International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

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What is ISO – International Organization for Standardization in Network Encyclopedia?

What is ISO (International Organization for Standardization)?

ISO stands for International Organization for Standardization, is a nongovernmental organization based in Geneva, Switzerland, that has representatives from about 130 countries and is responsible for developing a variety of international standards in science and engineering.

International Organization for Standardization (ISO)
International Organization for Standardization (ISO)

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO), established in 1947, runs almost 3000 different working groups and committees covering a broad range of standards issues.

The ISO’s goals are to develop cooperation in scientific, technological, intellectual, and economic activities and to facilitate the international exchange of goods and services.

The ISO includes member agencies in more than 30 countries. These member agencies include the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the European Computer Manufacturers Association (ECMA).

What are standards?

International Standards make things work. They give world-class specifications for products, services and systems, to ensure quality, safety and efficiency. They are instrumental in facilitating international trade.

ISO has published 22782 International Standards and related documents, covering almost every industry, from technology, to food safety, to agriculture and healthcare. ISO International Standards impact everyone, everywhere.

ISO standards include the following:

  • Open Systems Interconnection (OSI) reference model for networking
  • ISO/IEC SQL-92 standard for the transact-SQL language
  • ISO codes for photographic film speeds
  • ISO 9000 framework for business-management and quality-assurance standards
  • ISO 216 international standard paper sizes
  • Standards for telephone and bank cards
  • ISO international country codes and currency codes

International Organization for Standardization History

The ISO story began in 1946 when delegates from 25 countries met at the Institute of Civil Engineers in London and decided to create a new international organization “to facilitate the international coordination and unification of industrial standards”. On 23 February 1947 the new organization, ISO, officially began operations.

ISO history - London, in 1946
London, in 1946

Since then, ISO has published over 22782 International Standards covering almost all aspects of technology and manufacturing.

Today ISO has members from 164 countries and 779 technical committees and subcommittees to take care of standards development. More than 135 people work full time for ISO’s Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland.


Obtaining a unique object identifier

If you plan to modify the schema of Active Directory for Microsoft Windows 2000 and create new classes or attributes, you must obtain a unique object identifier for your enterprise to ensure that your new classes and attributes do not conflict with those defined by other directory services. This is especially important in a heterogeneous networking environment with multiple interoperating directory services such as Active Directory, Novell Directory Services (NDS), an X.500-based directory service, or Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP). You can contact the ISO to receive an object identifier for your organization and then subdivide your object identifier space as you desire and assign object identifiers to your new classes and attributes.

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