Introduction
Formal standards (i.e., standards developed and approved by a formal standardization organizations like ISO, IEC, CEN etc.) have to compete more and more with specifications from other sources. This is not only the case at the level of recognition, but also in the amount of resources available to develop the respective specifications.
During its Plenary meeting in January 1994, JTC1 has publicly announced that as the focal point for IT standardization, JTC1 will provide the capability of accepting standard solutions to IT problems that have been developed outside JTC1.
JTC1 has formed a working group on De Facto Standards (WG-DFS) to study the problem, and to come with recommendations to JTC1 at the next Plenary (October 1994).
This presentation will give an overview of the work of the WG-DFS, its recommendations to JTC1, and the response of the JTC1 Plenary to these proposals.
Transposition
The first thread of action to resolve the problem was to investigate the transposition problem: under which circumstances, and by whom should it be possible to submit existing specifications to the JTC1 fast-track process. The result of this fast-track process is the transposition of the specification into an international standard.
Issues of ownership, copyright, stability, harmonisation and quality were investigated, and a management guide, outlining a process that should give answers to these issues is drafted by WG-DFS, and will be submitted to the next JTC1 Plenary (October 1994).
Referencing
During the work of the WG-DFS it became clear that not all specifications that provide solutions to problems, are suitable to be transposed into international standards. It is therefore proposed to study the issue of normative references to these specifications without the pre-requisite of transposition.Such a reference would mean that the specification only get a status in the context of document from which it is referenced, but no general approval as an international standard.
JTC1 has yet to decide whether it will allow further study in this area.
