How many decades can we go back to still see standards used by humans? Or maybe go back even more, how many ages or how many millennia? Before we dive into this: Have you ever thought about how you knew how far back a decade is? Right, time is indeed a prime example of standardisation, even moreso our time zones. But there are many more examples, let us discuss a few. Can you think of any other historic examples of standards?

Now that you have become acquainted with standards throughout history, it is important to recognize what defines a standard. We will walk you through the fundamentals of standardisation, the different parties that are involved in the development. The parties that require standards, the parties that impose regulations. Altogether the development process takes a lot of consideration and in this modules we aim to shine light on the basics to good standards.

According to the free internet encyclopedia: "A standards organisation, standards body, standards developing organisation (SDO), or standards setting organisation (SSO) is an organisation whose primary activities are developing, coordinating, promulgating, revising, amending, reissuing, interpreting, or otherwise producing technical standards that are intended to address the needs of a group of affected adopters." So SDOs essentially do 'everything' with regard to standardisation? We will show you exactly what SDOs do and more importantly how different SDOs operate in this module.

What happens when technological progress severely outpaces the development of new standards by the SDOs? New products need new guidelines or standards to abide to, but if there are no suitable standards technological process is hindered. Around the 1980s, the technological advancement was too quick for the (alleged) bureacratic & sluggish SDOs. In response the industry started consortia to fill this lack of standards and start developing themselves. Find out more and also get acquainted with some of the most recognised consortia!

Finally we arrive at the crossroads of present day standardisation. Since the 1980s technological advancement has not slowed down. Moreover, technology that was previously thought impossible is already right around the corner. Areas like smart mobility, articifical intelligence and machine learning not only require standards to function but also to remain within ethical boundaries. How should, or even can, we define ethics in standards and what about privacy? Technology tends to infringe on this human right more and more. Can we rely on standards alone to set the stage? Form your opinion and learn more about the intricacies between these two subjects.