1 Basics of standards
1.1 Characteristics of standards
Although everybody recognises that standards have become essential in every corner
of our life, they are usually considered a dry-as-dust topic that seems to block inspiration and flexibility. Standards are assumed to be a weak compromise between existing and proven solutions developed by dull administrative people.
In reality, standardisation is areal challenge often comparable to the most sophisticated development projects in the industry. Good standards are simple and unique.
For example, Roman letters are in use after more than 2000 years and they are still
able to adapt to almost any language of the world. In contrast, the Roman numbers
were not that successful as a standard because the theory behind was not mature
enough. As everybody knows, a numbering system without a zero has limited applications.
All of us have gained some experience with standards during our lifetime. An example of a standard is A3 and A4 paper sizes used in most parts of the world, or the
letter and legal paper size standards used in America. This kind of a standard is
helpful and today, nobody would start arguing about the standard paper sizes.
Another group of examples are for file formats. The Microsoft W ord * .doc format
is well known. Images are often stored or transferred in TIFF. We use them regularly, or rather we let our computer use them. These formats have been developed in
conjunction with particular computer programs. The *doc format belongs to Microsoft's Windows word processing system. The TIFF was created by Aldus and
adopted by Adobe.
A further example of a standard is the ISO 9000 series for quality management.
These define a set of mIes for investigating the efficiency of quality management in
an organisation. The ISO 9000 standards are more abstract than the other examples
but they are enormously important economically for the companies being tested as
well as for the accredited companies responsible for the certification.
These examples illustrate the vast and heterogeneous nature of standardisation.
Standards can be technicalor management-oriented, detailed or abstract, the result of
an international consensus-building process or of one single company's development.
In order to move c10ser to the world of standardisation, the subject of our interest
will be viewed from different perspectives.
W. Kresse et al., ISO Standards for Geographic Information
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004
1.1 Characteristics of standards
Although everybody recognises that standards have become essential in every corner
of our life, they are usually considered a dry-as-dust topic that seems to block inspiration and flexibility. Standards are assumed to be a weak compromise between existing and proven solutions developed by dull administrative people.
In reality, standardisation is areal challenge often comparable to the most sophisticated development projects in the industry. Good standards are simple and unique.
For example, Roman letters are in use after more than 2000 years and they are still
able to adapt to almost any language of the world. In contrast, the Roman numbers
were not that successful as a standard because the theory behind was not mature
enough. As everybody knows, a numbering system without a zero has limited applications.
All of us have gained some experience with standards during our lifetime. An example of a standard is A3 and A4 paper sizes used in most parts of the world, or the
letter and legal paper size standards used in America. This kind of a standard is
helpful and today, nobody would start arguing about the standard paper sizes.
Another group of examples are for file formats. The Microsoft W ord * .doc format
is well known. Images are often stored or transferred in TIFF. We use them regularly, or rather we let our computer use them. These formats have been developed in
conjunction with particular computer programs. The *doc format belongs to Microsoft's Windows word processing system. The TIFF was created by Aldus and
adopted by Adobe.
A further example of a standard is the ISO 9000 series for quality management.
These define a set of mIes for investigating the efficiency of quality management in
an organisation. The ISO 9000 standards are more abstract than the other examples
but they are enormously important economically for the companies being tested as
well as for the accredited companies responsible for the certification.
These examples illustrate the vast and heterogeneous nature of standardisation.
Standards can be technicalor management-oriented, detailed or abstract, the result of
an international consensus-building process or of one single company's development.
In order to move c10ser to the world of standardisation, the subject of our interest
will be viewed from different perspectives.
W. Kresse et al., ISO Standards for Geographic Information
© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2004