The adoption and diffusion of data-exchange standards

Working to agreed standards has become an integral part of industrialised society, and many everyday activities are based around standards. For example, advances in company working environments, management structures, manufacturing approaches and the incorporation of Information Technology (IT) for data creation and manipulation have increased the importance of accurate data exchange. Consequently, standards such as ISO 10303, which is the Standard for Exchange of Product data (STEP), have been developed to ensure accurate preservation of meaning of product data during exchange. The use of these standards offers potential benefits, but these benefits are only realised through the effective adoption and use of the standards. In particular, with the boom of technology and the explosion of e-business and Internet communities, IT standards in general are becoming more predominant and more work is going into the research of IT standards. [Continues.]