ICT Standardization as a Normative Regime

Abstract

ICT Standardization as a Normative Regime Characteristics of Technical Standards Standards' Types and FunctionsStandards are technical documents that refer to a common set of characteristics of a particular good or service, 1 and that are voluntary. Standards exist in a bewildering variety of forms 2 and run across many domains, from quality of service in public passenger transport to technical protocols supporting data transmission across the internet. To name a few examples: the ISO 9001 standard series provide guidance for companies' quality management, 3 the Codex Alimentarius standard 1 OECD, 'Standard setting' (March 8, 2011) (DAF/COMP(2010)), available at www.oecd .org/daf/competition/47381304.pdf, p. 9. The common definition of standards is provided by ISO/IEC Guide 2: ". . . a document, established by consensus and approved by a recognized body, that provides, for common and repeated use, rules, guidelines or characteristics for activities or their results, aimed at the achievement of the optimum degree of order in a given context . . ." and that "should be based on the consolidated results of science, technology and experience, and aimed at the promotion of optimum community benefits," Article 3.2 of the ISO/IEC Guide 2, Standardization and Related Activities: General Vocabulary (2004), available at https://isotc.iso.org/livelink/livelink? func=ll&objId=8389141&objAction=browse&sort=name; Brunsson et al. acknowledge that the term "standard" may have several definitions and may highlight different aspects of practice and theory. See N. Brunsson, A. Rasche and D. Seidl, 'The dynamics of standardization: three perspectives on standards in organization studies' (2012) 33 Organizational Studies 613-32 at 615. 2 Classification of standards would typically depend upon the scientific field, or the approach taken by organizations or scholars. For instance, OECD classifies standards as quality, informational, uniformity, professional conduct, and interoperability standards (see OECD, 'Standard setting', p. 21), whereas Werle refers to standards for products or processes that are either design-based or performance-based and have coordinative or regulative function; see R. Werle, 'Standards in the international telecommunications regime' (2001) Hamburg Institute of International Economics (HWWA) Discussion Paper 157, pp. 8-10. 3 Series on Quality Management, ISO 9001, available at www.iso.org/iso-9001-qualitymanagement.html.