What is the International Organization for
Standards (ISO)?
[From
the ISO website: http://www.iso.ch/iso/en/ISOOnline.frontpage]
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) is
a worldwide federation of national standards bodies from some
140 countries, one from each country.
ISO is a non-governmental organization established in 1947.
The mission of ISO is to promote the development of
standardization and related activities in the world with a
view to facilitating the international exchange of goods and
services, and to developing cooperation in the spheres of
intellectual, scientific, technological and economic activity.
ISO's work results in international agreements which are
published as International Standards.
ISO's name
Many people will have noticed a seeming lack of
correspondence between the official title when used in full,
International Organization for Standardization, and the short
form, ISO. Shouldn't the acronym be "IOS"? Yes, if
it were an acronym – which it
is not.
In fact, "ISO" is a word, derived from the Greek
isos, meaning "equal", which is the root of the
prefix "iso-" that occurs in a host of terms, such
as "isometric" (of equal measure or dimensions) and
"isonomy" (equality of laws, or of people before the
law).
From "equal" to "standard", the line of
thinking that led to the choice of "ISO" as the name
of the organization is easy to follow. In addition, the name
ISO is used around the world to denote the organization, thus
avoiding the plethora of acronyms resulting from the
translation of "International Organization for
Standardization" into the different national languages of
members, e.g. IOS in English, OIN in French (from Organisation
internationale de normalisation). Whatever the country, the
short form of the Organization's name is always ISO.
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