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The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations.

Founded on 23 February 1947, the organization promotes worldwide proprietary, industrial and commercial standards. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland,[4] and as of 2013 works in 164 countries

It was one of the first organizations granted general consultative status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council

Contents
1 Overview
2 Name and abbreviations
3 History
4 Structure
4.1 IEC joint committees
4.1.1 ISO/IEC JTC 1
4.1.2 ISO/IEC JTC 2
5 Membership
6 Financing
7 International Standards and other publications
7.1 Document copyright
8 Standardization process
9 Products named after ISO
10 Criticism
11 See also
12 Notes and references
13 Further reading
14 External links
 Overview[edit] ISO, the International Organization for Standardization, is an independent, non-governmental organization, the members of which are the standards organization of the 163 member countries. It is the world’s largest developer of voluntary international standards and facilitates world trade by providing common standards between nations. Nearly twenty thousand standards have been set covering everything from manufactured products and technology to food safety, agriculture and healthcare

Use of the standards ensures that products and services are safe, reliable and of good quality. The standards help businesses increase productivity while minimizing errors and waste. By enabling products from different markets to be directly compared, they facilitate companies in entering new markets and assist in the development of global trade on a fair basis. The standards also serve to safeguard consumers and the end-users of products and services, ensuring that certified products conform to the minimum standards set internationally

Name and abbreviations[edit] The three official languages of the ISO are English, French, and Russian.[3] The name of the organization in French is Organization international  denormalization, and in Russian, Международная организация по стандартизации. According to the ISO, as its name in different languages would have different abbreviations (“IOS” in English, “OIN” in French, etc.), the organization adopted “ISO” as its abbreviated name in reference to the Greek word isos (ἴσος, meaning equal). However, during the founding meetings of the new organization,this Greek word was not evoked, so this explanation may have been imagined later

Both the name “ISO” and the logo are registered trademarks, and their use is restricted.

History

Plaque marking the building in Prague where the ISO’s predecessor, the ISA, was founded.
(Click to enlarge / read.)
 The organization today known as ISO began in 1926 as the International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA). It was suspended in 1942[9] during World War II, but after the war ISA was approached by the recently formed United Nations Standards Coordinating Committee (UNSCC) with a proposal to form a new global standards body. In October 1946, ISA and UNSCC delegates from 25 countries met in London and agreed to join forces to create the new International Organization for Standardization; the new organization officially began operations in February 1947

Structure
 ISO is a voluntary organization whose members are recognized authorities on standards, each one representing one country. Members meet annually at a General Assembly to discuss ISO’s strategic objectives. The organization is coordinated by a Central Secretariat based in Geneva

A Council with a rotating membership of 20 member bodies provides guidanCetitle=”نشان CE” >ce and governance, including setting the Central Secretariat’s annual budget

The Technical Management Board is responsible for over 250 technical committees, who develop the ISO standards

IEC joint committees
 ISO has formed joint committees with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to develop standards and terminology in the areas of electrical, electronic and related technologies.

ISO/IEC JTC 1
Information technology
Main article: ISO/IEC JTC 1
ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC 1) was created in 1987 to “[d]evelop, maintain, promote and facilitate IT standardss”.

ISO/IEC JTC 2
Joint Project Committee – Energy efficiency and renewable energy sources – Common terminology
ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee 2 (JTC 2) was created in 2009 for the purpose of “standardization in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energy sources”

Membership

ISO member countries with a national standards body and ISO voting rights.
Correspondent members (countries without a national standards body).
Subscriber members (countries with small economies).
Non-member countries with ISO 3166-1 codes.
ISO has 163 national members,[2] out of the 206 total countries in the worldd.

ISO has three membership categories

Member bodies are national bodies considered the most representative standards body in each country. These are the only members of ISO that have voting rights
 Correspondent members are countries that do not have their own standards organization. These members are informed about ISO’s work, but do not participate in standards promulgation.
Subscriber members are countries with small economies. They pay reduced membership fees, but can follow the development of standards.
Participating members are called “P” members, as opposed to observing members, who are called “O” memberss.

Financing
 ISO is funded by a combination of

Organizations that manage the specific projects or loan experts to participate in the technical work
Subscriptions from member bodies. These subscriptions are in proportion to each country’s gross national product and trade figures
Sale of standards
International Standards and other publications
See also: List of International Organization for Standardization standards
 ISO’s main products are international standards. ISO also publishes technical reports, technical specifications, publicly available specifications, technical corrigenda, and guides

