Sharing data practices is a primary goal for standards development organizations that are signatories of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe’s (UNECE) Declaration for Gender-Responsive Standards and Standards Development. This article presents a data-driven approach to selecting an existing voluntary consensus standard to evaluate for gender responsiveness, and leverages public data to identify potential opportunities for improving its safety impact. The authors found that UL 8400, the Standard for Safety for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality Technology Equipment was a suitable candidate for the initiative, and they highlight potential safety issues through an analysis of incident data and primary research articles.
Countries set up Mirror Committees to represent their interests and vote in favor of decisions that will benefit their economies during international standards development. Chairs in those committees play a critical role in shaping the outcome of standardization processes, which may not be gender-responsive. Yet, empirical studies on the relationship between gender and leadership positions in standardization have been scant. This paper fills this gap using the 2019 Standards Council of Canada Members’ Satisfaction Survey and logistic regressions. We find that women members of Canadian Mirror Committees are significantly less likely than their counterparts who are men to serve as chairs. However, among committee members, experience or number of years of service increases the likelihood of taking up leadership positions, particularly for women who are visible minorities. These findings have important policy implications regarding the reduction of gender disparities in standardization, intersectionality, and the retention and training of women in standard development activities.
While tariff barriers have drastically reduced around the world, non-tariff barriers, including demonstrating compliance with technical regulations, standards, and conformity assessment procedures, remain a significant obstacle to trade and could be particularly daunting for small and medium enterprises (SMEs). International standards have been recognized as an effective way to reduce technical barriers to trade (TBT). This research examines the impact of Canada's participation in international standards development (measured by technical committee/subcommittee participation) on SMEs' likelihood to export. Drawing on a national SME survey, results of the analysis showed that, after controlling for potentially confounding firm and owner attributes, Canada's participation in international standards development has a positive impact on Canada's exports and is associated with engaging more SMEs in international trade.
Building resilience in cities requires, among other things, translating relevant research findings into practice at the city level. In this regard, standardization is an effective means of supporting the dissemination of research findings on particularly complex topics such as city resilience. To evaluate the scientific landscape on standardization activities for city resilience from research projects, a literature review was carried out using the Web of Science database. Only 6 of the 22 articles identified actually relate to city resilience and standardization, and a further 23 articles were found on so-called Workshop Agreements to provide evidence of the use of standardization activities in research projects in general. They were mainly published in the last five years and dealt little with standardization. The results confirm the lack of relevant scientific publications, and therefore, research should focus on standardization activities in research projects in general and on city resilience in particular.
The use of appropriate fonts and file formats for long-term maintenance of digital assets is a challenge for organizations in the public sector. The article reports from a study which investigated the PDF/A conformance and font usage in PDF files provided by Swedish public sector organizations (PSOs). This article presents an analysis of the PDF files' properties and font usage including a categorization of fonts' licenses. This study is motivated by the PDF/A-1 standard's requirement that ‘only fonts that are legally embeddable in a file for unlimited, universal rendering shall be used.' Analyzing PDF sets from three PSOs, the finding shows that the proportion of files that claim or succeed at conforming to PDF/A greatly varies among the sets despite similar backgrounds. Although the most popular way to make use of fonts is by embedding a subset of the font data, for some fonts expected to be ‘always available,' a considerable proportion of PDF files does not include any font data. This puts the onus of locating this data on the PDF reader which is problematic for long-term archival.
This paper presents novel results concerning engagement with ICT standards and their implementations in open source software (OSS). Specifically, findings draw from observations and analysis related to standards and implementations in the multimedia field. The first part of the study reports on experiences and insights from engagement with standards in the multimedia field and from implementation of such standards in OSS projects. The second part of the study focuses on the case of the ITU-T H.264 standard and the two OSS projects OpenH264 and x264 that both implement the standard, and reports on a characterisation of organisations that engage with and control the H.264 standard, and organisations that engage with and control OSS projects implementing the H.264 standard. Further, projects for standardisation and implementation of H.264 are contrasted with respect to mix of contributing organisations, and findings are related to organisational strategies of contributing organisations and previous research.
