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Conference thebay::joyoflex

Title:The Joy of Lex
Notice:A Notes File even your grammar could love
Moderator:THEBAY::SYSTEM
Created:Fri Feb 28 1986
Last Modified:Mon Jun 02 1997
Last Successful Update:Fri Jun 06 1997
Number of topics:1192
Total number of notes:42769

394.0. "ISO - history of the initials?" by MARVIN::KNOWLES (Pour encourager les auteurs) Tue Aug 11 1987 10:57

    The International Organization for Standardization - why is it ISO?
    (Not like CCITT - a throwback to the original French title).
    
    Thanks
    
    b
T.RTitleUserPersonal
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394.1ISOOSI ?CHIC::BELLDavid Bell Service Technology @VBOTue Aug 11 1987 13:0112
    But I was always under the impression that it was the
    
    		International Standards Organization
    
    that is, an organisation for setting standards to be used internationally,
    rather than an international organisation for setting standards.
    
    If it was in French we would have had
    
    		Organisation des Standards Internationaux
    
    which would, of course, give us the OSI-OSI model.
394.2you must mean the OSI-ISO model, no?ANGORA::ZARLENGALiving on the edge ...Tue Aug 11 1987 13:270
394.3IOS - officialMARVIN::KNOWLESPour encourager les auteursWed Aug 12 1987 10:1612
    Re: .1
    
    On their documents (which have numbers that all have the prefix
    ISO) they call themselves
    
    	International Organization for Standardization
    	Organisation Internationale de Normalisation
    	<and something in Cyrillic script>
    
    The initials aren't in the right order. Any ideas?
    
    b
394.4Well wad'ye know!IPG::PARROTTWed Aug 12 1987 11:4635
    
    This may explain? Quoted without permission from a Sperry booklet
    called "The World of EDP Standards".
    
    "In 1926 about 20 of the world's principal standards bodies organised
    a meeting in New York and decided to band together as the International
    Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA). ...
    
    When the war ended, 25 countries sent 64 delegates to a meeting
    in London on October 14, 1946 to consider the establishment of a
    new international organisation 'whose object shall be to facilitate
    the international coordination and unification of industrial
    standards'. The discussions of these delegates resulted in the
    establishment of ISO whose provisional General Assembly met, also
    in London, on October 24, 1946."
    
    Here endeth the history lesson. 
    
    ISO as an Acronym would appear to be a devlopment from ISA, and
    does not create any precedences in the standards world. Here are
    a couple of others;
    
    ARSO - African Regional Organisation for Standardization (UN).
    ASMO - Arab Organisation for Standardization and Metrology.
    CEN - European Standards Coordinating Committee.
    SPARC - Standards Planning and Requirements Committee of ANCS X3.
    STACO - Standing Committee for the Study of Principles of
    Standardization.(ISO)
    
    My oppinion is that indirect acronyms which aid the vocalisation
    of organisation titles in a multinational/multilingual arena
    are a natural development....
    
    CDP
    
394.5Planned ConfusionMAGOO::PFCWhat a concept!Wed Aug 12 1987 12:067
    
    It was my impression that an attempt was made so that the initials
    do not reflect the name in any one language.  In other words, if
    one language's name matched the initials, then that language would
    somehow have a preeminince (sp?).  Sort of a linguistic diplomacy.
    
    
394.6ERIS::CALLASStrange days, indeed.Wed Aug 12 1987 15:0413
    As I remember, ISO is not strictly an acronym. Since it is an
    international organization, an acronym for several languages is not
    readily possible. However, it is possible to get a name that
    incorporates those three letters in several languages. Also, ISO is a
    good international name because the greek prefix "iso-" is used in most
    Western languages to mean "equal" -- a good name for a standards
    organization. 
    
    Lastly, the English name for ISO is I.O.S. on purpose -- it was
    considered bad form to have the English name be I.S.O. This is another
    instance of linguistic diplomacy.
    
    	Jon