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 The International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) is a worldwide federation of national
standards bodies from some 140 countries, one from each country. The ISO
works in partnership with governments, international organizations,
industry, business and consumer representatives. ISO is a bridge between
public and private sectors.
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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