also has a calendar of all
upcoming ISO meetings. You can get it from your national standards body
or from the General Secretary in Geneva. You may get more information
on this from

     International Organization
     for Standardization
     Promotion and Press Department
     Case Postale 56
     CH-1211 Geneve 20
     Switzerland

ISO publishes an annual 'ISO Catalogue' which lists all ISO standards
currently in force and other ISO publications (e.g. guides and
standards handbooks) with a price code. It contains an entry like

     ISO 4074-2:1980   Rubber condoms--
                       Part 2: Determination of length
                       Ed. 1   2 p.   Code A   TC 157

                       Preservatifs masculins en caoutchouc--
                       Partie 2: Determination de la longueur

for each ISO standard in both English and French and a few other lists.
You have to ask your national standards body how much you have to pay
them for a standard with price code A (e.g. 20 Swiss francs in
Switzerland and 27.10 DM in Germany). The price depends on the number
of pages of the document. Code A means 1 or 2 pages. :-(

You can order all ITU (was: CCITT) recommendations from

     International Telecommunication Union
     General Secretariat - Sales Section
     Place des Nations
     CH-1211 Geneve 20
     Switzerland

There you can also get a free ITU List of Publications. The 1988 series
of recommendations has been published as the 'Blue Book' (consisting of
Volumes each dealing with a specific topic and bound as "Fascicles" of
a few hundred pages each) which fills about 16,000 pages or a whole
shelf. The Blue Book volumes are about the phone net, ISDN, telex and
teletex nets, fax protocols, OSI, international tariffs, etc. In the
past, CCITT recommendations have been published in a four year cycle.
These publications are identified by the color of their binding: 1960 red,
1964 blue, 1968 white, 1972 green, 1976 orange, 1980 yellow, 1984 red and
1988 blue. The 1992 White Book will be the last four year collection of
all recommendations. After this, recommendations will be published
separately.

More information and some ASCII/PostScript/WinWord files with ITU
recommendations are available from the ITU server (see below).

The CCITT 1988 Blue Books are also available from:

     United Nations Bookshop
     General Assembly Building
     Room:  G.A. 32 B
     New York, NY 10017
     USA

     phone [phone]
           [phone] (USA only, except NY)
     fax   [phone]

     Visa or Mastercard are accepted over $15.00.
     $2 per book for shipping/handling.
     UPS over 5 books is free of charge.
     E.g. the fascicle with X.400-X.420 costs $68.70.

All ECMA standards are free and can be ordered at no cost from

     European Computer
     Manufacturers Association
     114 Rue du Rhone
     CH-1204 Geneva
     Switzerland

     phone [phone]
     fax   [phone]
     telex 413237

The address of the European Telecommunication Standards Institute is:

     ETSI
     F-06921 Sophia Antipolis CEDEX
     France

     phone [phone]
     fax   [phone]

The address of the Conference of European Posts and Telecommunications
Administrations, CEPT, is

     CEPT Liaison Office
     Seilerstrasse 22
     CH-3008  Bern
     Switzerland

     phone [phone]
     fax   [phone]

Their documents are called "Norme Europeene de Telecommunication", NET,
and they allow you to test terminal equipment one for all of the EC.
CEPT is covered by EEC Directive 86/361.

The address of the ANSI sales department is:

     ANSI
     Attention: Customer Service
     11 West 42nd St.
     New York, NY 10036
     USA

     phone [phone]

DIN, ISO and other standards are sold in Germany by

     Beuth Verlag GmbH
     D-10772 Berlin
     Germany

     phone   [phone]
     fax     [phone]
     telex   183622 bvb d
     teletex 302107 bvb awg

The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) also
publishes standards. They can be ordered by email from the IEEE
Computer Society Press:

     Send an email message to <[e-mail]> and include your
     name, IEEE membership number, shipping address, phone number,
     publication title, catalog number and price.
     Payment accepted by credit card or purchase order. Credit card
     orders must include: card number, expiration date and your name
     as it appears on the card. Purchase orders must include: purchase
     order number, name of purchasing organization, your name, phone
     number and shipping address.

For several years the US company OMNICOM published a newsletter about
OSI development and distributed copies of ISO standards. Document
distribution for OMNICOM (which is out of business) has been taken over
by Phillips Business Information.  The phone number (800) OMNICOM still
works, but is answered by Phillips.

     Phillips Business Information
     1201 Seven Locks Road
     Potomac, MD 20854.

     phone [phone]
           [phone]
     fax   [phone]

It is highly recommended to compare prices before ordering standards!


How can I get in contact with the committees?
---------------------------------------------

The standard way is to contact the members of your national standards
body. Some of these people will also serve as your country's
representatives to the international organizations.

Only a very few experts active within ISO and CCITT are regularly reading
USENET but most are reachable with Internet mail.

The editor of the new ASN.1 encoding rules standard (ISO 8825) is

     Bancroft Scott <[e-mail]>

The editor of the X.gc group working on a news extension for the
X.400 electronic mail protocols similar to USENET is

     Jacob Palme, Stockholm University <[e-mail]>

ECMA has email access and the secretary-general can be reached with

     <[e-mail]>.

ISO Central Secretariat also has email access. The usual address is

     Internet: <surname>@isocs.iso.ch
     X.400:    C=CH; ADMD=ARCOM; PRMD=ISO; O=ISOCS; S=<surname>

E.g., some known addresses are

     Michael Smith     <[e-mail]>
     Jacques Chabot    <[e-mail]>
     Keith Brannon     <[e-mail]>       (responsible for IT)
     Vasilii Zakharov  <[e-mail]>      (IT director)

ISO's hot line phone number is [phone].

IEC also is up on email and is accessable from Internet through
a bridge (that's sometimes down). One address is e.g.:

     Jack Sheldon <[e-mail]>


How can I get electronic versions of CCITT/ITU-T recommendations
----------------------------------------------------------------

ITU now operates a public ITU Document Store (ITUDOC). It can be reached
as a mail server and interactively with a Gopher interface.  An FTP
Server is planned.

For more detailed assistance than given below, please contact:

International Telecommunication Union
Information Services Department
Place des Nations
1211 Geneva 20
Switzerland

TEL: [phone]
FAX: [phone]
RFC822: [e-mail]
X.400: S=helpdesk;A=arcom;P=itu;C=ch


INTERACTIVE ACCESS TO ITUDOC

Interactive access to ITUDOC is available as one of ITU's 'Open
Services' available in TIES (Telecom Information Exchange Services).
Connectivity to TIES is possible via:

1. GOPHER CLIENT

   Pointer to the ITU Gopher Server is

   Name=International Telecommunication Union (ITU)
   Host=info.itu.ch
   Port=70

2. TELNET

   Telnet: ties.itu.ch or info.itu.ch (login name 'gopher')

3. X.25

   Call the X.25 DTE address, on TELEPAC, the Swiss PSPDN

   #228468111112

   where # is local prefix for international routing, login name
   'gopher'

4. DIAL-UP

   [phone] (Swiss telephone number, login name 'gopher')

   Supported modem protocols include ITU-T (CCITT) V.21, V.22,
   V.22bis, V.32, V.42, V.42bis Recommendations, Bell212A and MNP 2,
   3, 4, 5. Basic settings should be no parity, 8 data bits
   (necessary for on-line reading of multilingual material), speed
   300 to 9,600 bps.

For downloading documents/files, several file transfer methods are
supported (e.g., Kermit, XModem, Text, FTP, email).


