International organization for standardization

The International Organization for Standardization (ISO or Iso) is an international standard-setting body made up of representatives from national standards bodies. Founded in 1947 February 23, the organization produces world-wide industrial and commercial standards.

While the ISO defines itself as a non-governmental organization (NGO), its ability to set standards which often become law through treaties or national standards makes it more powerful than most NGOs, and in practice it acts as a consortium with strong links to governments. Participants include one standards body from each member country and major corporations.

ISO cooperates closely with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which is responsible for standardization of electrical equipment.

The organization is usually referred to simply as ISO (pronounced eye-so). It is a common misconception that ISO stands for International Standards Organization, or something similar. ISO is not an acronym; it comes from the Greek word isos, meaning equal. In English its name is International Organization for Standardization, while in French it is called Organisation Internationale de Normalisation; to use an acronym would result in different acronyms in English (IOS) and French (OIN), thus the founders of the organization chose ISO as the universal short form of its name. However it should be noted that ISO also identifies itself as the International Organization for Standardization in its own reports.

ISO standards are numbered, and have a format that contains «ISO ISnnnnn:yyyy: Title» where «nnnnn» is the standard number, «yyyy» is the year published, and «Title» describes the subject.

Aside from standards, ISO also creates Technical Reports for documents that cannot or should not become International Standards such as references, explanations, etc. The naming conventions for these are the same as for standards with the exception of having TR pretended in the place of IS in the standard's name. Examples:

• ISO IS17799:2000 Code of Practice for Information Security Management

• ISO TR15443-1/3 Information Technology − Security Techniques − A Framework for IT Security Assurance parts 1−3

Finally, ISO will on rare occasions issue a Technical Corrigendum. These are amendments to existing standards because of minor technical flaws, improvements to usability or to extend applicability in a limited way. Generally, these are issued with the expectation that the affected standard will be updated or withdrawn at its next scheduled review.

ISO documents are copyrighted and ISO charges for copies of most. ISO does not, however, charge for most draft copies of documents in electronic format. Although useful, care must be taken using these drafts as there is the possibility of substantial change before it becomes finalized as a standard.

During the 1990s, ISO gained a reputation for being slow, bureaucratic, congested, and insensitive to feedback from consumers and businesses. This was mainly due to the catastrophic failure of the enormous Open Systems Interconnect project, which was finally shut down in 1996. Since then, ISO has undertaken modest reforms to decrease the time required to promulgate new standards.

ISO International Standards are not in any way binding on either governments or industry merely by virtue of being International Standards. This is to allow for situations where certain types of standards may conflict with social, cultural or legislative expectations and requirements. This also reflects the fact that national and international experts responsible for creating these standards don't always agree and not all proposals become standards by unanimous vote. The individual nations and their Standards Bodies remain the final arbiter.

The fact that many of the ISO created standards are ubiquitous has led, on occasion, to common usage of «ISO» to describe the actual product that conforms to a standard. Some examples of this are:

• CD images end in the file extension «ISO» to signify that they are using the ISO 9660 standard filesystem (there are other file systems that can be used) − hence CD images are commonly referred to as «ISOs». Virtually all computers with CD-ROM drives can read CDs that use this standard. DVD-ROMs also use ISO 9660 filesystems.

• Photographic film sensitivity to light, its speed, is measured and determined by ISO standard, hence the film speed is often referred to as its «ISO number». There are equivalent standards giving us its ASA and DIN.

Слова к тексту:

define	определять
ability	способность
result in	приводить к
the same	такой же, тот же самый
exception	исключение
assurance	гарантия
corrigendum	список опечаток
withdraw	изымать
charge for	отвечать
congested	застойный
undertake	предпринимать
promulgate	объявлять, распространять
by virtue of	посредством, на основании
bind	связывать
legislative	законодательный
by unanimous vote	единогласно
ubiquitous	повсеместный
conform	соответствовать
signify	означать, иметь значение
measure	мерить, измерять
refer to	ссылаться на что-либо

TEXT 3

Упражнение 1. Догадайтесь о значении следующих интернациональных слов:

standard, company, globally, consensus, position, product, perspective, version, electronics, industry, system, organization.

Упражнение 2. Переведите следующие словосочетания:

world-wide consensus, world-class products, high quality standards, chief executive officer, world-leading semiconductor Technology Company, health and safety organizations.

Упражнение 3. Переведите следующие однокоренные слова:

1. to succeed, success, successful, successfully;

2. to create, creation, creative, created, creating, creator;

3. to develop, development, developed, developing, developer, developmental;

4. to compete, competition, competitive, competitor;

5. to conduct, conductor, conducted, conduction.

Упражнение 4. Просмотрите текст, найдите в нем подтверждение следующим высказываниям:

1. Standards are very important for the firms desiring to be competitive on the market.

2. Standards help to strengthen the international trade.

3. Consumers also need standards.