Introduction The “International Organisation for Standardisation” – ISO – was established in 1947 on the ruins of World War II to accomplish one of the noblest activities that can be performed for humankind: making standards. I call this a noble activity because standards make the society of humans possible and better. When I first encountered ISO in 1987, I found it unique because the national ISO counterparts, so-called National Standards Bodies, even in countries not particularly bent on it, gave…

Developing standards is one of the greatest endeavours humans can do for their fellow humans. A well conceived and rightly implemented standard is the lubricant that makes society more efficient. Communication standards are even more valuable because they enhance the most powerful feature of humans to do things with other humans in a coordinated way. In the 20th century public authorities and entrepreneurs vied in inventing new ways to communicate within a community to the exclusion of others. My best…

In the past 18 months, I have provided ample information on how MPEG was established, how it works, what it has done and is doing, and why it is different than other committees. In the last article Why is there a battle around MPEG?, I have identified another point of divergence. Patent declarations that relate to MPEG standards are 57.5% of all patent declarations submitted to ISO. MPEG is special because the next ISO committee in terms of number of…