In the context of long-term archival of digital assets, file formats that are standardized and designed for longevity such as PDF/A are preferred. However, due to the complexity of and ambiguities in PDF standards, it is far from trivial to either create standard-conformant files or check the conformance of any given file. This study investigates the challenges when checking real-world PDF files from public sector organizations meant for long-term archival for PDF/A conformance. Results show that only a small set of PDF files claims to conform to the PDF/A-1b specification variant and even fewer files pass conformance checks by various conformance checking tools. Challenges for conformance checking tools include both ambiguities in the standards’ technical specifications and limitations in the implementation.
We analyze the link between standardization and economic growth by systematically reviewing leading economics journals, leading economic growth researchers’ articles, and economic growth-related books. We make the following observations: 1) No article has analyzed the link between standardization and economic growth in top5 economics journals between 1996 and 2018. 2) A representative sample of the leading researchers of economic growth has allocated little attention to the link between standardization and economic growth. 3) Typically, economic growth textbooks do not contain “standards” or “standardization” in their word indexes. These findings suggest that the economic growth theory has neglected the role of standardization.
The decrease in the regulative power of states has generated a governance gap that has been filled by, among others, international standard-setting bodies. In these bodies, private technical experts shape the rules that govern commonly used technologies as well as influence various societal outcomes. The legitimacy of such regulatory outsourcing is largely based on a variety of quasi-democratic mechanisms and principles, which these bodies have endeavored to make central to the standard-setting processes. This paper examines these legitimacy-seeking aspirations by comparing the normative claims with the actual practice of developing the international techno-policy standard for TVs by the International Electrotechnical Commission, based on interviews with stakeholders and numerous public and internal documents. The findings suggest that the process is inadequate if the goal is not just to bundle technical expertise but also to meet the standards of democratic governance. The study thus contributes to the literature on standard-setting and legitimacy beyond the nation-state.
While several past studies have measured the impact of standards on indicators such as output and productivity for a variety of countries, a quantitative analysis that focuses on Belgium has not been performed yet. Based on a dataset containing sector level data spanning 25 years (1994-2018), the authors find that, next to capital investment and the number of patents, standards make a statistically significant, positive and substantial contribution to Belgian GDP as well as to labor productivity. More specifically, one additional standard will on average increase GDP by €2.04 million per year and will increase labor productivity per person employed by €11.5. In addition, standards contribute to about 0.2% of GDP, 19% of GDP growth, and 19% of labor productivity growth.
The bivalent nature of technology and its potential for adverse impacts are giving impetus to global efforts to ensure that the outcomes of technology are consistent with societal values and desired futures. Instruments such as legislation, standards, and ethical frameworks are being employed towards this end. This research investigates the domain of digital health, specifically health informatics, and asks the questions: What values should inform technical solutions in this domain? How can data justice, the infusing of social justice imperatives in data systems, be standardized in this domain? The paper presents findings from a review of data justice in health informatics supported by findings from a survey that explored key considerations for health data collection, processing, use, sharing, and exchange. The paper then presents the operationalization of the human data interaction framework through a health informatics system architecture to illustrate how the principles of legibility, agency, and negotiability can be standardized, mainstreamed, and embedded in health informatics.
There is a clear overall consensus among international institutions and governments on the need to scale down the reliance of the global economy on fossil fuels. Yet, a sustainable transition from a long-established regime based on rooted production and consumption models, requires tackling a wide array of challenges. Indeed, the transition towards a bio-based economy is still characterized by a high degree of complexity and uncertainty. Managing complexity and accounting for uncertainty entails appropriate and multidisciplinary tools. In this regard, sustainability certifications, standards and labels can play a pivotal role in navigating this transition, creating the conditions to ensure a level playing field between bio-based and conventional products.
Bioeconomy has been proposed as a pathway to sustainable development in many countries. However, the difficulties in defining the bioeconomy boundaries at the national level might necessitate the adoption of a sectoral approach to monitor and evaluate the success of its development. In this resolution, standards, certifications and labelling (SCL) schemes for bioeconomy-related sectors might be an essential source of data. The study evaluates the potential to use SCL schemes as a source for monitoring and evaluating sustainable bioeconomy, by analysing the sustainability aspects (chain-of-custody, environmental, economic and social themes) considered in selected SCL schemes. A variety of SCL schemes for different stages of the bioeconomy value chains were subjected to analysis on whether they consider internationally agreed aspirational principles and criteria for sustainable bioeconomy. The aspects most frequently mentioned by the requirement lists of the analysed SCL schemes were identified, along with the highlights on the least-frequently mentioned sustainability topics.
