Annex L Rules for
ISO/IEC JTC 1 Workshop Mode of Operation
L1
Proposals to hold JTC 1
Workshops
A proposal to hold a JTC 1 Workshop for the purpose of developing one
or more IWAs on a particular subject may come from any source,
including JTC 1 National Bodies, liaison organisations, corporate
bodies etc. An organisation that is not a JTC 1 National Body or
liaison Organisation, or is not international in scope, shall inform
the JTC 1 National Body in its country of its intent to submit such a
proposal.
Whenever practicable, Proposers shall provide details concerning:
- Purpose and justification of the proposal;
- Relevant documents; and
- Co-operation and liaison,
in accordance with Annex C of the fourth edition (2001) of Part 1 of
the ISO/IEC Directives.
Additionally, wherever possible, proposals shall include indication of
a JTC 1 National Body willing to provide Secretariat, administrative
and logistic support, and a candidate Workshop Chairman. If it is
considered likely that participation in the Workshop will need to be
limited (see L5.2), this shall also be
indicated. The proposal
should indicate the predicted further route of any deliverables.
In some circumstances, it may be considered that several meetings may
be needed in order to reach a consensus. In such cases, the
Proposer is encouraged, or may be required by JTC 1, to develop a
business plan which would give details concerning meeting schedules,
expected dates of availability of draft documents, the possibility that
a Workshop may establish project teams to progress work between
meetings of the Workshop, the expected date of availability of any IWA,
etc.
Note: Guidance to workshop proposers
is provided in Annex LB.
L2
Review of proposals
Proposals will be submitted to the JTC 1 Secretariat for approval by
JTC 1. If the proposal is accepted, JTC 1 will initiate, if
necessary, consultations with JTC 1 National Bodies to identify a
candidate willing to act as the organiser and to provide administrative
and logistics support to the
Proposer. Preference will normally be given to:
- The National Body from the country of the Proposer, if the
Proposer is not a JTC 1 National Body; or
- National Bodies holding Secretariats in fields related to that
covered by the proposal.
If there is more than one offer, JTC 1 will formally designate the
National Body assigned to act as the Workshop Secretariat. The
assigned JTC 1 National Body may establish financial arrangements with
the Proposer to cover administrative and logistics support costs for
the Workshop. If a National Body is not willing to act as
Workshop Secretariat, JTC 1 may authorise its Secretariat to fulfil
this role, provided all associated costs are recovered by Workshop
registration fees.
Note: An informative checklist for estimating workshop costs is
provided in Annex LA.
The Workshop Secretariat and the Proposer shall designate the Chairman
of the Workshop.
L3
Announcement
Once the Workshop Secretariat and the Proposer have agreed on a date
and venue for the first meeting of the Workshop, these shall be
communicated to the JTC 1 National Bodies. These details shall be
further announced by the Workshop Secretariat, the JTC 1 Secretariat
and by any other interested National Bodies in the most appropriate
way(s) to achieve the widest possible circulation (e.g. a publicly
accessible website). This may include a number of different
announcement options and media, but the intent is to ensure that the
broadest range of relevant interested parties worldwide are informed of
the Workshop and have the opportunity to attend.
The Proposer and Workshop Secretariat will ensure that any JTC 1
Subcommittees with projects relevant to the subject will be invited to
be represented at the Workshop.
A registration fee may be applied to help support preparation and
hosting of the Workshop. Any registration fees shall be stated in
the Workshop announcement.
Note: When the subject matter of a
Workshop is likely to be of interest to developing countries, it is
recommended either that a funding mechanism other than a registration
fee be applied to facilitate participation from such countries, or that
a number of "free" registrations be permitted.
The announcement shall be made at least 90 days in advance of the first
meeting to allow potential attendees adequate time to plan on attending
the Workshop. The announcement shall be accompanied by a
registration form to allow potential participants to register for the
Workshop.
Registration forms shall be returned to the Workshop Secretariat.
L4
Workshop information
A Workshop programme detailing Workshop objectives, deliverables,
agenda, draft documents and any other relevant details for the Workshop
shall be available, and circulated to registered participants, no later
than six weeks prior to the Workshop date. Registered
participants may submit their own contributions to the Workshop
Secretariat for further distribution to other participants.
L5
Participation
L5.1 Workshop
chairmen
The Workshop Chairman shall act in a purely international and neutral
capacity and in particular shall
- ensure that all points of view expressed during a Workshop are
adequately summed up so that they are understood by all present,
- conduct the Workshop with a view to reaching consensus,
- ensure that all decisions are clearly formulated and, if needed,
made available to the participants before closure of the meeting of the
Workshop.
L5.2
Registered
participants
Any Organisation or individual may register as a participant in a
Workshop and participation will be open to the registered participants
only. Registration of participants may take place at any time
during the existence of the Workshop. Participants are not
required to be appointed by the JTC 1 National Body in their country.
