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Our Points
Wednesday, August 30. 2006

ISO and Paying for Standards

Jeff Thurston notes that ISO sells its standards. Indeed it does. This is from the ISO FAQ on standards (there are few other FAQs, too):

2.21 Why aren't ISO standards free?
ISO standards cost money to develop, publish and distribute. Someone has to pay. The current system whereby users are requested to pay for the standards they use, not only sustains the development process but also, very importantly, ensures that the balance of independent vs. government, private vs. public interests can be maintained.


BTW, ISO is not an abbreviation for the name of an organization; it's a word derived from the Greek meaning "equal." The organization is the International Organization for Standardization (in English).

One more thing: when an OGC standard becomes an ISO standard (Simple Features and WMS are and others are to be soon!), you can get the OGC one for free.

Posted by Adena Schutzberg in Standards at 06:00 | Comments (3) | Trackback (1) | Bookmark and Share

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So the OGC specifications don't cost anything to develop? How does OGC achieve free specifications? I've always found the ISO pay-for-spec approach puzzling, given that they are supposed to encourage standardization and consistency. Even if the costs are minimal for them, that still presents a layer of complexity, especially for organizations with the overhead of processes of purchasing good and services.

Another layer of complexity between the OGC/ISO spec swap is synchronization. OGC's process is faster than the ISO process.
#1 anonymous hero on 2006-09-01 09:00 (Reply)
I most certainly did not say that OGC specifications don't cost anything to develop. They are free to download and use. OGC's funding is clearly laid out on its website. As for synchronization, yes, that's an issue. If you know a way around it, please share it!
#2 Adena Schutzberg (Link) on 2006-09-01 09:43 (Reply)
Exactly. This is why the OGC specs have taken off.

Syncronization: one approach could be to totally seperate abstract (models, classifications, etc.) from implementation (syntax, APIs, etc.), where ISO does the former and OGC does the latter.
#3 anonymous hero on 2006-09-01 13:13 (Reply)

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