JTC 1 Advisory Group 1
Communications

September 2025

Publicizing JTC 1’s work

AG 1 “Communications” is setup to provide the primary outlet for news, information, events and communications both within JTC 1 and externally to the wider public audience and takes great pleasure in promoting the work of JTC 1.

The AG 1 team works together with marketing and technology teams in ISO and IEC to utilise multiple platforms for information dissemination.

Subcommittees and working groups within JTC 1 have the support from AG 1 to provide them with the outlet, to share their latest important information, findings and publications.

AG 1 works directly in conjunction with other JTC 1 groups, such as SC 38/AG 1 “Stakeholder engagement” or SC 40/AG 1 “Communications”, assisting with development of digital media that can be used in  their domain in  programs intended to widen the appreciation and awareness of standards development.

AG 1 continues its campaign within JTC 1 to engage with internal groups to extract high value information and promotion of useful assets on behalf of JTC 1, and to promote JTC 1 to the wider community, assisting with awareness and community engagement.

History

At the August 2016 JTC 1 Advisory Group (JAG) meeting in Dublin, Ireland, following recommendation 24, a new JAG was established called “Press Committee”. This was established as a permanent group and would provide reports to all JAG meetings going forward. Volker Jacumeit from Germany was appointed as Convenor.

The original Terms of Reference were:

  • Collect information from the JTC 1/WGs and SCs
  • Prepare a communications strategy for JTC 1
  • Monitor and reflect JTC 1 activities on social media
  • Prepare information for the JTC 1 web pages (e.g., JTC1info, JTC1.org, wiki pages, ISO and IEC promotional channels).
  • Populate a repository of presentations on JTC 1 on the JTC 1 web site

Along with the group’s initial work, which included the revision of the JTC 1 brochure through 2018 and plenary updates from 2018 and 2019, a proposal was made, and agreed to widen the scope of the group. This was at the same time that the Press Committee became realigned to JTC 1 rather than JAG. Another significant change at this time was to the group’s name which became “Communications”. This is noted in an internal document JTC 1 N13988 made at the JTC 1 plenary in Stockholm.

The new Terms of Reference opened up the possibilities of the group to widen the communication focus and to open up the use of additional distribution tools, including some with a focus on social media.

Through 2019 a number of further changes to the group were made, firstly at the JTC 1 Plenary in Hawaii, in May the group was revised, to be an Advisory Group (AG 1) to JTC 1. This was following the decision for removal of specific JTC 1 groups like Study Groups and Special Working Groups. During the December 2019 JTC 1 Plenary, for personal reasons the existing convenor stepped down and a new convenor, Tony Holland from the UK was appointed.

Following this, the new convenor worked with the group initially to focus on opening up the communications channels, leading to the establishment of a JTC 1 news feed through Twitter and LinkedIn:

Likewise, the group worked closely with the IEC communication team to help re-establish the JTC 1 website and make it more agile and dynamic.

These later updates were established during the summer of 2020.

AG 1 continued to review existing publicly available information and bring it up to date, including the structure, the links and the content of the JTC 1 page hosted on the ISO servers and published regular plenary newsletters following important decisions.

During 2021, AG 1 undertook a comprehensive review of JTC 1 specific standards, not those of its subcommittees but its direct working groups, to ascertain the alignment with UN sustainable development goals and their categorisation. Approximately 500 standards were reviewed and categorised, enabling these new statistics to be referenced on JTC 1 web pages.

Following gradual, organic growth with social media and the ever growing spectrum of information and locations available, through 2022 AG 1 has restructured, rationalise and centralise the JTC 1 web content on to its central domain of jtc1info.org. And while doing this, exploring more opportunities and technologies to extend the reach and coverage of JTC 1 utilising the current trends in social media and media sharing. The latest additions to the package of tools available in 2022 are:

              Email: JTC1News@gmail.com

              Youtube: JTC 1 News

              Instagram: JTC1News

Through 2022 and 2023, JTC 1/AG 1 continued to be proactive investigating topics to promote on behalf of JTC 1 groups. This has seen the establishment and delivery of JTC 1’s own virtual workshop supporting World Standards Day in 2022 and 2023. Likewise other workshops have been supported; WG 14 on Quantum Computing and WG 11 on Smart Cities, and hosted: SC 24 workshop on Metaverse. AG 1 now regularly supports JTC 1 groups in workshop establishment and promotion.

AG 1 continued to develop its tools and offerings, and in assisting SC 38 created the first official YouTube video: SC 38 Information video

With the popularity of video media and podcasts, 2023 saw a program to bring this together on interesting topics relating to JTC 1, JTC 1’s history, and standardisation technically and in general.

Like New York, AG 1 never sleeps and during 2023/24 the group continued to publish notifications, around the clock, to coincide with geographic location working hours, along with participating in many effective workshops given by JTC 1 groups.

Likewise, the campaign for sharing information never stops and in April 2024 JTC 1, via AG 1 released its first newsletter, on recent topics of significant importance to JTC 1. This new quarterly newsletter started to capture not only those immediate newsworthy stories but also allowed for historical insight, and aids as a reminder of JTC 1’s valuable historic work. This has become a quarterly publication, shared with all of JTC 1 and made available on the jtc1info.org site for the public to see.

Likewise the campaign for sharing information never stops and in April 2024 JTC 1, via AG 1 released its first newsletter, on recent topics of significant importance to JTC 1. This has now become a quarterly publication, shared with all of JTC 1 and available on the jtc1info.org site.

Diversity and Inclusion became a big discussion point and AG 1 embraced this during 2024 with a series of YouTube videos relating to “Women in technology”, which were released on the run up to International Women’s Day in March.

World Standards Day also became a regular, annual fixture in the AG 1 and JTC 1 calendar.

With the success of “Women in tech” a follow up series was initiated to focus on what it takes for an individual to hold a specific role in JTC 1, in an effort to bring down walls and engage with new JTC 1 members. (Roles videos on YouTube)

Up to mid 2025 the main goals and strategy were for establishment of facilities, tools and general awareness. Subsequently the attention turned toward the value of JTC 1 to the IT community in the standards that it develops, and the groups that it works with. The concept of Flagship Standards was introduced as a mechanism to pinpoint high value standards that make a significant difference to the outside world and make people more aware of them. Additionally the group gathered national body details relating to national engagement with consumer organisations. This was crafted into the JTC 1 Consumer Engagement paper first published in June 2025.