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Description of the initiative / best practice
Technical standards help to drive the modern global economy. As industry continues to develop and evolve in Europe and worldwide, new standards are directed to the so called “Internet of Things” (IoT), the “5G” suite of standards, and other next generation standardized technologies. It is anticipated that more and more industries will incorporate these types of standardized technologies and the interoperability that they provide. Standardized technologies are commonly developed by standard development organizations (SDOs),1 where industry participants and other stakeholders come together to develop and agree upon technical specifications. While there are hundreds of significant SDOs, a few prominent European and international SDOs include: — the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI), which focuses on telecommunications standards; — the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), which is the world’s largest technical body and focuses on both wireless and wired communications, as well as other industry solutions; — the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), which is a United Nations (UN) agency focused on standardization in telecommunication, video and audio technologies, and which commonly works in partnership with two other key SDOs, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC); — the European Committee for Electrotechnical Standardization (CENELEC), which is responsible for European standardization in the area of electrical engineering, and the European Committee for Standardization (CEN), which is responsible for European standardization in other areas; and — Various national standards organizations, such as the German Institute for Standardization (Deutsches Institut für Normung or DIN), which is the German national organization for standardization and delegate for participation in ISO.