EMAIL ACCESS TO ITUDOC

For help on the ITUDOC electronic mail interface, send a message with
the line HELP in it to:

[e-mail]

The mail server will return to you a help document explaining all
valid commands.  For example, to retrieve any ITUDOC document, you
send the command:

GET <UPI>

where <UPI> is the UPI (Unique Permanent Identifier) for the
document.  For example, to retrieve the index of the ITU-T (ITU
Telecommunication Standardization Sector) Group, send the command:

GET ITU-1100

See below for the UPIs of other index files.  You can place multiple
commands in a single message (maximum 50).


ITUDOC INDEX FILES

Here are UPIs for key ITUDOC index files.  Index files describe the
structure of groups and list UPIs for all documents available in the
group.  Index files are updated every two weeks.

Title: Road Map and Index for ITUDOC (About ITUDOC) Group
UPI: ITU-1800

Title: Road Map and Index for GS (ITU General Secretariat) Group
UPI: ITU-1700

Title: Road Map and Index for ITU-D (ITU Development Sector) Group
UPI: ITU-1300

Title: Road Map and Index for ITU-R (ITU Radiocommunication Sector)
Group
UPI: ITU-1200

Title: Road Map and Index for ITU-T (ITU Telecommunication
Standardization Sector) Group
UPI: ITU-1100

NB: the above group is ex-CCITT and contains UPIs for telecom
standardization-related documents (e.g., List of Recommendations,
ITU-T Recommendations)

Title: Road Map and Index for SIGS (Special Interest Groups) Group
UPI: ITU-1500

Title: Road Map and Index for TIES (Telecom Information Exchange
Services) Group
UPI: ITU-1400

Title: Road Map and Index for the complete ITU Document Store
UPI: ITU-1600

Title: Road Map and Index for UN/EDICORE (United Nations UN/EDIFACT
Standards Database (EDICORE)) Group
UPI: ITU-1900


Which Internet resources provide information about standards?
-------------------------------------------------------------

The author of this FAQ maintains an archive where information about
ISO standards is collected at anonymous ftp server ftp.uni-erlangen.de
in pub/doc/ISO/. Contact <[e-mail]>
if you would like to contribute anything. (A few German texts are
available in pub/doc/ISO/deutsch.)

The RFCs are ftpable from nic.ddn.mil, nisc.sri.com, nnsc.nsf.net and
from many other sites all over the world.

For information about POSIX, the ISO and IEEE standard for UNIX
compatible operating systems, look at the file ~ftp/usenet/comp.std.unix
on ftp.uu.net.

Other ftp locations with information about OSI and other ISO standards
are:

  address               directory                content
  -------------------------------------------------------------------------
  osi.ncsl.nist.gov     *                        GOSIP stuff
  ftp.uu.net            networking/osi           ISODE
                        networking/x25           X.25 software
  nic.ddn.mil           protocols                DoD and GOSIP related stuff
                        rfc                      RFC Repository
  cs.ucl.ac.uk          src                      ISODE, PP, OSIMIS, ...
                        osi-ds                   Internet X.500 documents
                        ietf-osi-oda             Internet ODA documents
  aun.uninett.no        ietf/mhs-ds              X.500 based routing drafts
  ftp.ifi.uio.no        pub/SGML                 SGML/HyTime related things
  dkuug.dk              i18n                     internationalisation standards
  ftp.ripe.net          ripe/docs/iso3166-codes  ISO Country Codes
  isode.com             *                        ISODE Consortium documents
  merit.edu             pub/iso                  few ISO standards (CLNP etc.)
  unicode.org           pub                      Unicode/ISO 10646 material
  sunsite.unc.edu       pub/Z39.50               ISO SR/Z39.50 drafts
  ftp.cme.nist.gov      pub/step                 ISO 10303/STEP archive
  ftp.dstc.edu.au       pub/arch/RM-ODP          Open Distributed Processing

The USENET group comp.protocols.iso.x400 has been created for
discussions about the X.400 OSI e-mail protocol suite. Harald Tveit
Alvestrand <[e-mail]> is posting an X.400
FAQ and product list monthly there and Jacob Palme <[e-mail]>
posts his reports from the ITU/ISO X.400 study group meetings in the
same group. The reports from Jacob Palme about X.400, the official
X.400 implementor's guide and various research reports are available
with gopher from dsv.su.se.

Information about ITU is available with gopher from info.itu.ch.

There is a USENET group comp.text.sgml for discussions about SGML,
DSSSL, HyTime, etc. Articles posted there are archived on ftp.ifi.uio.no.

CMIP Run is a newsletter dedicated to popularizing and explaining the
various network and systems management technologies, especially OSI CMIP.
CMIP Run is available via anonymous ftp in postscript from 192.35.236.4
in pub/cmip_run.

A few ISO standards are available freely as Postscript files with ftp
from merit.edu in pub/iso as clnp.ps, esis.ps, isis.ps and idrp.ps. These
are OSI connectionless network layer standards.

Information about the world time standard UTC (e.g. when will the
next leap second be inserted in time, etc.) is available from the
'International Earth Rotation Service' (IERS) with anonymous
ftp from mesiom.obspm.circe.fr. There is no single official
document that defines the time zones, but a good collection of
information about time zones from Arthur David Olson is available
with ftp from elsie.nci.nih.gov in pub/tz*. It's updated periodically.

If you can't get files with ftp, you might want to use one of the
ftpmail servers (e.g. [e-mail] or [e-mail]).
For detailed instructions send them a message with "help" in the body.


What's the meaning of CD, DIS, IS?
----------------------------------

[Posted by Brad Smith <[e-mail]>:]

Replies to an earlier posting of mine indicated a lack of familiarity
with current ISO procedures for developing and gaining consensus on
international standards.  Here are some notes to update you.

The 1989 revision of the ISO/IEC Directives specify the accepted
procedure for developing and approving International Standards.  This
is a complicated process with many activities and critical milestones
so if you do any standards work, you will probably want to get a copy
of the document for reference.

THE ISO PROCESS:

The Directives give a set of procedures for managing the work of a
committee which define five stages of document approval:

       The Proposal Stage
            Voting members ballot on the creation of a new
            standards project.

       The Preparatory Stage
            Project Leader manages the development of a Working
            Draft.

       The Committee Stage
            Consensus is achieved on a Committee Draft.

       The Approval Stage
            National bodies vote on a Draft International
            Standard.

       The Publication Stage
            ISO publishes the International Standard.

PROPOSAL STAGE:

The Proposal stage begins with a suggestion for a new area of
standardization activity (see [ISO1] - clause 2.2, page 17).  The
suggestion is documented on an ISO New Work Item Proposal form and is
sent out by the committee's Secretariat to all participating and
observing members of the committee, to all liaison organizations, and
to other national bodies of ISO.  A three-month voting period is
prescribed.  All voting members have an obligation to reply.

Approval requires a simple majority vote and a commitment by at least
five national bodies to actively participate.  Projects can be placed
within an existing Working Group (WG), or a new WG can be created to
act as a focus for technical development work.

The Proposal stage ends when a New Work Item is approved, is registered
with the ISO, and is included in the list of projects within the
program of work of the SC-4 Committee.

PREPARATORY STAGE:

The Preparatory stage of ISO standards development covers the creation
of a working draft of the ultimate standard (see [ISO1] - clause 2.3,
page 17).  The work is performed by experts from participating
countries organized into working groups and advisory groups under the
guidance of a convener, and further subdivided into project areas each
under the direction of a Project Leader (see [ISO1] - clause 2.1.6,
page 16).

