RE: independent standards - a matter of life and death?

[Chris Angus <chris.angus@btinternet.com>]

If the question is asked in the context of ISO, it is not sufficient to
(effectively) control the ISO committee but also the corresponding bodies in
the national standards organisations who are the bodies who vote to ratify
or reject the proposed standards.

For the software industry it would seem clear that a standards body needs to
consider and have representation from both the supplier and the consumer.
It is generally in the best interests of both 'sides' to have the other side
effectively represented.

Regards
Chris Angus

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Francis Norton [mailto:francis@redrice.com]
> Sent: 11 June 2001 09:34
> To: xml-dev
> Subject: independent standards - a matter of life and death?
>
>
> I was interested in this article in the New Scientist [1] on how tobacco
> companies appear to have rigged the ISO so that they could change the
> way the nicotine content of their cigarettes was measured in order to
> comply withy health legislation without changing the product itself.
>
> "Rather than alter cigarettes to meet 1990 European Union
> limits on tar and nicotine, makers changed how they measure
> these substances, say Stella Bialous and Derek Yach of the
> World Health Organization. They say the companies were able
> to do this because they effectively control the tobacco
> committee of the International Organization for
> Standardization (ISO), which sets such tests."
>
> Is this relevant to the software industry? Not obviously, I admit. But
> it seems at least theoretically possible to imagine cases where having a
> standard organisation that favoured the interest of suppliers rather
> than consumers might cause problems, for instance requiring the
> licencing of IP or churning to force frequent upgrades.
>
> Thoughts?
>
> Francis.
>
> [1] http://www.newscientist.com/dailynews/news.jsp?id=ns9999846
>
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