International standards
 These are designated using the format ISO[/IEC] [/ASTM] [IS] nnnnn[-p]:[yyyy] Title, where nnnnn is the number of the standard, p is an optional part number, yyyy is the year published, and Title describes the subject. IEC for International Electrotechnical Commission is included if the standard results from the work of ISO/IEC JTC1 (the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee). ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) is used for standards developed in cooperation with ASTM International. yyyy and IS are not used for an incomplete or unpublished standard and may under some circumstances be left off the title of a published work.
Technical reports
 These are issued when a technical committee or subcommittee has collected data of a different kind from that normally published as an International Standard, such as references and explanations. The naming conventions for these are the same as for standards, except TR prepended instead of IS in the report’s name.
For example:
ISO/IEC TR 17799:2000 Code of Practice for Information Security Management
ISO/TR 19033:2000 Technical product documentation — Metadata for construction documentation
Technical and publicly available specifications
 Technical specifications may be produced when “the subject in question is still under development or where for any other reason there is the future but not immediate possibility of an agreement to publish an International Standard”. A publicly available specification is usually “an intermediate specification, published prior to the development of a full International Standard, or, in IEC may be a ‘dual logo’ publication published in collaboration with an external organization”. By convention, both types of specification are named in a manner similar to the organization’s technical reports.
For example:
ISO/TS 16952-1:2006 Technical product documentation — Reference designation system — Part 1: General application rules
ISO/PAS 11154:2006 Road vehicles — Roof load carriers
Technical corrigenda
 ISO also sometimes issues “technical corrigenda” (where “corrigenda” is the plural of corrigendum). These are amendments made to existing standards due to minor technical flaws, usability improvements, or limited-applicability extensions. They are generally issued with the expectation that the affected standard will be updated or withdrawn at its next scheduled review.
ISO guides
These are meta-standards covering “matters related to international standardization”.[19] They are named using the format “ISO[/IEC] Guide N:yyyy: Title”.
For examplee:

ISO/IEC Guide 2:2004 Standardization and related activities — General vocabulary
ISO/IEC Guide 65:1996 General requirements for bodies operating product certification
 Document copyright[edit] ISO documents are copyrighted and ISO charges for most copies. It does not, however, charge for most draft copies of documents in electronic format. Although they are useful, care must be taken using these drafts as there is the possibility of substantial change before they become finalized as standards. Some standards by ISO and its official U.S. representative (and, via the U.S. National Committee, the International Electrotechnical Commission) are made freely available.

Standardization process
 A standard published by ISO/IEC is the last stage of a long process that commonly starts with the proposal of new work within a committee. Here are some abbreviations used for marking a standard with its status

PWI – Preliminary Work Item
NP or NWIP – New Proposal / New Work Item Proposal (e.g., ISO/IEC NP 23007)
AWI – Approved new Work Item (e.g., ISO/IEC AWI 15444-14)
WD – Working Draft (e.g., ISO/IEC WD 27032)
CD – Committee Draft (e.g., ISO/IEC CD 23000-5)
FCD – Final Committee Draft (e.g., ISO/IEC FCD 23000-12)
DIS – Draft International Standard (e.g., ISO/IEC DIS 14297)
FDIS – Final Draft International Standard (e.g., ISO/IEC FDIS 27003)
PRF – Proof of a new International Standard (e.g., ISO/IEC PRF 18018)
IS – International Standard (e.g., ISO/IEC 13818-1:2007)
 Abbreviations used for amendments

NP Amd – New Proposal Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 15444-2:2004/NP Amd 3)
AWI Amd – Approved new Work Item Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 14492:2001/AWI Amd 4)
WD Amd – Working Draft Amendment (e.g., ISO 11092:1993/WD Amd 1)
CD Amd / PDAmd – Committee Draft Amendment / Proposed Draft Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 13818-1:2007/CD Amd 6)
FPDAmd / DAM (DAmd) – Final Proposed Draft Amendment / Draft Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 14496-14:2003/FPDAmd 1)
FDAM (FDAmd) – Final Draft Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 13818-1:2007/FDAmd 4)
PRF Amd – (e.g., ISO 12639:2004/PRF Amd 1)
Amd – Amendment (e.g., ISO/IEC 13818-1:2007/Amd 1:2007)
 Other abbreviations

TR – Technical Report (e.g., ISO/IEC TR 19791:2006)
DTR – Draft Technical Report (e.g., ISO/IEC DTR 19791)
TS – Technical Specification (e.g., ISO/TS 16949:2009)
DTS – Draft Technical Specification (e.g., ISO/DTS 11602-1)
PAS – Publicly Available Specification
TTA – Technology Trends Assessment (e.g., ISO/TTA 1:1994)
IWA – International Workshop Agreement (e.g., IWA 1:2005)
Cor – Technical Corrigendum (e.g., ISO/IEC 13818-1:2007/Cor 1:2008)
Guide – a guidance to technical committees for the preparation of standards
International Standards are developed by ISO technical committees (TC) and subcommittees (SC) by a process with six steps:[25][32]

Stage 1: Proposal stage
Stage 2: Preparatory stage
Stage 3: Committee stage
Stage 4: Enquiry stage
Stage 5: Approval stage
Stage 6: Publication stage
 The TC/SC may set up working groups (WG) of experts for the preparation of a working drafts. Subcommittees may have several working groups, which can have several Sub Groups (SG