RE: foreign upstarts dare to use their own languages [was: Re:bla ck hat .cn networks]

9 May 2001


      
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From: Eric A. Hall [mailto:ehall@ehsco.com]
Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 3:51 PM
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Think about the acronyms we use in network-speak every day - how
many of them stand for phrases in a language other than English?
CCITT, and of course the favorite ISO, International 
Organization for
Standardization.
ISO is not an acronym
http://www.iso.ch/infoe/intro.htm
Many people will have noticed a seeming lack of
      correspondence between the official title when used in full,
      International Organization for Standardization, and the
      short form, ISO. Shouldn't the acronym be "IOS"? Yes, if
      it were an acronym - which it is not.
In fact, "ISO" is a word, derived from the Greek isos,
      meaning "equal", which is the root of the prefix "iso-" that
      occurs in a host of terms, such as "isometric" (of equal
      measure or dimensions) and "isonomy" (equality of laws,
      or of people before the law).
From "equal" to "standard", the line of thinking that led to
      the choice of "ISO" as the name of the organization is easy
      to follow. In addition, the name ISO is used around the
      world to denote the organization, thus avoiding the
      plethora of acronyms resulting from the translation of
      "International Organization for Standardization" into the
      different national languages of members, e.g. IOS in
      English, OIN in French (from Organisation internationale
      de normalisation). Whatever the country, the short form of
      the Organization's name is always ISO.
Sounds revisionist but I'll buy it.
Revisionist? I'll say ... Mind you that this is from the tail-end of the
haze-daze and the memory isn't quite clear. But, when I was writing ISO/OSI
protocol stacks (a brain damn-aging activity in [and of] itself), ISO stood
for "International Standards Organization". It was an acronym like GNU is an
acronym, with multiple connotations and meaning. However, it was ALSO an
acronym. This comes from around 83-84 when DOD decided to stop waiting and
go with TCP/IP (a hack around layer 6 and 7 politics).
...
As for CCITT, well, what do you expect. They can't even get 
phone numbers
in a common presentation form. :/
I thought the CCITT was folded into the ITU?

Roeland Meyer

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