Different committees may decide on different procedures to govern the
development of working drafts of their standards.  In our committee,
Working Group conveners have been encouraged to subdivide the technical
work into logical tasks each under the direction of a Project Leader.
Project Leaders report to the Convener of their parent Working Group.
The Working Group convener usually serves as a Project Leader (see
[ISO1] - clause 2.3.3, page 17) but is additionally responsible for
coordinating any other Project Leaders in the WG as well.

As technical work is completed by a WG, it is documented in a working
draft of an ISO standard and begins the process of consensus-building
and approval.  Generally, each document has an editor who has custody
of the electronic form of the document, but the project leader has the
overall responsibility for coordinating the efforts necessary to gain
approval of the draft as an international standard.

The ISO Directives do not give details of the process for developing a
working draft within the hierarchy of projects, WGs, and advisory
groups.  That is left for each SC to establish for itself.  Our
committee has a detailed set of procedures which are available if
anyone wants to see them.

The Preparatory stage for any one Part ends when a working draft of
that Part has been approved by the Project Management Advisory Group.
It is at that time given to the Secretariat of SC-4 who formally
registers the Part as a Committee Draft with ISO (see [ISO1] - clause
2.3.8, page 18).

COMMITTEE STAGE:

The Committee stage begins with the circulation of the document in the
form of a Committee Draft (CD) for formal balloting (see [ISO1], clause
2.4.1, page 18 and SC4 Res# 73).  The ballot is sent out by the
committee Secretariat to all participating and observing countries of
SC-4 and also to Class A Liaison organizations.  All recipients are
asked for comments on the CD.  Voting members are asked to vote on the
acceptance of the CD for registration as a Draft International
Standard.  All voting members have an obligation to reply.  A three
month voting period is prescribed.  Ballot comments are collected and
summarized by the Secretariat.

A team consisting of the Secretariat, the committee Chairman, the
affected Conveners, and the affected Project Leaders review the ballot
comments to determine the degree of consensus obtained.  Based on the
evaluation, a decision is made whether to

       a)  discuss the CD and comments at the next meeting,
       b)  register the CD as a Draft International Standard, or
       c)  ask that a revised CD be prepared for circulation

If at least three voting members of SC-4 disagree with proposal b) or
c) of the Secretariat, the CD will be put on the agenda for discussion
at the next committee meeting.

Failure to attain consensus approval of a Part will trigger
determination c) above and thus cause the document to be returned to
the Working Group level for the preparation of a revised Committee
Draft.

It should be noted that both an English and a French text must be
available for each Part during the Approval stage which comes next.
This translation should be instigated at an early date to allow time
for a quality effort.

The Committee stage ends for a CD when the Part is accepted by
committee ballot.  The document is then given to the Secretariat who
formally submits the English and French versions to ISO for
registration of the Part as a Draft International Standard (see [ISO1]
- clause 2.4.7, page 19).

APPROVAL STAGE:

The Approval Stage begins with circulation of the English and French
versions of the Part in the form of a Draft International Standard
(DIS) for formal balloting (see [ISO1] - clause 2.5.1, page 19).  The
ballot is sent out by ISO Central Secretariat to all national bodies of
ISO (our committee members plus others).  Recipients are asked to vote
on the approval of the DIS as an International Standard.  All national
bodies have an obligation to reply.  A six-month voting period is
prescribed.  Ballot comments are collected by ISO and are returned to
our committee.

The DIS is approved if a two-thirds majority of votes cast by voting
members of our committee are in favor and if not more than 25% of the
total number of votes cast are negative.  Abstentions are excluded when
counting votes (see [ISO1] - clause 2.5.3, page 20).  If so approved,
the committee Chairman, in cooperation with the Secretariat, and in
consultation with the ISO Chief Executive Officer makes a decision
whether the document should be published without change or whether an
amendment should be drafted to reflect persuasive technical comments
received (see [ISO1] - clause 2.5.4, page 20).  If an amendment is
drafted, it requires a two-month vote as above.

If the DIS is not approved, the Committee Chairman, in cooperation with
the Secretariat (and, if necessary the Project Leader and the affected
WG Conveners), and in consultation with the ISO Chief Executive
Officer, makes a decision whether to prepare a new DIS for a two-month
vote or to refer the document back to committee for further work (see
[ISO1] - clause 2.5.6, page 20).

The Approval stage ends with the decision of the committee Chairman to
publish.  The Secretariat then prepares the final manuscript and sends
it to ISO.

PUBLICATION STAGE:

The ISO Chief Executive Officer does final preparation of the Foreword
and sends the proof back to the SC-4 Secretariat for review.  Further
editorial or technical amendments are unacceptable at this stage.

The Publication stage ends with the release of the document as an
International Standard.

[FAQ author's note: The reference [ISO1] hasn't been resolved in Brad
Smith's original posting, but, according to the ISO Catalogue, the
complete ISO ceremony of creating a standard is defined in:

  IEC/ISO Directives -- Part 1,
  Procedures for the technical work,
  1989, 140p., ISBN 92-67-10150-1.

  IEC/ISO Directives -- Part 2,
  Methodology for the development of International Standards,
  1989, 62p., ISBN 92-67-10149-8.

  IEC/ISO Directives -- Part 3,
  Drafting and presentation of International Standards,
  1989, 2nd ed., 82 p., bilingual, ISBN 92-67-01055-7.

Harald Alvestrand wrote me, that there is also something called a "CD
ballot" that is needed to get a document from "expert contribution"
status to "CD" status, and that there are exceptions to the "French
required" rules. He has one DIS that says on the cover: "In accordance
with the provisions of Council Resolution 21/1986 this DIS is submitted
in the English language only"]

Eberhard Wegner noted, that "JTC 1 have their own Directives, replacing
ISO/IEC Directives. It is even worse: ISO and IEC have separately adopted the
Vienna Agreement with CEN (on common simultaneous voting), but JTC 1 has
not; so it is not valid for them. Instead of overcoming the separation
between ISO and IEC, the creation of JTC 1 introduced a third body."

Another nice explanation :-) has been posted by Chad Fogg <[e-mail]>:

  Here is the evolutionary chart of ISO standards:

  1. Barroom witticism ("NI" or "Napkin Item")
  2. New proposal ("NP" or "Need Permission")
  3. Working Draft ("WD" or "We were Drunk")
  4. Committee Draft ("CD" or "Calendar Deadlock")
  5. Draft International Standard ("DIS" or "Doesn't Include Substance")
  6. International Standard ("IS" or "Induced patent Statements")


ISO standards relevant to computing
-----------------------------------

A summary of ISO and CCITT standards relevant to OSI (Open System
Interconnection) protocols is part of the osi-protocols FAQ which is
posted to comp.protocols.iso.

ISO 646    Good ol' 7-bit ASCII with national variants

IEC 824    Terminology related to microprocessors

ISO 2022   ESC sequences for switching between various character sets

ISO 2382   Information technology -- Vocabulary

ISO 3166   Codes for the representation of names of countries.
           This standard defines a 2-letter, a 3-letter and a numeric
           code for each country on this planet. E.g. US/USA/840=
           United States, DE/DEU/276=Germany, GB/GBR/826=United
           Kingdom, FR/FRA/250=France, ...)
           The 2-letter codes are well known in the Internet as top-level
           domain names. The 3-letter versions are often used at
           international sports events.

ISO 4217   Codes for the representation of currencies and funds

ISO 5218   Representation of human sexes
           Sex is represented by a one-character language independent
           numerical code: 0=not known, 1=male, 2=female, 9=not
           specified. The standard also specifies, that "no significance
           is to be placed on the fact that 'Male' is coded '1' and
           'Female' is coded '2'.  This standard was developed based
           upon predominant practice of the countries involved and does
           not convey any meaning of importance, ranking or any other
           basis that could imply discrimination." :-)

ISO 6429   ASCII Control Codes. Subsets of these are also known as
           VT100/VT320/ANSI escape sequences.

