Information technology
CD-ROM
Distributing CD-ROMs to potential customers without knowing what computer equipment they have can be maddeningly frustrating. CD-ROMs simply have to be readable, usable, transmittable and preparable in any manufacturer's hardware, without additional costs or further technical complications. More often than not, however, the incompatability of computer equipment remains a major menace to industry players.
ISO is playing a big role in seeing that some of the mistakes of incompatibility are avoided by providing an International Standard for formating CD-ROM discs. ISO 9660, Volume and file structure of CD-ROM for information exchange, is a standard CD-ROM file system that allows you to read the CD whether you're on a MS-DOS, Windows, Unix, Linux or Macintosh platform. So, ISO 9660 is sort of like a universal standard among CD-ROM file systems. If your CD-ROM is ISO 9660 compatible, it will most likely work with all CD-ROM drives, saving money and making your life a lot, lot simpler!
E-commerce
Electronic data is a feature of nearly all sectors and a universal requirement has emerged for guidelines on information security management that can be applied to all types of business and in all markets. ISO/IEC 17799 transforms the British Standard BS 7799, which has been adopted in many countries, into an International Standard and it is expected to become the reference document for codes of good practice to ensure secure and trustworthy e-commerce.
E-tools
Icons are a language-independent means of communicating information and they are used widely in information technology to help computer users understand and operate functions. The ubiquity of computers means that ISO 11581, User systems interfaces and symbols, will prove to be a standard of universal scope.
Information security management systems
IT service management
Today, IT service providers are under sustained pressure to deliver high quality service at minimum cost. Concerns have been raised that IT services, whether provided by an in-house IT department or an external organization, are not aligned with the needs of the business and its customers.
With up to 80% of information technology budgets of most organizations directly linked to service management processes, ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission have published a standard that is expected to save costs for users, whether large or small enterprises, increase productivity, improve customer service, reduce operational exposure to risk and meet contractual and tendering requirements. Additionally, organizations will be able to benchmark their capability in delivering managed services, measuring service levels and assessing performance.
ISO/IEC 20000, Information technology - Service management is issued in two parts and will enable service providers to understand how to enhance the quality of service delivered to their customers, both internal and external.
Longer lasting PDFs
Have you received a PDF file by e-mail today, or read a PDF document on the Web, or in your organization’s database ?
PDF (portable document format) is a digital format for representing documents. It has become the standard for the exchange and storage of data, because of its significant amount of compression for document files.
ISO 19005, Document management – Electronic document file format for long-term preservation – Part 1: Use of PDF 1.4 (PDF/A-1), enables organizations to archive documents electronically in a way that will ensure the preservation of content and visual appearance over an extended period of time. It also allows documents to be retrieved and rendered with a consistent and predictable result in the future, independent of the tools and systems used for creating, storing and rendering the files.
Optical discs
Optical discs are widely used for the recording and storage of information. Their popularity has led to wide availability and made them the medium of choice for numerous applications. Information is recorded in digital format that not only provides high storage density, but also allows duplication without information loss, offers ease of data manipulation and facilitates.
ISO 18938:2008, Imaging materials – Optical discs – Care and handling for extended storage, establishes general principles and gives recommendations for the care and handling of digital optical discs during use with a view to maximizing their effective life.
The standard applies to the families of compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD), high definition digital versatile disc (HD DVD), Blu-ray disc (BD), and any hybrids of these families, as well as each type of disc within a family, e.g. injection moulded [read-only memory (ROM)], dye-layer [recordable (R)] and phase change [rewriteable (RW), random access memory (RAM)] technologies.
SGML and HTML
SGML (Structured General Mark-up Language) and HTML (Hypertext Mark-up Language, an application of SGML) were developed by the joint technical committee of ISO and IEC, JTC 1. SGML has been a fundamental step forward in the definition of document structures and in the way documents are processed by computers. SGML was initially recognized and used by professionals, technical publishers and by suppliers of highly specialized computers systems and software. The introduction of HTML has since completely changed the picture, resulting in one of most successful technologies ever adopted and is one of the supporting pillars allowing the development of the World Wide Web.
Many billions of pages accessed and visualized through the Web are HTML pages, and any argument as to the importance and the impact of the Web on the contemporary society is superfluous.
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