[Biblical-languages] Re: [hebrew] Re: Hebrew marks in ISO 8957 but not in Unicode

newSLATE newslate at newslate.com
Thu Oct 2 11:49:18 EDT 2003


On Wednesday, October 01, 2003 9:05 PM, Peter Constable wrote:

> > From my limited
> > knowledge of the procedures,it seems that the best channel for such
> > input to the ISO committees is through the UTC, which represents users
> > rather than national bodies.
>
> Isn't that an unfair representation of the ISO process? The assumption
> is that national bodies represent the needs of vendors within their
> country, and thus those vendors' customers, i.e. users.

I don't think that's quite right. ISO assumptions are that the national
bodies represent a balance of needs within a country, not that national
bodies represent the needs of vendors.

In the (normative) document "ANSI Essential Requirements: Due process
requirements for American National Standards"
(http://public.ansi.org/ansionline/Documents/Standards%20Activities/American
%20National%20Standards/Procedures,%20Guides,%20and%20Forms/ER2003.doc), a
strong distinction is made between vendor and user interests. For U.S.
standards-setting bodies, ANSI accreditation requirements are that vendors,
users, and general interest categories all be equally considered in
establishing a balanced process. This also applies to adoption of ISO and
IEC standards as U.S. standards.

In over a decade of working on U.S., ISO, and JTC standards, I never heard
anyone suggest (except in sarcasm) that vendors represent the needs of their
users. They represent the needs of their business, which often enough has
little to do with the needs of their customers. This is perfectly fine and
no one expects otherwise, even though it makes for good PR for companies to
claim that everything they do is for the little guy.

Your conclusion, though, is valid: if a country's user community feels
neglected, they need to work through their national body. That's the route
into the ISO process.

Ted

Ted Hopp, Ph.D.
ZigZag, Inc.
ted.hopp at newSLATE.com
+1-301-990-7453

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