Introduction Purely based on logic, MPEG should not exist. In the 1980s the Galactic Empire of media standardisation was firmly in the hands of ITU (videocommunication and speech), IEC (audio and television) and ISO (photography and cinematography), not to mention its kingdoms and duchies - the tens of regional and national standards committees. How could this little Experts Group, not even recognised in the ISO hierarchy, become the reference standards group of the media industry (and more to come)? Like…

From what I have published so far on this blog it should be clear that MPEG is an unusual ISO working group (WG). To mention a few, duration (31 years), early use of ICT (online document management system in use since 1995), size (1500 experts registered and 500 attending), organisation (the way the work of 500 experts work on multiple projects), number of standards produced (more than any other JTC 1 subcommittee), impact on the industry (1 T$ in devices…

Introduction In its MPEG and JPEG as SCs proposal, MPEG Future proposes that MPEG become a subcommittee to improve collaboration with other bodies, establish a clear reference in ISO for the digital media industry, enhance group's governance and more. The obvious question to MPEG Future concerns MPEG’s adequacy for the new role. The first answer to this question is that, in its original proposal, the Italian National Body UNI has already carried out a SWOT (Strengths-Weaknesses-Opportunities-Threats) analysis. In No one is…