[governance] ISO standards

[Nnenna]

Dear  Kicki, Anita, all

The ISO has a very complex working method.  At the global level, the Geneva-based office serves as the Secretariat of the National Bodies.  At the National Body level, the Standards Organisation claims to be serving as a sort of Secretariat on issues raised by the national Stakeholders.

In the wake of the debate around OOXML, I joined the National Standards Board of my base country and have been there for one year now.

Here is one information; only national boards can effect change within the ISO.  And for now, it does not seem to be the case.
I think the basic issue here is the historical way in ISO has worked.  Since its creation, it has been concerned with standards of products, which, in many cases have been tangible.  

The IEC- International Electrotechnical Committee is actually the branch of ISO that is dealing with digital issues.  

The internal mechanism of the ISO itself, committees, expert groups etc is a long and boring one and  very few people are actually committed to it.  

Then there is the 'standing' of National Bodies within the ISO itself.  Suffice it to say that proposals that come to ISO goes to technical committees before showing up on the desks of the national boards.  The process from Proposal to a Standard may take years.  For the lack of human resources or whatever other reason, National Bodies only belong to committees where they have a vested interest.  They may be 'O' or 'P' members.  Observing  members' do not really weigh in much but Participating members do.  But to be a P member, you will need a mirror committee at your national level.  Given that time spent on National Standards Boards are not paid, it is almost suicidal to keep up with the volume of work that is required.


Until the OOXML issue, there were only 2 African countries that were P members in the Sub Committee of the Technical Committee that deals with Document formats.  These were Kenya and South Africa.  A few others where members but only as Observers.  It meant that in a continent of 53 countries, only 2 had an IT mirror committee in their National Standards Boards!

We picked up a campaign sometimes after the 3rd Conference on FOSS the Digital Commons organised by the Free Software and Open Source Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA).  It was basically to senstise on the need for Open standards.. but the action framework was not even there!  So far, Nigeria and Ghana are the ones appointing an IT officer at teh National Standards body.  Otherwise, we will still remain with issues around petrol, agricultural and industrial goods.

The advocacy on mainstreaming the issues raised by physically changed persons within ISO, therefore, is a work that will need to be done and well done, beginning from the national standards board and moving up to the ISO itself.

But recently, the working methods of the ISO have come under great scrutiny and I believe that with time, the methods will be bound to change.

But for now, the ISO only deals with standards submitters, experts groups, working groups, technical committees and National Bodies!



----- Original Message ----
From: "governance-request at lists.cpsr.org" <governance-request at lists.cpsr.org>
To: governance at lists.cpsr.org
Sent: Wednesday, August 13, 2008 3:56:53 AM
Subject: governance Digest Tue, 12 Aug 2008 (3/3)


      
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