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1 Basics of standards
Linguistic perspective and types of standards
In the Medieval Europe, a standard was a flag or a sculptured object with the distinctive ensign of a king raised on a pole to indicate the rallying point of an army. It
was also later used for the authorized example of a unit of measure or weight (OED
1970).
• In modem English the word "standard" has a number of different meanings, even
within the standardisation business: An official standardisation organization like
the ISO publishes formal standards that have a certain level of relevance in the
application domain. Often this type is called a de-jure standard. In the French and
German languages the corresponding terms are "la norme" and "die Norm".
• Companies develop industry standards for the purpose of operating their products.
These standards are not officially branded unless they put them through the official standardisation process. If the standard is well accepted by the user community it becomes a so-called de-facto standard.
• In sectors like the IT -business and geomatics, consortia of companies agree on
common specifications to ensure interoperability. These specifications are also
de-facto standards. However, in recognition of the companies' intention to develop common technical roles, they are called standards from the beginning.
Economic perspective
The drive for industry to invest in standardisation efforts is to benefit from the
tremendous savings of money that ensue. A study in the year 2000 proved that the
economic advantage of standards for the German industry is 15 Billion Euros annually (Hartlieb 2000). The reasons in detail are:
• Standardisation avoids the costs of adapting interfaces to a range of applications.
• Participation in the standardisation process puts companies ahead of others not
participating in the process.
• Standards enable a company to utilise a range of suppliers rather than become reliant on a limited number of sources.
• Standards support the legislation process. About 20% of the German standards
(DIN) are referenced by laws and by-Iaws and take the burden of solving detailed
technical questions from the legislation body. In this sense the standardisation
simplifies the legislation process as the parliament does not have to deal with the
subject in full details. The abstract laws only refer to the DIN-standards that cover
the details.
User's perspective
If a technology is mature, then users expect standardised solutions that are simple,
fast, and effective. For example, in 1996 a production company looking for a data
1 Basics of standards
Linguistic perspective and types of standards
In the Medieval Europe, a standard was a flag or a sculptured object with the distinctive ensign of a king raised on a pole to indicate the rallying point of an army. It
was also later used for the authorized example of a unit of measure or weight (OED
1970).
• In modem English the word "standard" has a number of different meanings, even
within the standardisation business: An official standardisation organization like
the ISO publishes formal standards that have a certain level of relevance in the
application domain. Often this type is called a de-jure standard. In the French and
German languages the corresponding terms are "la norme" and "die Norm".
• Companies develop industry standards for the purpose of operating their products.
These standards are not officially branded unless they put them through the official standardisation process. If the standard is well accepted by the user community it becomes a so-called de-facto standard.
• In sectors like the IT -business and geomatics, consortia of companies agree on
common specifications to ensure interoperability. These specifications are also
de-facto standards. However, in recognition of the companies' intention to develop common technical roles, they are called standards from the beginning.
Economic perspective
The drive for industry to invest in standardisation efforts is to benefit from the
tremendous savings of money that ensue. A study in the year 2000 proved that the
economic advantage of standards for the German industry is 15 Billion Euros annually (Hartlieb 2000). The reasons in detail are:
• Standardisation avoids the costs of adapting interfaces to a range of applications.
• Participation in the standardisation process puts companies ahead of others not
participating in the process.
• Standards enable a company to utilise a range of suppliers rather than become reliant on a limited number of sources.
• Standards support the legislation process. About 20% of the German standards
(DIN) are referenced by laws and by-Iaws and take the burden of solving detailed
technical questions from the legislation body. In this sense the standardisation
simplifies the legislation process as the parliament does not have to deal with the
subject in full details. The abstract laws only refer to the DIN-standards that cover
the details.
User's perspective
If a technology is mature, then users expect standardised solutions that are simple,
fast, and effective. For example, in 1996 a production company looking for a data