Standardization
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
"It is an interesting observation that a culture that seems so bent on standardisation, centralisation, hierarchies, etc. - the computer being the epitome of all that - should be developing into a culture which seems to demand quite the opposite. Suddenly, the skills which have been promoted so much in the past - that is a straightforward and very logical way of thinking , i.e. the classic male thinking - begins to become quite dysfunctional." -- Sadie Plant in Fringecore magazine Aug/Sept 98 |
Related e |
Featured: |
Standardization (or standardisation) is the process of developing and agreeing upon technical standards. A standard is a document that establishes uniform engineering or technical specifications, criteria, methods, processes, or practices. Some standards are mandatory while others are voluntary. Some standards are voluntary and are available if one chooses to use them. Some are de facto standards, meaning a norm or requirement which has an informal but dominant status. Some standards are de jure, meaning formal legal requirements. Formal standards organizations, such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) or the American National Standards Institute, are independent of the manufacturers of the goods for which they publish standards.
The goals of standardization can be to help with independence of single suppliers (commodification), compatibility, interoperability, safety, repeatability, or quality.
In social sciences, including economics, the idea of standardization is close to the solution for a coordination problem, a situation in which all parties can realize mutual gains, but only by making mutually consistent decisions. Standardization is defined as best technical application consentual wisdom inclusive of processes for selection in making appropriate choices for ratification coupled with consistent decisions for maintaining obtained standards. This view includes the case of "spontaneous standardization processes", to produce de facto standards.
See also
- American National Standards Institute (ANSI)
- ASTM
- Commodity
- Conformity assessment
- Embrace, extend and extinguish
- Environmental standard
- International Classification for Standards (ICS)
- International standard
- Interoperability
- Network effect
- Open format
- Open standard
- Open system
- OpenDocument
- Quality infrastructure
- Standard gauge
- Standards organizations
- Transport standards organizations
- United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names
- Vendor lock-in
- World Standards Day
- Java Community Process - The Java Community Process(SM) Program
- International Organization for Standardization
- ISO 14000 standards - a family of environmental management standards
- ISO 22000 - a food safety standard