Re: [xml-dev] OT: What makes a standards organization?

The W3C is a consortium comprised of member organizations, while
(selecting 2 of the entities you listed) ANSI and ISO are not comprised
of member organizations.

ANSI and ISO are both non-governmental; however, they are associated
with government in some way (while W3C of course is not).

From their home pages:

ANSI:
The American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is a private,
non-profit organization (501(c)3) that administers and coordinates the
U.S. voluntary standardization and conformity assessment system.

ISO:
ISO is a network of the national standards institutes of 146 countries,
on the basis of one member per country, with a Central Secretariat in
Geneva, Switzerland, that coordinates the system.  

ISO is a non-governmental organization: its members are not, as is the
case in the United Nations system, delegations of national governments.
Nevertheless, ISO occupies a special position between the public and
private sectors. This is because, on the one hand, many of its member
institutes are part of the governmental structure of their countries, or
are mandated by their government. On the other hand, other members have
their roots uniquely in the private sector, having been set up by
national partnerships of industry associations. 

Kind Regards,
Joe Chiusano
Booz | Allen | Hamilton

Gustaf Liljegren wrote:
> 
> While not connected to XML, I expect to find the right knowledge here...
> 
> Why are some organizations refered to as standards organizations, while W3C
> is not? Who says ISO, NISO, ANSI, IETF or IEC are standards organizations?
> Do they have an agreement with one or more governments?
> 
> Gustaf
> 
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