Standardization activity is a type of open innovation, specifically an outbound-revealing open innovation. Through standardization activities, a given technology spreads, its effects extend to the market, and the market expands. However, in many cases, competition intensifies, and price competition occurs. To succeed as global businesses, SMEs should take a strategy known as “Niche Top” in Japan. Standardization activities are more likely to constitute a risk for SMEs. However, the Japanese government has established a system that actively encourages SMEs to standardize. The authors of this manuscript conducted interviews with companies that are targets of this standardization system and investigated how these companies expand their businesses through standardization activities while still securing profits. The results show that standardization by SMEs does not cause the dissemination of technology and the expansion of markets; rather, it helps such SMEs erect barriers to market entry through the creation of standards and plays a large role in securing shares in niche markets.
This article examines the pro-environmental behaviour of EU citizens and the potential connection with their attitudes towards common environmental legislation and environmental standards. It analyses factors of the pro-environmental behaviour of EU citizens and their attitudes towards EU environmental legislation and helping non-EU countries improve their environmental standards. The article uses cross-sectional regression analysis based on Special Eurobarometer survey. Respondents show a mostly positive view of EU environmental protection legislation and standards enforcement. Respondents with pro-environmental behaviour in their daily life are significantly more in favour to common environmental legislation and standards. Women, managers, and those interested in political affairs are more positive as well.
There are various challenges regarding the development and use of cybersecurity standards for SMEs. In particular, SMEs need guidance in interpreting and implementing cybersecurity practices and adopting the standards to their specific needs. As an empirical study, the workshop Cybersecurity Standards: What Impacts and Gaps for SMEs was co-organized by the StandICT.eu and SMESEC Horizon 2020 projects with the aim of identifying cybersecurity standardisation needs and gaps for SMEs. The workshop participants were from key stakeholder groups that include policymakers, standards developing organisations, SME alliances, and cybersecurity organisations. This paper highlights the key discussions and outcomes of the workshop and presents the themes, current initiatives, and plans towards cybersecurity standardisation for SMEs. The findings from the workshop and multivocal literature searches were used to formulate an agenda for future research.
As the European population ages, there is an escalating need for age-friendly standards to support development of effective products and services involving information and communication technologies (ICT), thereby improving usability for all consumers, including older people. Co-production with users through inclusive and participatory processes provides several benefits to standardization, including enhanced understanding of market needs, clearer identification and mitigation of risks, and increased legitimacy of the standards developed. Ideally, co-production includes users from a range of backgrounds. However, older people, especially those aged over 80 years, are often the least likely in the population to be involved. This paper reports on barriers and challenges to inclusive co-production from the perspectives of a range of stakeholders participating in the European Commission-funded project PROGRESSIVE: Progressive Standards around ICT for Active and Healthy Ageing. It identifies potential ways to improve the participation of older people in the co-production of standards.
Communicating the related environmental benefits of bio-based products to consumers represents a key component of their market uptake. In this regard, the use of ecolabels ISO 14024 Type I play a crucial role. This article identifies and analyzes different criteria proposed by ecolabels for conducting a sustainability assessment of bio-based products considering its entire lifecycle. A comparison of the selected criteria with existing indicators ruled out by the SDGs is proposed. Through expert consultation, the suitability of existing ecolabel criteria for bio-based products has been tested for four applications of biobased products: food packaging from PLA; biobased automotive components; bio-based mulch film; and bio-based insulation material.
A favourable regulatory and standardization framework is a prerequisite for establishing a cutting-edge bio-based economy in Europe. This article presents an overview of existing regulatory and standardization barriers that are hampering the market uptake of bio-based products. Among others, they include: i) the lack of a level playing field vis-à-vis biofuels and fossil-based products; ii) the lack of generally accepted end-of-life routes for bio-based products; and iii) the existence of standards designed for fossil-based materials that do not match market practises. Based on the results of a 2-round Delphi survey, proposals are formed to overcome the identified barriers. These solutions are thereafter verified by stakeholders through additional interviews and a workshop. Finally, recommendations were drafted to update the current regulatory and standardization framework. More specifically, the adoption of relevant principles for the cascading use of biomassthe use of alternative innovative feedstock (e.g. waste) and the update of existing standards (e.g. compostability) are proposed.
