Returning to normal operations and looking to the digital future.
The Plenary meeting is one of the foundational structures of ISO. At the Plenary, important work of the committee is reviewed, decisions about current and future projects are made, and experts come together from around the world in the spirit of making life better through standards. It is with this spirit that I reflect on the 83rd Plenary meeting of ISO/TC 184/SC 4 - Industrial Data.
Similar to the previous two years, the 83rd Plenary was held virtually utilizing the latest guidance from ISO and the lessons of previous meetings to have a productive and effective experience. All told, approximately 70 delegates from 20 P Members, O Members, and organizations in Liaison attended the week long event. In spite of being virtual, SC4 was able to bring back more of the in-person experience by hosting the Open Technical Forum, the Integration Forum, and the Implementation Forum the week prior to the Plenary meeting. These forums, a popular component of the traditional SC4 meeting prior to the pandemic, offer a perspective of looking to the future, collaborating with each other and with our industry stakeholder.
The 83rd Plenary saw the launch of ballots for new work in the data quality domain with agreement to ballot a new edition to ISO 8000-1 and the creation of a new part 200 focused on the quality of transactional data. In addition, SC4 is balloting new work in partnership with the nuclear power industry focused on developing a novel framework for classification of the nuclear digital ecosystem. This last item will add to SC4's list of Liaisons with the addition of ISO/ TC 85 - Nuclear energy, nuclear technologies, and radiological protection.
In addition, SC4 has been working on its position relative to the next generation of data management and data structures with an update to the reference model for industrial data. A Task Force was launched in May 2020 to define and publish a reference model for SC4 that builds upon the work of previous data models like IDIOM, STEP, and Ontologies. A technical report has been drafted "SC4 Reference Model for Industrial Data" that is in the balloting process.
Finally, noting the explosion of activity surrounding digital twin and smart standards, SC4 formalized its role in the digital domain with a liaison relationship to ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 41 - IoT and Digital Twin and by submitting use cases to ISO's program for SMART Standards.
SC4 is looking forward to the return of in-person meetings with the 84th Plenary planned to take place 31 October - 4 November hosted by the Japanese Mirror Committee in Hamamatsu Japan.