Even though Office Open XML was already an ECMA standard, we felt that there was value taking it on to the ISO. This was mainly because we had been asked to by various customers (mostly governments). They wanted to have our formats in the domain of the international community.

Think of the ISO values as film speeds. Low ISOs such as 100 and 200 are better suited to situations in which there is a lot of light ? outdoors scenes. Higher ISOs, such as 400 and 800, would be used outdoors where there is plenty of light and fast shutter speeds are desired ? sports and air shows, for example ? or indoors for available light shooting. ISO 1600 would be used where there are very low light levels, such as indoors or at night.

For digital cameras, ISO is shorthand for the ISO 12232:1998 specification maintained by the International Organization for Standardization. This standard specifies signal to noise ratio and brightness requirements (or saturation for cameras that are limited by well capacity) for a camera to earn a certain ISO rating. These ratings are intended to be similar to those of ISO 5800:1987, which specifies ratings for film.

One of the objectives in developing the revised ISO 9001 was to enhance compatibility with ISO 14001 Environmental Management Systems, particularly with regard to terminology and content. There is close collaboration between the technical experts of ISO/TC 176 and ISO/TC 207 (the Technical Committees responsible for the ISO 9001 and ISO 14000 series of standards). A recent review of ISO 14001 and ISO 14004 by ISO/TC 207/SC 1 has led to the initiation of a revision of those standards.