ISO 6709   Representation of latitude, longitude and altitude of
           geographic positions

ISO 7816   Chip cards. Specifies the dimensions, connector locations,
           electrical specifications, the lower layer protocol format
           (bidirectional 9600 bits/s async. serial) and the format
           of some common data packets of smart cards.

ISO 8601   Representation of dates and times.
           This standard defines a lot of details of the calendar.
           E.g. the ISO definition of the week numbers is that the
           first day (day number 1) of a week is Monday and that the
           first week in a year (week number 1) is the week that includes
           the first Thursday in January, i.e. the first week that has at
           least four days in January. Other definitions are, e.g., that
           hours of a day are counted from 0 to 24 and that the
           international notation of dates is the Bigendian format
           year-month-day, e.g. 1993-04-17 and that for time is e.g.
           20:36:04 (hh-mm-ss). There are also string formats for
           computer applications specified that have to represent
           date and time in files and protocol packets. (See
           ftp.uni-erlangen.de:pub/doc/ISO/ISO8601.ps.Z for a
           very detailed summary.)

ISO 8632   Computer Graphics Metafile (CGM). This standard defines
           a file format for 2D vector graphics. Part 1 defines the
           graphic elements (lines, filled polygons, text, colors, ...)
           that may appear in a CGM and the other parts define 3 different
           encodings for these graphic elements:

              Character encoding:  compact ASCII encoding, useful if
                                   CGM files have to be transported
                                   over not binary-transparent channels
                                   (e.g. e-mail, character set converter)
              Binary encoding:     this is the most often implemented
                                   CGM encoding, because it is both
                                   efficient and easy to implement.
              Clear text encoding: a human readable textual encoding.

           This standard format might be exactly what you need if you
           want to store pictures that can be drawn by the usual graphic
           library functions (move, line, set_color, set_linestyle, ...)
           in an resolution-independend way. The format is simple and
           easy to understand. The new 1992 revision of the CGM standard
           contains many additional graphic elements (splines, rendering
           options for ends and joins of thick lines, several color
           models, high quality fonts, grouping of graphical elements, ...)
           that make this format capable of storing images with the quality
           you are used to get from Postscript, Corel Draw, Framemaker,
           etc. The main difference between CGM and Postscript is that
           Postscript is a full programming language while CGM is just
           a simple list of graphical elements which makes CGM suitable
           for reediting.

ISO 8652   The Ada programming language

ISO 8859   Several 8-bit ASCII extensions. Especially ISO 8859-1, the
           "Latin alphabet No. 1" has become widely implemented and may
           already be seen as the de-facto standard ASCII replacement.

               ISO 8859-1     west European languages (Latin-1)
               ISO 8859-2     east European languages (Latin-2)
               ISO 8859-3     other Latin languages (Latin-3)
               ISO 8859-4     north European languages (Latin-4)
               ISO 8859-5     Latin/Cyrillic
               ISO 8859-6     Latin/Arabic
               ISO 8859-7     Latin/Greek
               ISO 8859-8     Latin/Hebrew
               ISO 8859-9     Latin-1 modification for Turkey (Latin-5)
               ISO 8859-10    Baltic countries (under preparation)

ISO 8879   Standard Generalized Markup Language (SGML), a format
           for storing documents together with their logical structure
           and perhaps layout information in a standardized way.
           (see also USENET group comp.text.sgml)

ISO 9127   User documentation and cover information for consumer
           software packages

ISO 9592   Programmer's Hierarchical Interactive Graphics Interface
           (PHIGS)

ISO 9593   PHIGS Language Bindings (Fortran, Pascal, Ada, C)

ISO 9541   Font and Character Information Interchange

ISO 9636   Graphical device interfaces

ISO 9660   CD-ROM volume and file structure

ISO 9899   The C programming language

ISO 9945   UNIX style system calls and shell commands (POSIX)

ISO 10646  A 32-bit character set called UCS containing (nearly) all
           characters used on this planet that will hopefully solve
           most of the character set troubles with computers one day.
           Today only the 16-bit subset UCS-2 has been defined, also
           known as 'Unicode' that is expected to become pretty
           popular soon and will be supported by Windows NT, Plan 9
           and other new operating systems.

ISO 10744  HyTime -- A hypertext/multimedia extension to SGML


ISO standards of general relevance
----------------------------------

(Of course, there are a more then 10 000 of them, so this list will
always contain only a few of the more well-known international
standards.)

ISO 3      Preferred numbers
           Especially in engineering applications, where a designer often
           has to choose an arbitrary dimension (e.g. the length of a
           part) within a range, it might be useful to have some
           'preferred numbers' defined that should be preferred in these
           situations. These are 1, 1.6, 2.5, 4, 6.3 which might be
           multiplied or divided by 10 as often as necessary and should be
           used together with SI (metric) units. The above simplest
           set of preferred numbers devides the range from 1 to 10 with 5
           numbers. There are also supersets with more numbers defined, e.g.
           1, 1.25, 1.6, 2, 2.5, 3.15, 4, 5, 6.3, 8. This standard is perhaps
           less relevant in computer science, where programmers traditionally
           use the powers of two (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, ...) multiplied by 1, 3 or
           5 as 'preferred numbers'. [Warning: using only powers of 2
           in software, e.g. as array sizes, can also have disadvantages
           such as reduced cache efficiency.]

ISO 9      Transliteration of Slavic Cyrillic characters into
           Latin characters

ISO 31     The international system of physical quantities,
           units and symbols (the "metric system")

ISO 216    Paper sizes -- A and B series

ISO 233    Transliteration of Arabic characters into Latin
           characters

ISO 259    Transliteration of Hebrew characters into Latin
           characters

ISO 269    Correspondence envelope sizes

ISO 639    Code for the representation of names of languages
           (e.g., en=English, de=German, and several hundred others)

ISO 838    Paper holes for general filing purposes

ISO 1000   SI units and recommendations for the use of their
           multiples and of certain other units.

ISO 2108   International standard book number (ISBN)

ISO 3602   Romanization of Japanese (kana script)

ISO 5966   Presentation of scientific and technical reports

ISO 7000   Graphical symbols for use on equipment

ISO 7001   Public information symbols

ISO 7098   Romanization of Chinese

ISO 7144   Presentation of theses and similar documents

ISO 9000   Quality management and quality assurance (also ISO 9001 -
           ISO 9004).

ISO 11172  Digital video/audio compression and encoding (MPEG)

[... to be continued ...]


Some ITU-T/CCITT recommendations
--------------------------------

E.123      A notation for international telephone numbers (a '+'
           followed by the country code, followed by a space, ...)

E.163      The international telephone numbering plan defining the
           structure of the phone number system and defining the
           country codes (e.g. 1=USA/Canada/etc., 49=Germany, ...).

H.261      Video telephony standard

X.25       An interface to a public or private packet data network

X.3/X.28/  Specification of a device (PAD) that allows to connect
X.29       asynchronous ASCII terminals to X.25 networks. X.3 defines
           the parameters that allow to control the PAD operation,
           X.28 specifies the command language offered to the terminal
           user and X.29 is the protocol used by the PAD over X.25.

V.21       Duplex 300 bits/s modem modulation.

V.22       Duplex 1200 bits/s modem modulation.

V.22bis    Duplex 2400 bits/s modem modulation.

