[LINK] 171 Australian ICT Standards to be Withdrawn

[Tom Worthington]

At 06:29 PM 8/28/2006, Glen Turner wrote:
>What's the actual effect of a withdrawal?

The withdrawn standards 
<http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/2006/08/australian-ict-standards-to-be.html> 
will no longer have the status of standards. I assume an preexisting 
specification for an IT system (or a law) calling up a standard 
before it was withdrawn would still apply. Obviously you shouldn't 
write a new specification (or a law) which uses a withdrawn standard, 
or you are going to have to pay lawyers to sort the mess out later.

>Is this part of an international programme?

Not as far as I know. Some of the older standards are based on US 
ANSI standards, others on ISO ones.

>What happens to the availability of the old standards -- can they 
>still be ordered?

Yes, Standards Australia will still have copies for sale.

>Are they going to be scanned and made available for free?

Not as far as I know.

But the bigger question is: should ALL Australian standards be 
available on-line for free? I think they should.



Tom Worthington FACS HLM tom.worthington at tomw.net.au Ph: 0419 496150
Director, Tomw Communications Pty Ltd            ABN: 17 088 714 309
PO Box 13, Belconnen ACT 2617                http://www.tomw.net.au/
Director, ACS Communications Tech Board   http://www.acs.org.au/ctb/
Visiting Fellow, ANU      Blog: http://www.tomw.net.au/blog/atom.xml