ISO-IEC Joint Technical Committee (JTC 1) is a consensus based, voluntary international standards group focussing on information technology (IT). Many hundreds of experts from over 100 countries, represent their nation’s national standards body ( ISO) or national standards committee ( IEC), to mutually develop beneficial guidelines that enhance global trade, while protecting intellectual property

Mission and vision
Resources

Activities

JTC 1 is committed to developing, maintaining, promoting and facilitating information technology (IT) standards required by global markets meeting business and user requirements. The standards apply to the following areas:

  • Design and development of IT systems and tools
  • Performance and quality of IT products and systems
  • Security of IT systems and information
  • Portability of application programs
  • Interoperability of IT products and systems
  • Unified tools and environments
  • Harmonized IT vocabulary
  • User friendly and ergonomically designed user interfaces

Committees & strategic business plans

JTC 1 is comprised of 24 subcommittees which cover specific technologies.

Find out more JTC 1 subcommittees Read the latest Strategic Business Plans

Consensus building

The voluntary, market-driven process of standards development within JTC 1 is progressed through collaboration and consensus building. Adoption of ISO/IEC JTC 1 recommendations is voluntary but widely applied. The World Trade Organization follows IEC recommendations for certification for global trade.

Consortia bring their standards to JTC 1 for globalization, because JTC1 has a broad global view that cuts across governments and industries. Consensus building enables the quick development of acceptable standards which can be used by the international community.

Who participates

ISO/IEC JTC 1 members are National Bodies, which include representatives from producers, governmental and public agencies, academia, businesses and other users. The diversity ensures a broad-based, open and balanced representation in the standards development process, which also considers societal aspects of the standards.

List of participating and observer country members More than 120 organizations work with ISO/IEC JTC 1
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Who benefits

Consumers

  • More choice and reduced costs: when standards are used to allow greater ease of access to more than one choice of system, this results in greater competition between manufacturers and service providers
  • Economies of scale: International standardization initiatives can open up the global market
  • Greater consumer confidence in products or services bought from companies observing international standards
  • Increased sales: flexible, interoperable products will be more attractive to clients
  • ISO/IEC JTC 1 Standards are crucial for the development of interoperable applications, which themselves are important to future economic growth
  • ISO/IEC JTC 1 Standards provide a tool for securing policy initiative and serve as a measure by which to judge bids for public procurement tenders. International standards enable procurers to avoid being “ locked in ” to a single proprietary platform

Businesses

Standardization enables industry to more quickly reach a critical mass, and achieve a return on R&D costs. International standardization initiatives can open up global markets. Additionally, there is greater consumer confidence in products or services bought from companies observing international standards, which can result in increased sales.

Governments

ISO/IEC JTC 1 Standards are crucial for the development of interoperable applications, which themselves are important to future economic growth. They provide a tool for securing policy initiative, and serve as a measure by which to judge bids for public procurement tenders. International Standards enable procurers to avoid being “ locked in ” to a single proprietary platform.

ISO/IEC Standards provide solutions

For over 30 years, ISO/IEC JTC 1 has brought about a number of very successful and relevant information and communication technologies (ICT) standards in the fields of multimedia (MPEG), IC cards (smart cards), ICT security, database query and programming languages as well as character sets, to name just a few.

Purchase JTC 1 Standards here:

IEC web store ISO web store