V.32       Duplex modem modulation up to 9600 bits/s.

V.32bis    Duplex modem modulation up to 14400 bits/s.

V.34       Duplex modem modulation up to 28800 bits/s.
           This is currently expected to be the final analog
           telephone transmission standard, because theoretical
           limits of the phone bandwidth have been reached.
           (still in draft state, preliminary name was: V.fast,
           official final version expected in September 1994)

V.42       HDLC based error correction protocol for modems.

V.42bis    Lempel-Ziv based data compression algorithm for HDLC
           protocols.

and many more (e.g. the I.xxx recommandations about ISDN) ...

See chapter 'How can I get electronic versions of CCITT/ITU-T
recommendations?' for information about where to get the full list
and some of these texts.


ISO paper sizes
---------------

The paper formats defined by ISO in the A, B and C series are used
today in nearly all countries apart from North America.

The formats have been determined according to the following rules:

  - A0 has an area of one square meter.
  - The aspect ratio of all members of the A, B and C-series is
    sqrt(2) = 1.41421...
  - You get the next higher format by cutting the paper in two
    equal pieces parallel to the shorter side. This results again in
    a 1 : sqrt(2) format (that's the big advantage of this format).
  - The size of a B-series paper is the geometric mean between the size of
    the corresponding A-series paper and the next bigger A-series paper.
    E.g. B1 is between A1 and A0.
  - The size of a C-series paper is the geometric mean between the size of
    the A-series and B-series paper with the same number.

This means that the following formulas give the dimensions in meters:

                      Width                   Height
      A-series        2 ^ (- 1/4 - n/2)       2 ^ (1/4 - n/2)
      B-series        2 ^ (      - n/2)       2 ^ (1/2 - n/2)
      C-series        2 ^ (- 1/8 - n/2)       2 ^ (3/8 - n/2)

Larger sizes have smaller numbers.  Sizes larger than those with n = 0
are written as 2 A0 and 4 A0 rather than A(-1) and A(-2).

The following table lists the official definitions of the paper sizes
which are the values from the above formulas rounded more-or-less to
an integral number of millimeters:

      4 A0 1682 x 2378
      2 A0 1189 x 1682
        A0  841 x 1189       B0 1000 x 1414       C0  917 x 1297
        A1  594 x 841        B1  707 x 1000       C1  648 x 917
        A2  420 x 594        B2  500 x 707        C2  458 x 648
        A3  297 x 420        B3  353 x 500        C3  324 x 458
        A4  210 x 297        B4  250 x 353        C4  229 x 324
        A5  148 x 210        B5  176 x 250        C5  162 x 229
        A6  105 x 148        B6  125 x 176        C6  114 x 162
        A7   74 x 105        B7   88 x 125        C7   81 x 114
        A8   52 x 74         B8   62 x 88         C8   57 x 81
        A9   37 x 52         B9   44 x 62         C9   40 x 57
        A10  26 x 37         B10  31 x 44         C10  28 x 40

The most popular sizes are perhaps:

        A0        technical drawings
        A4        letters, magazines, documents
        A5        books
        C4,C5,C6  envelopes
        B4,A3     supported by many copy machines, newspapers

There are also strip formats possible, e.g.

    1/3 A4   99 x 210
    2/3 A4  198 x 210
    1/4 A4   74 x 210
    1/8 A4   37 x 210
    1/4 A3  105 x 297
    1/3 A5   70 x 148
    etc.

All these formats are paper end formats, i.e. these are the dimensions
of the paper delivered to the user/reader. Other standards define slightly
bigger paper sizes for applications where the paper will be cut to the
end format later (e.g. after binding).

The ISO DL envelope format has the dimensions 220 x 110 millimeters.

(The values have been copied from DIN 476 (Dec 1976) which is the
German version of the ISO 216 standard).


What is ISO 9000?
-----------------

Q. I've seen recently announcements of several big companies in
newspapers, where they tell their customers that they now conform to
ISO 9000. What is ISO 9000?

A. A standard for the development process of a product.

Q. Why has ISO 9000 been written and what does it mean if a company
claims to conform to ISO 9000 ?

A. I think, it means that the product which carries the ISO 9000
certified mark has undergone a well-defined, well-engineered,
well-monitored design/development/testing/production process. (This in
turn is expected to imply that the product is not a result of some
hap-hazard development and thus is of a superior quality.)

The agency which registers a product as ISO registered expects that the
business produce a "Quality Manual". They verify the manual against the
ISO 9000 standards. Then they verify that the design/development/test
etc. processes closely agree with what is mentioned in the Quality
Manual, recommend corrective actions, if any, and after a few periodic
(at least 6 monthly) assesments certify the product as an ISO 9000
registered product.

Q. A few practical examples?

Basically, it results in "Document everything you do" and "Do what you
have documented". It is expected that there will be a documented
procedure for everything that is done in the design/development/testing
of a product. The ISO inspectors are quite meticulous about these
things. (I heard some of the ISO coordinators relating there
experiences.)

Key changes needed:

   o Training of the full time personnel to understand ISO 9000
     standards, ISO Audit, etc.
   o Alerting all the employees of upcoming ISO audits and having
     periodic educational talks on how to work in a ISO framework.
   o Slowly changing the work habits of the employees so that: They
     do what is documented and the document says exactly what they
     are doing.

Key considerations:

   o Financial commitment involved in getting ISO registed. (Close to
     $20k per product over a 2 year period in external costs + internal
     costs in training people work hours lost during the audits (3-5 days
     a years) + cost of the QC department). [Figures based on UL's
     ISO 9000 registration figures.]

   o Will the employees be happily willing to work in this tight
     "document everything you do" framework?

Advantages:

   o "ISO approved" seems to be a green signal for the European
     customers to buy a product.

If ISO 9000 is forseen as a "way to go" for the future in US/World then
it would be a good idea to start early.

[I wish to thank Sandeep Phadke <[e-mail]>, who attended a
seminar on ISO 9000 recently, for this USENET interview.]

You'll find a more detailed and precise explanation of ISO 9000 with
anonymous ftp in ftp.uni-erlangen.de:pub/doc/ISO/ISO-9000-summary.
This is perhaps the most interesting file about ISO 9000 of those that
you may get by sending the lines

  GET ISONEWS F02
  GET ISONEWS F03
  [...]
  GET ISONEWS F11

to [e-mail], a mail server.


What's the address of my national standards body?
-------------------------------------------------

The address of the ISO headquarters is:

International Organization
for Standardization
Case postale 56
1, rue de VarembΘ
CH-1211 GenΦve 20
Switzerland

            national        (022) 749 01 11    (In correct and complete
Telephone   -------------------------------     CCITT E.123 notation :-)
            international  [phone]

Telefax     [phone]
Telex       41 22 05 iso ch
Telegrams   isorganiz

And here comes a list of the current 91 member bodies of ISO. According
to ISO regulations, only one organization "most representative of
standardization in its country" is allowed to be ISO member body in
each country. Revisions to the following addresses are announced in the
monthly ISO Bulletin. The author of this FAQ has currently no access to
the ISO Bulletin, so it is up to the better informed reader whether this
list will stay up to date. The addresses in this list are from the
official ISO member list from september 1992 and have been typed in as
an 8-bit ISO 8859-1 Latin 1 file by Inge A. Suhr.

Each Organization with a '*' is a sales agent for ISO publications in
its country. The names of the countries are given in both English and
French (seems to be an old ISO tradition ;-).

