Standard

Standardization or standardisation, in the context related to technologies and industries, is the process of establishing a technical standard among competing entities in a market, where this will bring benefits without hurting competition. more...

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It can also be viewed as a mechanism for optimising economic use of scarce resources such as forests, which are threatened by paper manufacture. As an example, all of Europe now uses 230 volt 50 Hz AC mains grids and GSM cell phones, and (at least officially) measures lengths in metres (except GB).

Common use of the word standard implies that it is a universally agreed upon set of guidelines for interoperability. However, the plurality of standards-issuing organizations means that in many cases, a document purporting to be a "standard" doesn't necessarily have the support of many parties. As Grace Hopper said, "The wonderful thing about standards is that there are so many of them to choose from".

In the context of social criticism and social sciences, standardization often means the process of establishing standards of various kinds, and improving efficiency to handle people, their interactions, cases, and so forth. Examples include formalization of judicial procedure in court, and establishing uniform criteria for diagnosing mental disease. Standardization in this sense is often discussed along with (or synonymously to) such large-scale social changes as modernization, bureaucratization, homogenization, and centralization of society.

In the context of business information exchanges, standardization refers to the process of developing data exchange standards for specific business processes using specific syntaxes. These standards are usually developed in voluntary consensus standards bodies such as the United Nations Center for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), the World Wide Web Consortium W3C, and the Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS).

Standards can be de facto, which means they are followed for convenience, or de jure, which means they are used because of (more or less) legally binding contracts and documents. Government agencies often have to follow standards issued by official standardization organizations. Following such standards can also be a prerequisite for doing business on certain markets, with certain companies, or within certain consortia.

A standard can be open or proprietary.

There are many worldwide standards and drafts (for example, for the standardization of powercords) developed and maintained by the ISO, the IEC, or the ITU.

Regional standards bodies also exist such as CEN, CENELEC, ETSI, and the IRMM in Europe, the Pan American Standards Commission (COPANT), the Pacific Area Standards Congress (PASC), the African Organization for Standardization (ARSO), the Arab Industrial Development and Mining Organization (AIDMO), and others.

Sub-regional standards organizations also exist such as the MERCOSUR Standardization Association (AMN), the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ), and the ASEAN Consultative Committee for Standards and Quality (ACCSQ).

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