The way in which some standards are offered by ISO and IEC to its customers is changing and the procedures to be followed to publish them and keep them updated are also changing. How? By making certain standards available as databases.
Many standards that are collections of data elements lend themselves to being made available in database format, for example terminology, graphical symbols and reference data libraries. Already ISO makes ISO 7000 Graphical symbols for use on equipment available as a joint database with the IEC, including also the symbols in IEC 60417. The IEC has database versions of the International Electrotechnical Vocabulary, electrotechnical terminology, graphical symbols for diagrams and the component data dictionary.
In 2005, the ISO Technical Management Board established an Ad Hoc Group to look at the whole question of publishing standards as databases and the changes in procedures that will be necessary to develop and maintain them. That group's work continues, the outcome of which is likely to be faster procedures for database standards, using a Maintenance Agency/Validation Team approach, similar to that already in place in IEC. ISO will also be looking at various business models for the delivery of information contained in databases, together with related added-value products, to customers.