TP = Telephone
TF = Telefax
TX = Telex
TG = Telegrams

Albania/Albanie (DSMA)
*Drejtoria e Standardeve dhe e
Mjeteve Martδsδ nδ Ministrinδ e
Ekonomisδ
Bulevardi: Dδshmorδt e Kombit
TIRANA
TF 2 62 55
TX 42 95 koplan ab
TG standardi tirana

Algeria/AlgΘrie (INAPI)
*Institut algΘrien de normalisation
et de propriΘtΘ industrielle
5, rue Abou Hamou Moussa
B.P. 1021 - Centre de tri
ALGER
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 6 64 09 inapi dz
TG inapi-alger

Argentina/Argentine (IRAM)
Instituto Argentino de
Racionalizaci≤n de Materiales
Chile 1192
1098 BUENOS AIRES
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 2 60 86 iflex ar

Australia/Australie (SAA)
*Standards Association of Australia
P.O. Box 1055,
STRATHFIELD - N.S.W. 2135
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 2 65 14 astan aa
TG austandard north sydney

Austria/Autriche (ON)
*╓sterreichisches
Normungsinstitut
Heinestra▀e 38
Postfach 130
A-1021 WIEN
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 11 59 60 norm a
TG austrianorm

Bangladesh (BSTI)
*Bangladesh Standards and
Testing Institution
116-A, Tejgaon Industrial Area
DHAKA-1208
TP [phone]
TG besteye

Belgium/Belgique (IBN)
*Institut belge de normalisation
Av. de la Brabanτonne 29
B-1040 BRUXELLES
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 2 38 77 benor b
TG benor

Brazil/BrΘsil (ABNT)
*Associaτπo Brasileira de Normas
TΘcnicas
Av. 13 de Maio, n║ 13-28║ andar
Caixa Postal 1680
CEP: 20.003 - RIO DE JANEIRO-RJ
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 213 43 33 abnt br
TG normatΘcnica rio

Bulgaria/Bulgarie (BDS)
*ComitΘ de normalisation
certification et mΘtrologie
auprΦs du Conseil des Ministres
21, rue du 6-Septembre
1000 SOFIA
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 2 25 70 dks bg
TG techprogress

Canada (SCC)
*Standards Council of Canada
45 O'Connor Street, Suite 1200
OTTAWA, ONTARIO
K1P 6N7
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 053 44 03 stancan ott
TG stancan ottawa

Chile/Chili (INN)
Instituto Nacional de Normalizaci≤n
Matφas Cousi±o 64-6║ piso
Casilla 995 - Correo Central
SANTIAGO
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TG inn

China/Chine (CSBTS)
China State Bureau of Technical
Supervision
4, Zhi Chun Road
Haidian District
P.O. Box 8010
BEIJING
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TG 1918 beijing

Colombia/Colombie (ICONTEC)
*Instituto Colombiano de Normas
TΘcnicas
Carrea 37 No. 52-95, Edificio
ICONTEC
P.O. Box 14237
SANTAF╔ DE BOGOTA
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TG icontec

Croatia, Rep. of/Croatie, RΘp. de
State Department for Standardization
and Metrology of Croatia
Avenija Vukovar 78
41000 ZAGREB
TP [phone]
TF [phone]

Cuba (NC)
*ComitΘ Estatal de Normalizaci≤n
Egido 610 entre Gloria y Apodaca
Zona postal 2
LA HABANA
TF [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 51 22 45 cen cu
TG cen havana

Cyprus/Chypre (CYS)
Cyprus Organization for Standards
and Control of Quality
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
NICOSIA
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 22 83 mincomin cy
TG mincommind nicosia

Czech and Slovak Federal             (still?)
Republic/RΘpublique fΘdΘrative
tchΘque et slovaque (CSN)
*Federal Office for Standards and
Measurements
VßclavskΘ nßmesti 19
113 47 PRAHA 1
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 12 19 48 funm c
TG normalizace

Denmark/Danemark (DS)
*Dansk Standardiseringsraad
Baunegaardsvej 73
DK-2900 HELLERUP
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 11 92 03 ds stand
TG danskstandard
Email [e-mail]

Egypt, Arab Republic of/
╔gypte, RΘp. arabe d' (EOS)
*Egyptian Organization for
Standardization and Quality Control
2 Latin America Street
Garden City
CAIRO
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 9 32 96 eos un
TG tawhid

Ethiopia/╔thiopie (ESA)
*Ethiopian Authority for
Standardization
P.O. Box 2310
ADDIS ABABA
TP [phone]
TX 2 17 25 ethsa et
TG ethiostan

Finland/Finlande (SFS)
*Suomen Standardisoimisliitto SFS
P.O. Box 116
SF-00241 HELSINKI
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 12 23 03 stand sf
TG finnstandard

France (AFNOR)
*Association franτaise de
normalisation
Tour Europe
Cedex 7
F-92049 PARIS LA D╔FENSE
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 61 19 74 afnor f
TG afnor courbevoie

Germany/Allemagne (DIN)
*DIN Deutsches Institut fⁿr
Normung
Burggrafenstra▀e 6
D-10787 BERLIN
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 18 42 73 din d
TG deutschnormen berlin

Ghana (GSB)
*Ghana Standards Board
P.O. Box M-245
ACCRA
TP [phone]
TX 25 45 mincom gh
TG stanbord

Greece/GrΦce (ELOT)
*Hellenic Organization for
Standardization
313, Acharnon Street
GR-111 45 ATHENS
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 21 96 70 elot gr
TG elotyp-athens

Hungary/Hongrie (MSZH)
*Magyar Szabvßnyⁿgyi Hivatal
1450 BUDAPEST 9
Pf.24.
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 22 57 23 norm h
TG normhungaria budapest

India/Inde (BIS)
*Bureau of Indian Standards
Manak Bhavan
9 Bahadur Shah Zafar Marg
NEW DEHLI 110002
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 316 58 70 bis in
TG manaksanstha

Indonesia/IndonΘsie (DSN)
*Dewan Standardisasi
Nasional - DSN
(Standardization Council of Indonesia)
Sasana Widya Sarwono Lt. 5
Jalan Jend. Gatot Subroto 10
JAKARTA 12710
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 6 28 75 pdii ia
TG lipi jakarta

Iran, Islamic Rep. of/
RΘp. islamique d' (ISIRI)
*Institute of Standards and
Industrial Research of Iran
Ministry of Industry
P.O. Box 15875-4618
TEHRAN
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 21 27 96 inmi ir
TG standinst

Iraq (COSQC)
Central Organization for
Standardization and Quality Control
Ministry of Planning
P.O. Box 13032
Aljadiria
BAGHDAD
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 21 35 05 cosqc
TG iros baghdad

Ireland/Irlande (NSAI)
*National Standards Authority
of Ireland
Glasnevin
DUBLIN-9
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 3 25 01 iirs ei
TG research, dublin

Iceland/Islande (STRI)
Islandic Council for Standardization
Technological Institute of Iceland
Keldnaholt
IS-112 REYKJAVIK
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 30 20 istech is

Israel/Israδl (SII)
*Standards Institution of Israel
42 Chaim Levanon Street
TEL AVIV 69977
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 3 55 08 siit il
TG standardis

Italy/Italie (UNI)
*Ente Nazionale Italiano di
Unificazione
Via Battistotti Sassi 11
I-20133 MILANO
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 31 24 81 uni i
TG unificazione

Jamaica/Jama∩que (JBS)
*Jamaica Bureau of Standards
6 Winchester Road
P.O. Box 113
KINGSTON 10
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 22 91 stanbur
TG stanbureau jamaica

