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The annual
conference for the creators and users of standards |
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| Introduction: Everybody who is involved in the creation and/or interpretation of standards or otherwise experiences the effects of standardization will sooner or later become aware of the possibilities offered by Information and Communication Technology (ICT). It can safely be said that because of ICT standardization activities are rapidly moving into a new era. History: In 1996, the Dutch standards users organization "Normalisatie Kringen Nederland" (NKN) started a series of conferences for the benefit of people who produce and/or interpret standards as part of their day-to-day work or who are confronted with the consequences and effects of standardization in one way or another. The aim was to show how their day-to-day work could be improved and how they could modernize their working methods with the help of Information and Communication Technology. To gain a firm footing among all symposiums, conferences, workshops, etc. (over a longer period of time) we decided to use the title "Normalization 2000+" for our conference. By opting for this title we not only wanted to underline the importance of standardization now and in the future, but also the importance of modernizing standardization work. Modernization not only of the process of standards publication, but also of activities such as the collection, reviewing and processing of information and the methods of dissemination. Purpose of the conference: Most symposiums, conferences, etc. are mainly focussed on the publication of concrete results rather than on the process of creation of documents, standards (information) itself. The main purpose of our conference is to enable transfer of knowledge and experiences. To this end, we organize presentations and discussions of various standardization- related topics. Based on the number of visitors (about 100 on average) and their responses during the four three conferences we can conclude that there is widespread interest in developments in the field of standardization and the process of creating standards and disseminating information on standardization. These matters are not the concern of standardization experts alone. We feel that our conference is of interest to everyone involved in obtaining, discussing, processing and disseminating information (knowledge management). Because in this matter we all have basically the same questions (needs) and we are all looking for solutions. Overview of topics of the previous conferences: (click the year link to view the complete programme): 1996 Creation and distribution of standards: a new era. o
This first conference was the start to introduce future developments. 1997 Obtaining, processing and distribution of normative information.
At the request of visitors to the first conference, the 1997 conference was largely devoted to a further, in-depth discussion of topics presented at the first conference, though some new topics were also introduced. 1998 Standardization lined up: supply and demand on the standardization market.
During the 1998 conference the standardization department of the future was presented as a shop on the information highway. For the benefit of customers (line departments within companies) the supply and demand situation was reviewed. Also, a blueprint for a modern standardization shop was presented. At the request of visitors to the 1997 conference, some legal aspects of E-commerce were also discussed. 1999 Standardization in relation to (international) supply and out-sourcing
During the 1999 conference several solutions as used by member companies where shown: creation of standards at DSM, knowledge management at Océ Technologies, availability of standards through intranet/extranet at NAM. Also some standards (SGML, DTD, XML) where presented as the basis for the creation and management of normative information. |
