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Getting Involved in ISO Standards Development |
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The topic of standards has been raised in several Working Groups, and a number ISO standards have been mentioned in Cyberling 2009 (e.g., MAF, ISO 639 [language tags], and ISOcat [ISO 12620]). But this raises the more general question: how can linguists participate in ISO standards development and why is it important they do?
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 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.
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
What is ISO and Why Should Linguists Get 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 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
- 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.
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