Japan/Japon (JISC)
*Japanese Industrial Standards
Committee
c/o Standards Department Agency
of Industrial Science and
Technology
Ministry of International Trade
and Industry
1-3-1, Kasumigaseki, Chiyoda-ku
TOKYO 100
TP [phone]/6
TF [phone]
TX 02 42 42 45 jsatyo j
TG mitijisc tokyo

For sales information in Japan
also:

Japan Standards Association (JSA)
1-24 Akasaka, 4-Chome, Minato-Ku
TOKYO 107
Japan/Japon
TP [phone]
TF [phone]

Kenya (KEBS)
*Kenya Bureau of Standards
Off Mombassa Road
Behind Belle Vue Cinema
P.O. Box 54974
NAIROBI
TP [phone]/19
TX 2 52 52 viwango
TG kenstand

Korea, Dem. P. Rep. of/
CorΘe, RΘp. dΘm. p. de (CSK)
Committee for Standardization of
the Democratic People's Republic
of Korea
Zung Gu Yok Seungli-Street
PYONGYANG
TP +57 15 76
TX 59 72 tech kp
TG standard

Korea, Rep. of/
CorΘe, RΘp. de (KBS)
*Bureau of Standards
Industrial Advancement
Administration
2, Chungang-dong, Kwachon-city
KYONGGI-DO 427-010
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 2 84 56 fincen k
TG koreaiaa

Libyan Arab Jamahiriya/
Jamahiriya Arabe Libyenne (LNCSM)
Libyan National Centre for
Standardization and Metrology
Industrial Research Centre Building
P.O. Box 5178
TRIPOLI
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 205 49 ncsm

Malaysia/Malaisie (SIRIM)
Standards and Industrial Research
Institute of Malaysia
Persiaran Dato' Menteri, Section 2
P.O. Box 7035, 40911 Sha Alam
SELANGOR DARUL EHSAN
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX ma 3 86 72
TG sirimsec shah alam

Mexico/Mexique (DGN)
*Direcci≤n General de Normas
Calle Puente de Tecamachalco N.║ 6
Lomas de Tecamachalco
Secci≤n Fuentes
Naucalpan de Jußrez
53 950 MEXICO
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 177 58 40 imceme
TG secofi/147

Mongolia/Mongolie (MNIS)
Mongolian National Institute
for Standardization
ULAANBAATAR 37
TP +3 29 30
TX 79233 mnis mn
TG ust ulaanbaatar 37 mn

Morocco/Maroc (SNIMA)
Service de normalisation industrielle
marocaine
1, place Sefrou (Tour Hassan)
RABAT
TP [phone]
TX 3 18 72

Netherlands/Pays-Bas (NNI)
*Nederlands Normalisatie-Instituut
Kalfjeslaan 2
P.O. Box 5059
2600 GB DELFT
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 3 81 44 nni nl
TG normalisatie delft

New Zealand/Nouvelle-ZΘlande (SANZ)
*Standards Association
of New Zealand
Private Bag
WELLINGTON
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 38 50 sanz nz
TG standards

Norway/NorvΦge (NSF)
*Norges Standardiseringsforbund
Postboks 7020 Homansbyen
N-0306 OSLO 3
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 1 90 50 nsf n
TG standardisering

Pakistan (PSI)
*Pakistan Standards Institution
39 Garden Road, Saddar
KARACHI-74400
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TG peyasai

Philippines (BPS)
*Bureau of Product Standards
Department of Trade and Industry
361 Sen. Gil. J. Puyat Avenue
Makati
METRO MANILA 3117
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 1 48 30 mti ps
TG philstand manila

Poland/Pologne (PKNMIJ)
*Polish Committee for
Standardization,
Measures and Quality Control
UI. Elektoralna 2
00-139 WARSZAWA
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 81 36 42 pkn pl
TG pekanim

Portugal (IPQ)
*Instituto PortuguΩs da Qualidade
Rua JosΘ EstΩvπo, 83-A
P-1199 LISBOA CODEX
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 1 30 42 qualit p

Romania/Roumanie (IRS)
*Institut roumain de normalisation
13, rue Jean-Lois Calderon
Code 70201
BUCAREST 2
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 1 13 12 irs ro

Russian Federation/
FΘdΘration de Russie (GOST)
State Committee for Standardization,
Metrology and Certification
Leninsky Prospekt 9
MOSKVA 117049
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 41 13 78 gost su
TG moskva standart

Saudi Arabia/
Arabie Saoudite (SASO)
*Saudi Arabian Standards
Organization
P.O. Box 3437
RIYADH - 11471
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 40 16 10 saso sj
TG giasy

Singapore/Singapour (SISIR)
*Singapore Institute of Standards
and Industrial Research
1 Science Park Drive
SINGAPORE 0511
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX rs 2 84 99 sisir
TG sisir

Slovenia, Rep. of/SlovΘnie, RΘp. de
(SMIS)
Standards and Metrology Institute
of Slovenia
Ministry of Science and Technology
Slovenska 50
61000 LJUBLJANA
TP [phone]
TF [phone]

South Africa, Rep. of/
Afrique du Sud, RΘp. d' (SABS)
*South African Bureau of
Standards
Private Bag X191
PRETORIA 0001
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 32 13 08 sa
TG comparator

Spain/Espagne (AENOR)
Asociaci≤n Espa±ola de
Normalizaci≤n y Certificaci≤n
Calle Fernßndez de la Hoz, 52
E-28010 MADRID
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 4 65 45 unor e
TG aenor

Sri Lanka (SLSI)
*Sri Lanka Standards Institution
53 Dharmapala Mawatha
P.O. Box 17
COLOMBO 3
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TG pramika

Sweden/SuΦde (SIS)
*SIS - Standardiseringskommissionen
i Sverige
Box 3295
S-103 66 STOCKHOLM
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 1 74 53 sis s
TG standardis

Switzerland/Suisse (SNV)
*Swiss Association for
Standardization
Mⁿlebachstr. 54
CH-8008 Z▄RICH
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 75 59 31 snv ch
TG normbureau

Syria/Syrie (SASMO)
*Syrian Arab Organization for
Standardization and Metrology
P.O. Box 11836
DAMASCUS
TP [phone]
TF +41 19 99 sasmo
TG systand

Tanzania/Tanzanie (TBS)
*Tanzania Bureau of Standards
P.O. Box 9524
DAR ES SALAAM
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 4 16 67 tbs tz
TG standards

Thailand/Tha∩lande (TISI)
*Thai Industrial Standards Institute
Minstry of Industry
Rama IV Street
BANGKOK 10400
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 8 43 75 minidus th
     (attention tisi)
TH thastan

Trinidad and Tobago/
TinitΘ-et-Tobago (TTBS)
*Trinidad and Tobago Bureau
of Standards
P.O. Box 467
PORT OF SPAIN
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TG qualassure

Tunisia/Tunisie (INNORPI)
Institut national de la normalisation
et de la propriΘtΘ industrielle
B.P. 23
1012 TUNIS-BELV╔D╚RE
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 1 36 02 inorpi tn

Turkey/Turquie (TSE)
*Tⁿrk Standardlari Enstitⁿsⁿ
Necatibey Cad. 112
Bakanliklar
06100 ANKARA
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 4 20 47 tse-tr
TG standard

United Kingdom/
Royaume-Uni (BSI)
*British Standards Institution
2 Park Street
GB-LONDON W1A 2BS
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 35 69 33 bsilon g
TG standards london w.1

Uruguay (UNIT)
Instituto Uruguayo de Normas
TΘcnicas
San JosΘ 1031 P.7
Galeria ElysΘe
MONTEVIDEO
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 2 31 68 ancap uy

