[LINK] Media Release: Call for Australian Standards to be free to Australian

[Marghanita da Cruz]

Australian Standards should carry some weight and like legislation need 
to be freely available.

At a time when printed documents were the only way to distribute 
information, it may have been OK to charge for this. And SA could still 
offer print on demand for a fee. But the standards themselves should be 
available online for the whole community to refer to and become familiar 
with and even call for changes.

Mandatory standards should certainly be made freely available.

I ofcourse have to give a plug for the Australian Governance of ICT 
Standard, which has been adopted as an ISO Standard. 
http://ramin.com.au/itgovernance/as8015.html

With regard to payment, I don't think it is appropriate for Standards 
Australia to pay for this but the committees do need broad 
representation and funding mechanisms for this to happen do need to be 
put in place.

Marghanita

On 1/12/18 8:48 am, Tom Worthington wrote:
> On 30/11/18 2:14 pm, Stephen Loosley wrote:
>
>> ... prices ... buy Australian and International Business Standards as
>> excessive, unsustainable, and unfair to Australian business. ...
>
> Yes, the issue with access to standards is similar to that for academic
> publishing. Volunteers, supported by their employers (and in many cases
> publicly funded), write the documents which are then sold by a
> for-profit company. The organizations which supported the development of
> the documents have to then pay for copies.
>
> There are proposals for Open Access to academic research. I
> suggest the same should apply to standards. This would include the
> Australian Government, and its agencies, requiring as a condition of
> funding that standards are published free online. Also any new
> legislation which requires the use of standards should only use ones 
> freely available.
>
> I propose the Australian Parliament conduct an inquiry into access to
> government funded research and standards. This should include an
> investigation of the commercialization of Standards Australia (SA)
> publishing, and who benefited from it.
>
>> “Fifteen years ago, the distribution of Australian Standards was 
>> privatised. ...
>
> While working for the Department of Defence in the 1990s I was on a
> SA committee helping to develop standards, later I represented the 
> Australian Computer Society at some SA meetings. I became increasingly 
> concerned about the standards processes. In the early 2000s decided to 
> stop having any further involvement with SA:
>
> "As an individual IT professional I believe that SA's inability to make
> standards free and freely available online makes their standards process
> unworkable. ... I will not be participating in any further SA or ISO
> standards making, instead I will be using open access standards bodies
> and recommending my colleagues do likewise. I will not be supporting
> future funding for ISO or SA."
>
> https://blog.tomw.net.au/2009/11/australian-and-international-standards.html 
>
>
>
-- 
Marghanita da Cruz
Telephone: 0414-869202
Email:  marghanita at ramin.com.au
Website: http://ramin.com.au