ICES 2008
GLOBAL PERSPECTIVES AND STRATEGIES FOR EDUCATION
ABOUT STANDARDIZATION

Location:  National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)
Gaithersburg, Maryland USA
Date: February 21, 2008

Asian perspective -- Education about International Standardization in some Universities and an Academic Institute in Japan

Yushi KOMACHI

Osaka Institute of Technology, Faculty of Information Science and Technology
1-79-1 Kitayama, Hirakata, Osaka
573-0196 Japan
komachi@y-adagio.com


1. My lectures on International Standardization

I am taking charge of the lectures of "Strategy for International Standardization" in Graduate Course of Osaka Institute of Technology[1] and Kokushikan University[2]. They respond to the requirements proposed by Japan business federation[3] and Japanese Government[4],[5].

The lecture program of last year included the following topics

-- Requirements and classification --
(1) Requirements for international standardization
(2) International standards and other standards
(3) Management standards
(4) Organizations for international standardization and their activities
(5) Standardization in consortia
-- Procedure issues --
(6) Procedures for international standardization
(7) Responsibilities of secretariats
(8) Organizations and procedures for national standardization
-- Strategy issues --
(9) Intellectual properties in standardization
(10) Strategy for using TR, Fast-track and PAS
(11) Supports and cooperation with standardization activities of Asian countries
-- Actual works and case studies --
(12) Actual discussions in the IEC/TC100 meetings
(13) Drafting national standards conforming to international standards
(14) Drafting new work item proposals for ISO and IEC
(15) Drafting international standards for ISO and IEC

This year I added the four topics:

(16) Actual discussions in the ISO/IEC JTC1/SC34 meetings
(17) Actual discussions in the ITU-T/TSAG meetings
(18) National government strategy for international standardization
(19) Participation to a conference on international standardization of an academic institute (see 3.)

2. Future issues to be considered in Education about International Standardization

During my lectures I recognized the following issues should be considered for education of international standardization:

(1)  Participant should be classified into, e.g., persons to be
  • authors of standards
  • officers or secretariat of a standardization organization
  • managers or strategy planners for standardization activities
  • users of standards
(2)  The topics shown in 1. should be appropriately selected and emphasized for each classified participant.

(3)  My lectures are based on some case studies. Further generalization and normalization should be essential for academic research on standardization.

We cannot estimate an economical factor of developing an international standard. Therefore a company feels difficulty to plan a foundation to participate to an international project of ISO or IEC.

There should be some guideline for estimation of an economical factor of developing an international standard.

3. Activity in an Academic Institute

The Institute of Image Electronics Engineers of Japan (IIEEJ) provided a special session of Education about International Standardization in its annual conference (Media Computing Conference 2007) in June 24, 2007. The session consisted of the following presentations:

(1) A Concept of Research and Education in Standards Studies, by Shiro KURIHARA (Hitotsubashi University)
(2)Foundation of ICES (International Committee for Education about Standardization) and its current status, by Toshiaki Kurokawa (CSK Holdings)
(3)Development of Teaching Materials for Standardization in the Fields of Electric, Electronics and Related Technologies, by Hiroaki IKEDA (CHIBA University) and Akira IZUMI (METI)
(4)"Strategy for International Standardization" in Graduate Course of a University, by Yushi KOMACHI (Osaka Institute of Technology)
(5)Development and Implementation of Education Programs for Strategic Standardization, by Yukiko KAMIJO and Junghoon KIM (KEIO University)
(6)Cooperation between ITU-T and Universities on Education and Research for Standardization, Mitsuji MATSUMOTO (WASEDA University) and Yoshikazu IKEDA (National Institute of Informatics)

Since there were a number of fruitful discussions in the session, IIEEJ established the Society of Education about International Standardization (STD/IIEEJ), in Sept, 2007. Mr. Toshiaki Kurokawa was appointed as the chair of the new society. The web of the society locates at

http://www.y-adagio.com/public/committees/std/std.htm

The 1st conference of the society (STD 1) was held in Tokyo in Jan. 22, 2008, where there were two presentation and corresponding discussions:

(1) How Shall Our Country Stand Up and Face Standards?, by Shiro KURIHARA (Hitotsubashi University)
(2)Development of educating materials for Standardization, by Takashi Matsumoto (JSA)

In the next annual conference (Media Computing Conference 2008) of IIEEJ to be held in June 2008, the society is planning to provide a special session. Major topic of the session will be the expected aspects for the Education about International Standardization.

4. JSA tutorials for International Standardization

References

[1] Graduate School of Information Science and Technology, Osaka Institute of Technology, http://www.oit.ac.jp/english/daigakuin/jyouhoukagakukenkyuuryou/index.html.
[2] Graduate Course of Interdisciplinary Intellectual Property Laws (in Japanese), Kokushikan University, http://law-openweb.law.kokushikan.ac.jp/chizai/kougi.html.
[3] Proposal for Promotion of Strategic International Standardization (in Japanese), Nippon Keidanren, 2004-01, http://www.keidanren.or.jp/japanese/policy/2004/007.html.
[4] Intellectual Property Promotion Plan 2005 (in Japanese), Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet, 2005-06, http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/titeki2/kettei/050926f.pdf.
[5] Toshiaki Kurokawa, Developing Human Resources for International Standards, Science & Technology Trends - Quarterly Review, 17, 34-47, 2005-10.