USA (ANSI)
*American National Standards
Institute
11 West 42nd Street
13th floor
NEW YORK, N.Y. 10036
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 42 42 96 ansi ui
TG standards, new york

Venezuela (COVENIN)
*Comisi≤n Venezolana de Normas
Industriales
Avda. AndrΘs Bello
Edf. Torre Fondo Com·n
Piso 12
CARACAS 1050
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 2 42 35 minfo vc
TG covenindus

Viet Nam, Socialist Republic of/
RΘpublique socialiste du (TCVN)
General Department for
Standardization, Metrology
and Quality
70, Tran Hung Dao Street
Box 81
HANOI
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 41 22 87 ukkn vt
TG vinastand

Yugoslavia/Yougoslavie (SZS)
*Savezni zavod za standardizaciju
Slobodana Penezica Krcuna br. 35
Post Pregr. 933
YU-11000 BEOGRAD
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 1 20 89 jus yu
TG standardizacija

Zimbabwe (SAZ)
Standards Association
of Zimbabwe
P.O. Box 2259
HARARE
TP [phone]
TG saca


Correspondent members

"A correspondent member is normally an organization in a developing
country which does not yet have its own national standards body.
Correspondent members do not take an active part in the technical
work, but are entitled to be kept fully informed about the work of
interest to them. Nearly all the present correspondent members are
governmental institutions." [from: ISO member list]

Bahrain
Directorate of Standards
and Metrology
Ministry of Commerce
and Agriculture
P.O. Box 5479
BAHRAIN
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 91 71 tejara bn

Barbados/Barbade
Barbados National Standards
Institution (BNSI)
"Flodden" Culloden Road
ST. MICHAEL
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX barstand, barbados

Brunei Darussalam/
BrunΘi Darussalam
Construction Planning and
Research Unit
Ministry of Development
NEGARA BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 27 22 midev bu
TG midevbrunei

Hong Kong
Industry Department
Hong Kong Government
14/F. Ocean Centre
5 Canton Road
Kowloon
HONG KONG
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 5 01 51 indhk hx

Jordan/Jordanie
Directorate of Standards and
Measures
Ministry of Industry and Trade
P.O. Box 2019
AMMAN
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 2 11 63 mintr jo

Kuwait/Kowe∩t
Standards and Metrology
Department
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
Post Box No. 2944 Safat
13030 KUWAIT
TF [phone]
TX 2 26 82 commind kt

Republic of Lithuania/
RΘpublique de Lituanie
Lithuanian State Standardization
Office (LST)
A. Jaksto g. 1/25
2600 VILNIUS
TP [phone]
TF [phone]

Madagascar
Direction de la qualitΘ
et de la mΘtrologie lΘgale
B.P. 1316
101 ANTANANARIVO
TP [phone]
TX 22 378 min co mg

Malawi
Malawi Bureau of Standards
P.O. Box 946
BLANTYRE
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 4 43 25
TG standards

Mali
Direction nationale des Industries
du Mali
MinistΦre de l'Θconomie
et des finances
B.P. 278
BAMAKO
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 2559 mj

Malta/Malte
Malta Board of Standards
Department of Industry
St. George's
Cannon Road
SANTA VENERA
TP [phone]
TF [phone]

Mauritius/Ile Maurice
Mauritius Standards Bureau
Ministry of Industry and Industrial
Technology
REDUIT
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 42 49 extern iw

Nepal/NΘpal
Nepal Bureau of Standards
and Metrology
B.P. Box 985
Sundhara
KATHMANDU
TP [phone]
TG gunis

Oman, Sultanate of/Sultanat d'
Directorate General for
Specifications and Measurements
Ministry of Commerce and Industry
P.O. Box 550
MUSCAT
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 36 65 wizara on
TG wizarah

Papua New Guinea/
Papouasie-Nouvelle-GuinΘe (PNGS)
National Standards Council
P.O. Box 3042
BOROKO
TP [phone]
TF [phone]

Seychelles, Rep. of/RΘp. des
Department of Industry
P.O. Box 648
Bel Eau
MAHE
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 24 22 ind sz

Uganda/Ouganda
Uganda National Bureau
of Standards
P.O. Box 6329
KAMPALA
TP [phone]
TG mincom kampala

United Arab Emirates/
╔mirats Arabes Unis
Directorate of Standardization
and Metrology
P.O. Box 433
ABU DHABI
TP [phone]
TF [phone]
TX 2 29 37 fedfin em


References
----------

Carl F. Cargill
Information Technology Standardization
Theory, Process, and Organizations
1989 DEC Digital Press
ISBN 1-55558-022-X

  The book gives a good survey of standardization in the realm of
  information technology.

Taylor, Dave
Global Software
Springer-Verlag, 1992
ISBN: 0-387-97706-6 / 3-540-99706-6

  Might prove quite helpful for people trying to understand the
  complexities of internationalization for the first time and
  explains also international and de-facto standards in this area.

StandardView

  This is an ACM publication about computer related standardization
  issues. The editor-in-chief's address is Carl Cargill, Sun Microsystems,
  2550 Garcia Avenue, MTV01-05, Mountain View, CA 94043, email
  <[e-mail]>.


I wish to thank the following people and others for their contributions
to this text (and the osi-protocols FAQ):

  David Gay <[e-mail]>
  Kit Lueder <[e-mail]>
  Don Provan <[e-mail]>
  David Torr <[e-mail]>
  See-Mong Tan <[e-mail]>
  Harald Tveit Alvestrand <[e-mail]>
  Kerry Raymond <[e-mail]>
  Alasdair Grant <[e-mail]>
  Lakshmoji Rao <[e-mail]>
  John A. Shriver <[e-mail]>
  Ketil Albertsen <[e-mail]>
  K.C. Chan <[e-mail]>
  Alex McKenzie <[e-mail]>
  John Levine <[e-mail]>
  Peter Desnoyers <[e-mail]>
  Keld Simonsen <[e-mail]>
  Bancroft Scott <[e-mail]>
  Bill Stallings <[e-mail]>
  Jutta Degener <[e-mail]>
  Norbert Gerfelder <[e-mail]>
  Kristy Brown <[e-mail]>
  Uwe Kunzler <[e-mail]>
  Sandeep Phadke <[e-mail]>
  James W. Reese <[e-mail]>
  Inge A. Suhr <[e-mail]>
  Ed Ravin <[e-mail]>
  Simon Spero <[e-mail]>
  Chris Johnson <[e-mail]>
  Bob Goudreau <[e-mail]>
  Robert Corbett <[e-mail]>
  Dave Taylor <[e-mail]>
  Tim Moors <[e-mail]>
  Michael Welser <[e-mail]>
  Mark Brader <[e-mail]>
  Arthur Marsh <[e-mail]>
  Matthias Krippendorf <[e-mail]>
  Gary Brown <[e-mail]>
  Christoph Badura <[e-mail]>
  Brad Smith <[e-mail]>
  John Williams <[e-mail]>
  Kees Pronk <[e-mail]>
  Jan Schipmolder <[e-mail]>
  Tahir Kapetanovic <[e-mail]>
  Reto Beeler <[e-mail]>
  Rudolf Roth <[e-mail]>
  Robert Shaw <[e-mail]>
  Martin "J." Duerst <[e-mail]>
  Eberhard Wegner <[e-mail]>
  Vasilii Zakharov <[e-mail]>
  Fritz Whittington <[e-mail]>

[End of Standards FAQ]

--
Markus Kuhn, Computer Science student ½░o░╗ University of Erlangen, Germany
Internet: [e-mail]   |   X.500 entry available