Foundations and Future Prospects of Standards Studies: Multidisciplinary Approach

The First Wave Driven by Technology

To date, standards have not been taken up for an academic discipline. Since the development of standards as industrial infrastructure requires the accumulation of considerable data and expert knowledge, it has been entrusted to professional engineers in a business corporation. This is proved by the historical evolution of international standardization. In 1865, an organization concerned with the technology of sending a signal, invented by Samuel F.B. Morse, was launched, a body that has now been succeeded by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU). One of the important tasks today is the allocation of frequencies for mobile phones and the preparation of international agreements published as recommendations. The next international organization was established in 1906 by Lord Kelvin as the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) to deal with the electrical technology invented at the time. The third one was set up in 1926, with the focus on mechanical technology, which is the predecessor of the present International Standardization Organization (ISO). Finally in 1987, the Joint Technical Committee 1 (JTC1) was created, together with the IEC and the ISO, in the field of information technology especially related to computer software. The start of these four organizations, each of which corresponds to the then emerging key technologies; namely, communication, electrical, mechanical and information technologies, seems to characterize the technology-led first wave in the history of standards development. As a general rule, the diffusion of a key technology embodied in new products and services calls for such specifications to make them fit for use and acceptable to the times and society. In this sense, the first wave is derived from the adaptation of technological innovation to market or social needs.