Dear Bill and All, A few years ago I remember that I recommended, to an organisation I was working with at the time, that they should buy a copy of ISO 31 for their internal reference.
When it arrived we were impressed with several things: . at $175 (AUD) per copy, it was the most expensive paperback any of the group had ever seen . it was badly printed on poor quality paper . the colors had run in the printing of the cover . the pages were trimmed unevenly . it did not seem to have been submitted to any quality control in the printing or binding processes. Unfortunately we needed the reference for our immediate work, so we did not return the book for replacement. I was deeply saddened by this experience. Firstly, it is now difficult for me to recommend ISO standards when I know that they are so outrageously expensive. Secondly, I am sorry for the reputation of ISO; it is difficult to recommend an organisation and their work when you are not confident of their fundamental quality control. Thirdly, I believe that the fundamental references of SI (in particular the BIPM Pamphlet and ISO 31) should be freely available (or nearly so) to schools and colleges all around the world. Cheers, Pat Naughtin Geelong, Australia on 2002/03/26 05.21, Bill Potts at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Having bought ISO standards (and, more especially, ITU-T [formerly CCITT] > recommendations) in the past, I've been aware of the outrageous prices for > many years. On revisiting the issue, though, I just saw an opportunity to > express my outrage (not having done so for a while). > > CDs are not generally produced by non-profit organizations. They also > involve royalty payments. ISO is supposedly non-profit and its standards are > derived from those of the national member bodies (e.g., ANSI, CSA, DIN, > etc.). ISO and member-body standards committee members are paid, not by ISO > or the national bodies, but by their regular employers (who also foot the > bill for their travel to and from meetings). > > ISO could, if it chose, structure its prices in proportion to the size and > complexity of the standards. Instead, they seem to prorate the overhead > component of their prices uniformly across all standards documents. I think > the size of that component is indicative of a large and unwieldy bureaucracy > (located in a very high-rent area -- Geneva). > > Of course, as advocates of metrication, we're spoiled, given that the SI > brochure is free. > > Bill Potts, CMS > Roseville, CA > http://metric1.org [SI Navigator] > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On > Behalf Of Jim Elwell > Sent: Monday, March 25, 2002 06:52 > To: U.S. Metric Association > Subject: [USMA:19056] RE: Fw: [ISO8601] Good News... Almost. > > > At 07:24 AM 25 March 2002 +0100, Louis JOURDAN wrote: >> At 15:26 -0800 24 March 2002, Bill Potts wrote: >>> Even with the discount, the prices charged by ISO are outrageous. >>> >>> The download version of ISO-8859-1, for example, is 44 Swiss Francs -- > which >>> is about $26.50 U.S. >>> >>> The paper version is 56 Swiss Francs ($33.60), plus shipping. >>> >>> It's only a 10-page document!! >>> >>> Forget merely outrageous; it's extortionate! >> >> This is typical of ISO. A shame ! > > This is typical of most standards organizations. You are not paying for > paper, you are paying for content. If the content is not worth the price, > don't buy the standard. At least some of the funding for these > organizations comes from selling their documents at hefty prices. > > A musical CD costs less than $1 to make, but most of us pay $12 to $15 to > buy it. Same thing -- we are not buying a chunk of plastic, we are buying > the music. > > Jim Elwell >
