JISC

From the very earliest times, humans have used standards to help spread innovation and technical progress and to help develop markets. The use of alphabets, currencies and units of measurement are all examples of the use of standards. In general, 'standards' are commonly accepted agreements on ways to do or make things, and their use ('standardisation') contributes one or more of the following four functions in a modern society:

• ensuring interoperability or compatibility between different parts of a product or between products as part of a system or network
• the provision of a minimum level of quality, which may be defined in terms of functionality or safety of products
• the reduction of variety, allowing for economies of scale
• the provision of information.

The first of these is the most relevant for any discussion of ICT and its associated technologies. Without widespread agreement over ways of working and standards associated with interoperability, technical achievements like the Internet would not have been possible.