How International Standards Are Made

Most international standards begin in technical committees where experts nominated by national bodies debate drafts for years. An ISO standard passes through committee drafts, a public enquiry and a member vote before publication, and is reviewed on a cycle of a few years.

Internet standards take a different path, through the Internet Engineering Task Force and its open Request for Comments process, where anyone may comment and rough consensus plus running code decides the outcome. IEEE and W3C follow similar paths of public review and member voting.