ISO

The International Organization for Standardization, widely known as ISO, is an international standard-setting body composed of representatives from various national standards organizations. Founded on February 23, 1947, the organization promulgates worldwide proprietary, industrial, and commercial standards.
The organization which today is known as ISO began in 1926 as the International Federation of the National Standardizing Associations (ISA).This organization focused heavily on mechanical engineering . It was disbanded in 1942 during the Second World War but was re-organized under the current name, ISO, in 1946.
ISO is a voluntary organization whose members are recognized authorities on standards, each one representing one country. The bulk of the work of ISO is done by the 2700 technical committees, subcommittees, and working groups. Each committee and subcommittee is headed by a Secretariat from one of the member organizations.
 ISO is funded by a combination of :

• Organizations that manage the specific projects or loan experts to participate in the technical work.
• Subscriptions from member bodies ("the national body most representative of standardization in its country"). These subscriptions are in proportion to each country's gross national product and trade figures.
• Sale of standards.

ISO's main products are international standards. ISO also publishes technical reports, technical specifications, publicly available specifications, technical corrigenda, and guides


International standards are designated with the format ISO[/IEC] [/ASTM] [IS] nnnnn[-p]:[yyyy] Title, where nnnnn is the number of the standard, p is an optional part number, yyyy is the year published, and Title describes the subject. IEC for International Electrotechnical Comission is included if the standard results from the work of ISO/IEC JTC1 (the ISO/IEC Joint Technical Committee). ASTM (American Society for Testing and Materials) is used for standards developed in cooperation with ASTM International. The date and IS are not used for an incomplete or unpublished standard and may under some circumstances be left off the title of a published work.

 ISO documents are copyrighted and ISO charges for copies of most. ISO does not, however, charge for most draft copies of documents in electronic format. Although useful, care must be taken using these drafts as there is the possibility of substantial change before it becomes finalized as a standard. Some standards by ISO and its official U.S. representative (and the International Electrotechnical Comission's via the U.S. National Committee) are made freely available.
 
ISO has 162 national members, out of the 205 total countries in the world.

• Member bodies are national bodies that are considered to be the most representative standards body in each country. These are the only members of ISO that have voting rights.
• Correspondent members are countries that do not have their own standards organization. These members are informed about ISO's work, but do not participate in standards promulgation.
• Subscriber members are countries with small economies. They pay reduced membership fees, but can follow the development of standards.

Participating members are called "P" members as opposed to observing members which are called "O" members.