ISO/TC 211 remembers 2016 - 2018

2016 started with the publication of our 100th document: a second edition of ISO 19109 Services; we’re now considering how best to handle this document to reflect current and possible future web architectures.

Over the three years 2016 to 2018, we published a further five standards and five technical specifications. All ten of them were additional “parts”: standalone documents closely related to other parts with the same overall number, for example ISO 19160-4:2017 Addressing – Part 4: International postal address components and template language, developed jointly with UN UPU reflecting how “UPU S42, Part A, Version 7” aligns with ISO 19160-1:2015 Addressing – Conceptual model.

2017 saw Sweden take over the secretariat from Norway who had run the committee for its first 23 years. We also started a joint working group with ISO/TC 59/SC 13 to look at “geo BIM”: what happens when building design and construction has to be placed in the wider geography?

2018 saw the launch of the ISO Geodetic Register, run for us by Ribose, Inc under a Registration Authority agreement with ISO. This register is recognised by the UN Global Geodetic Centre of Excellence as a valuable part of the worldwide geodetic infrastructure on which we all depend for much of our modern lives. For a short introduction to how geodesy affects our daily life, see this short (scary) video from the UN GGCE Director (external: sorry about the ads!).