The topic of standards has been raised in several Working Groups, and a number ISO standards have been mentioned at Cyberling 2009 (e.g., MAF, ISO 639 [language tags], and ISOcat [ISO 12620]). The discussion of standards raises a more general issue, not separately addressed: how can linguists participate in ISO standards development and why is it important they do?

What is ISO and why should linguists get Involved in ISO standards development?

The International Organization for Standardization (http://www.iso.org) is a very large organization with standards covering everything from screw thread specifications to language tags.

Because standards development is “based on voluntary involvement of all interests in the market place,” it is very important for linguists to participate in the creation of any standard that relates to language. The involvement of linguists can ensure that the ISO standards have been reviewed carefully and meet linguists’ needs. For some ISO standards, such as character encoding, it is also crucial that user communities be directly consulted. This is particularly true for users of less well-known languages (and their writing systems). Since linguists often work with such user communities, they can act as intermediaries to encourage such user community participation. For groups of linguists that have been developing their own set of standards independent of ISO, funneling such work into an ISO standard will help guarantee long-term stability and longevity.

The ISO standards process

The process of developing and approving a standard can be quite lengthy, lasting several years. Hence participation requires time, commitment, and dedication from those who wish to participate.

Meetings can be held in different locations throughout the world, so funding for travel is also a desideratum, though attending meeting is not required. Attendance is useful, however, as it is an opportunity to observe first-hand how ISO Working Groups function. It also enables participants to meet face-to-face, voice their concerns, and discuss topics in depth, which can be more difficult if handled via email. Since standard development is done through consensus, talking with others in-person can help move the process of coming to agreement more quickly.

How to participate in ISO standards development

• Read up on the ISO standards development process (such as http://www.iso.org/iso/my_iso_job.pdf) and other docs on the ISO website (such as http://www.iso.org/iso/joining_in_2007.pdf and http://www.iso.org/iso/standards_development.htm )

• Contact the Convener of the Working Group (WG) you are interested in to see if you can participate (see list below). Read the relevant standard the WG is working on and related documents.
  
  
• Contact your country’s standards organization (http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_members), describe your expertise, and see if you can participate in the Working Group in an official capacity.

• Attend the Working Group meetings, if at all possible. The Working Group Convener can permit “invited guests” to participate in meetings. There may be a limitation on the number of times you can participate as an “invited guest,” depending upon the rules of your standards organization, so if you feel you can commit to long-term participation, try to get appointed as a representative or an “expert” by your member body.

Participating in the Unicode Standard's development

The description above focuses on how linguists can participate in ISO standards development. For linguists interested in character encoding, Unicode is another way to participate in standards development, as Unicode and ISO 10646 are completely synchronized. All characters accepted into ISO 10646 must also be approved by the Unicode Technical Committee (UTC).

For some linguists, participation in Unicode might be more accessible. UTC meetings are held quarterly, often in the San Francisco Bay Area. In contrast, the ISO Working Group that oversees work on ISO 10646 (JTC 1/SC 2/WG2) meets twice a year, often in different locations throughout the world.

The UTC discussions can be quite technical in nature, as UTC members – drawn largely from the computer industry – need to be sure that UTC decisions can be implemented on current platforms and in software, and are in line with Unicode policies. Still, input from linguists and members of the user community on character and script proposals is valuable and highly encouraged; feedback is particularly welcome through the Unicode website form.

Ways to get involved:

• To pose a question on Unicode or to keep an eye on Unicode discussions, sign up for the public Unicode email list
  
  
• To become more involved in Unicode development, become a member of Unicode, either as a representative of your institution, as an individual, or as a student. This will give you access to Unicode documents and the "inner" Unicode email list (Unicore).
  
  
• If you are available, attend a Unicode Technical Committee meeting as an observer (or, as a member, see above). Contact Deborah Anderson, UC Berkeley representative to the Unicode Consortium, for further information (dwanders at berkeley dot edu [with no spaces]).
  
  
• Submit feedback on the Unicode Standard, its other specifications, or any aspect of the Unicode website via the Unicode website form.

References: ISO Technical committees (TC) / Subcommittees (SC) / Joint Technical Committees (JTC) of Interest to Linguists

TC 37/SC 4 - Language resource management (work on feature structures, morpho-syntactic annotation framework, linguistic annotation framework, word segmentation of written texts, syntactic annotation framework, semantic annotation framework)

Working Group 1: Basic descriptors and mechanisms for language resources

Working Group 2: Representation Schemes

Working Group 3: Multilingual text representation

Working Group 4: Lexical database

Working Group 5: Workflow of language resource management

TC 37/SC 2 - Terminographical and lexicographical working methods – codes for the representation of names of languages (ISO 639), terminological entries in standards, lexicographical production and marketing, interpreting/interpretation processes,

Working Group 1: Language coding

Working Group 2: Terminography

Working Group 3: Lexicography

Working Group 4: Source identification for language resources

Working Group 5: Requirements and certification schemes for cultural diversity management

Working Group 6: Translation and Interpretation Services

JTC1/SC2 Coded character sets

Working Group 2: Universal coded character set