ISO has just launched a new database that will make the benefits of using standards easier to achieve, provide users with new possibilities for achieving such benefits and cut the time necessary to develop and revise standards.
In recent years, many of the technical committees that develop ISO standards have established databases to store and administer structured concept items from published standards or ones under development, such as:
- Terms and definitions
- Graphical symbols
- Codes, (language, country, currency etc.)
- Units of measurement
- Product properties
- Data dictionaries.
However, until now, no platform was available to bring together in a single source the content from more than 18 000 ISO standards developed to provide benefits to users in business, government and society.
To tackle this challenge, the ISO Central Secretariat in Geneva, Switzerland, has developed a new application, the ISO Concept Database (ISO/CDB), which provides a harmonized platform for search, development and maintenance of concept content throughout the ISO standards portfolio.
Most of the content of the ISO/CDB is publicly accessible via the direct URL http://cdb.iso.org or from ISO's Web site www.iso.org. An online tour of the CDB is available under http://www.iso.org/iso/demo_ISO-CDB.html.
The ISO/CDB will assist ISO technical committees in developing and maintaining concept items included in standards, helping to reduce time in developing new standards and revising existing ones.
The ability to search and compare concepts from the complete portfolio of ISO standards is expected to contribute to increasing consistency among standards.
The case of terms and definitions gives an example of the added value of the ISO/CDB. Through this application, standards experts will be able to access and compare all the instances of terms and definitions used by all ISO Help ISO committees in the development and maintenance of their standards.
Initially, the ISO/CDB enables search of concepts in three important categories (additional ones following on):
- Terms and definitions
- Graphical symbols
- Codes (country, currency, language and script).
- Committees (either as a single word, or as a combination of words).
This will enhance access to knowledge and make it easier to share. In turn, this will help to improve content quality, and prevent duplications and inconsistencies.
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