New Zealand International Review Group – information technology

Issue 21 – October 2010

Standards New Zealand held its inaugural meeting of the New Zealand JTC 1 'Information Technology' (IT) international review group on Tuesday 28 September 2010. The group will provide New Zealand's input into the ISO/IEC JTC 1 committee. Recognising the limited resources available to New Zealand it was agreed that the group should focus on key standardisation areas for New Zealand. These were agreed as:

• software and systems engineering
• programming languages and interfaces
• interconnection of IT equipment
• IT security techniques
• biometrics
• distributed application platforms and services
• corporate governance of information and communication technologies (ICT).

New international Standard for safer water

Issue 21 – October 2010

A new ISO Standard to help laboratories consistently detect potentially pathogenic salmonella bacteria in water supports the intent of a recent United Nations resolution on safe drinking water as well as one of the UN Millennium Development Goals on the same subject.

Water quality – Detection of Salmonella spp ISO 19250:2010 specifies a method for the detection of salmonella bacteria in water samples.

Standards make the world accessible for all – World Standards Day 14 October 2010

Issue 21 – October 2010

World Standards Day is celebrated each year on 14 October to pay tribute to the efforts of thousands of experts worldwide who collaborate within IEC, ISO, and ITU to develop voluntary international Standards that facilitate trade, spread knowledge, and disseminate technological advances.

The theme of this year's World Standards Day message is 'Standards make the world accessible for all'. With at least 650 million people globally affected by some kind of disability, combined with the rising numbers of older people in the world's population – one quarter of all citizens are 60 or older – the issue of accessibility to products and services has become more important than ever.

Accessibility – international workshop

Issue 21 – October 2010

Difficulty trying to access products, services, environments, and facilities is an issue for any of us – let alone the millions of people around the world living with disabilities. An international World Standards Cooperation workshop will be held on 3 and 4 November 2010 in Geneva, Switzerland, to review and examine the Standards needed to help the development of accessible solutions around the world.

For more information read the full article in the September 2010 Touchstone.

Social responsibility Standard – soon to be published

Issue 21 – October 2010

Guidance on social responsibility ISO 26000 is expected to be published on 1 November 2010.

ISO Secretary-General Rob Steele says, 'ISO 26000 will help organisations for whom operating in a socially responsible manner is more than “just a nice idea” to implement social responsibility in a pragmatic way that targets performance. It will be a powerful tool to help organisations move from good intentions about social responsibility to good actions.'

ISO 26000 will provide globally relevant guidance for private and public sector organisations. The Standard is the result of international consensus among expert representatives of the main stakeholder groups with an interest in the subject and is designed to encourage the implementation of best practice in social responsibility worldwide.

Digital geographic information team recognised

Issue 21 – October 2010

The achievements of the international team developing Standards for digital geographic information were recognised through the presentation of the Lawrence D. Eicher Leadership Award in mid-September at the 33rd ISO General Assembly in Oslo, Norway.

The 2010 award was given to ISO technical committee Geographic information/Geomatics (ISO/TC 211). ISO/TC 211 Chair Olaf M. Østensen and its Secretary Bjørnhild Saeterøy received the award on behalf of the committee.

Climate change essay contest

Issue 21 – October 2010

Wilfred Fanokuhle Mdluli, a quality assurance officer with the Swaziland Standards Authority (SWASA), was presented in mid-September with the ISO Helmut Reihlen Award 2010 at ISO's 33rd General Assembly in Oslo, Norway.

Mdluli's essay earned the top award in the ISO contest for young standardisers in developing countries. The theme of the essay contest was 'Can international Standards help fight climate change?'.

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