The Workshop Secretariat, Chairman and Proposer shall endeavour to
ensure that the broadest range of interests is represented in any
Workshop and that there is an appropriate balance of
representation. If needed, this may require that some limitation
be placed on participation (for example no more than two registered
participants from the same corporate body or Organisation). If
the need to limit participation is expected at the outset, this shall
be indicated in the proposal submitted to JTC 1. If a need for
limitation becomes apparent after announcement of the Workshop, this
shall be authorised by the JTC 1 Secretariat following consultation
with the JTC 1 Chairman and, if needed, JTC 1 National Bodies.
L5.3 Project teams
In cases in which more than one meeting will be required to reach
consensus, a Workshop may establish one or more project teams to
progress work between meetings of the Workshop. The Workshop
shall designate the membership of such project teams, ensuring that
their working methods will allow all registered participants to
participate fully.
L6
Workshop procedures and management oversight
Workshops will be permitted to work in a practically autonomous manner
using very flexible procedures. However, there are a number of
general ISO and IEC policies which need to be respected, in particular
those concerning intellectual property rights and the use of SI
units. It shall be the responsibility of the Workshop Secretariat
to ensure that the appropriate policies are known to registered
participants and are respected.
Management oversight will be kept to the minimum required to ensure
coordination with existing standardisation activities if relevant and
to ensure that appropriate resource is provided by the ISO and IEC
systems. It will be the responsibility of the Workshop Chairman
to determine when consensus of the Workshop participants has been
reached on a particular item or deliverable. For the purposes of
determining consensus, the Workshop Chairman shall apply the following
definition contained in ISO/IEC Guide 2:1996:
“General agreement, characterized by the absence of sustained
opposition to substantial issues by any important part of the concerned
interests and by a process that involves seeking to take into account
the views of all parties concerned and to reconcile any conflicting
arguments. Consensus need not imply unanimity.”
It should be noted that a JTC 1 Workshop may arrive at the consensus
that an IWA deliverable is not necessary.
The Workshop deliverables shall contain a description of the Workshop
consensus achieved including any recommendations for possible future
actions or revisions to the Workshop deliverables. The
deliverable resulting from the Workshop will proceed to publication
based on the consensus of the Workshop without additional reviews or
approvals by any other body, except in the case of an appeal on such a
deliverable (see immediately below).
Appeals: Any parties affected
by the deliverable resulting from the
Workshop shall have the right of appeal for the following reasons:
1. The Workshop and the process to arrive at its deliverable have not
complied with these procedures;
2. The deliverable resulting from the Workshop is not in the best
interests of international trade and commerce, or such public factors
as safety, health or the environment; or
3. The contents of the deliverable resulting from the Workshop conflict
with existing or draft ISO/IEC standard(s) or may be detrimental to the
reputation of ISO or IEC.
Such appeals shall be submitted to the JTC 1 Secretariat within two
months of the date of submission of the Workshop deliverables and shall
be considered by JTC 1, which in such circumstances will take the final
decision concerning publication of an IWA.
L7
Workshop deliverables and publication
Workshops will decide on the content of their own deliverables, but it
is strongly recommended that the drafting rules in Part 2 of the
ISO/IEC Directives be followed. The Workshop Secretariat and
Proposer shall be responsible for preparation of the text in compliance
with Part 2 of the ISO/IEC Directives. Deliverables shall be sent
to the ITTF for publication as International Workshop Agreements.
They will be numbered in a special ISO/IEC IWA series. The
workshop should make a recommendation to JTC 1 as to its intention for
future processing of its deliverables (i.e. if they are to be submitted
for processing as an International Standard).
IWAs may be published in one of the official ISO languages only and
competing IWAs on the same subject are permitted. The technical
content of an IWA may compete with the technical content of an existing
ISO or IEC standard, or the proposed content of an ISO or IEC standard
under development, but conflict is not normally permitted unless
expressly authorised by JTC 1.
L8
Review of IWAs
No later than three years after publication, the National Body which
provided the Workshop Secretariat will be requested to organise the
review of an IWA, consulting interested market players as well as, if
needed, the relevant JTC 1 Subcommittee(s). The result of the
review may be to confirm the IWA for a further three-year period, to
withdraw the IWA or to submit it for further processing as another
ISO/IEC deliverable in accordance with Part 1 of the ISO/IEC Directives.
An IWA may be further processed to become a Technical Report or an
International Standard, either through the normal five-stage process
or, in case of an International Standard, also through the JTC 1 PAS
transposition process as in JTC 1 N 5746 and the JTC 1
Directives. In the latter case, the need to be recognised as a
PAS Submitter is waived if the intention of the Workshop Proposer to
later submit the IWA into the PAS transposition process is indicated at
the time of the Workshop proposal. This will allow JTC 1 National
Bodies to take this intention into account when deciding about the
Workshop approval.
An IWA may exist for a maximum of six years following which it shall
either be withdrawn or be converted into another ISO/IEC deliverable.