Standards and Standardization

Abstract

Standardisation is indispensable to life in this century. It is virtually indispensable as the air we breathe, and like the air we breathe it is invisible to all except its technicians. Standardisation impacts life dramatically, it shapes technology and defines the terms of commerce. It sustains our environment and makes us safe. It has given us the wherewithal to walk on the moon and yet it is invisible. Standards or the need for standardisation has been with us since the earliest societies; in simple terms setting standards sprang from the need to assign practical and fair value to space and objects.