<soap box mode> At 2:50 pm -0500 9/1/06, [email protected] wrote: >Is there any consideration being taken on making all IEC and/or EN standards >available free of charge, online in a common format such as .pdf? > >This would be very nice. When new versions come out, you just download it. > >We live in the electronic communication age where almost anything in print is >available on the internet. Why not documents as important as compliance >standards?
The logic is inescapable, but I would be amazed if it happens in my professional life time. >Currently, where does the money one pays for standards go? It can't begin to >recoup the cost of those who write the standards. Doesn't it mainly go to >copying and distribution? Should not cost much to put it online, so why don't >they just do it? Cynics like me would say it goes into paying the overinflated salaries of the senior management who run the national standards bodies and, especially, into paying for their fancy headquarters in some of the most expensive real-estate locations on the planet, as well as a whole lot of other pointless clap trap (e.g. BSI News - a complete waste of trees if ever there was one). I am afraid in my experience standards bodies are run by people who like to think they know about what 'business' needs rather than people who actually know anything about the nitty gritty of using standards. The English speaking world is particularly badly served by BSI in this regard. As witness, for example, their complete failure for over a decade to get to grips with an electronic publication/delivery system which is viable for SME's. Odd though it may sound, I believe that part of the problem is that the actual expertise required to write a standard is provided mostly for free by people from within industry. If the standards bodies were forced to pay for this expertise, and value it properly, they might actually try to make the process rather more efficient. They might also weed out the (far too many) people who are not good at it from the few people who are. >Many government documents are available on-line for free. More and more are >available each year. I see this as the trend toward the paperless society. So >what does the future hold for IEC and/or EN standards? Come on. Lets do it. > As I understand it, the US government are obliged to make all government publications freely available to the citizens who have (though their taxes) paid for them. The same is not true for those of us who are still 'subjects' where the Crown can do what they damn well like with the copyright that we have paid for. Personally, I think the whole standards publishing process (particularly in the EU) needs a major top-to-bottom overhaul, but I can't see it happening while the only major interest group in the process which might benefit from the change (the users) has no real forum in which to express their dissatisfaction. Standards writing, by definition, must be a monopoly, and most monopolies have some sort of independent regulator. There is no such body in the world of standards (although the European Commission comes close on occasions!). </soap box mode> I feel (marginally) better now. Nick. - This message is from the IEEE Product Safety Engineering Society emc-pstc discussion list. Website: http://www.ieee-pses.org/ To post a message to the list, send your e-mail to [email protected] Instructions: http://listserv.ieee.org/request/user-guide.html List rules: http://www.ieee-pses.org/listrules.html For help, send mail to the list administrators: Scott Douglas [email protected] Mike Cantwell [email protected] For policy questions, send mail to: Jim Bacher: [email protected] David Heald: [email protected] All emc-pstc postings are archived and searchable on the web at: http://www.ieeecommunities.org/emc-pstc
