[Asis-l] Call for Participation: NISO U.S. Profile Standard of ISO 3166 Country Codes

[Cynthia Hodgson]

NISO Voting Members have approved a new work item to develop a U.S. profile
of ISO 3166, Codes for the Representation of Names of Countries and their
Subdivisions and a working group is being formed for the project. This
proposed standard will transition the Geopolitical Entities, Names, and
Codes (GENC) Standard, developed by the National Geospatial-Intelligence
Agency in 2012, from a government standard to a U.S. National Standard. The
GENC standard replaced FIPS Publication 10-4, Standard for Countries,
Dependencies, Areas of Special Sovereignty, and Their Principal
Administrative Divisions, which was withdrawn by the National Institute of
Standards and Technology (NIST) in 2008.

"The current GENC standard is itself a "profile" of the ISO 3166-1
standard," explains Trent Palmer, Geographer with the National
Geospatial-Intelligence Agency who submitted the proposal to NISO. "It
incorporates some needs specific to the United States, such as national
sovereignty recognition policy restrictions; the requirement to use names of
geopolitical entities that have been approved by the U.S. Board on
Geographic Names (U.S. Public Law 80-242), but which may not be recognized
by the body that manages ISO 3166; and the need to identify and recognize
geopolitical entities not identified in ISO 3166."

"Because the GENC is a government standard, its current consensus body does
not include any non-governmental voting members," states Nettie Lagace,
NISO's Associate Director for Programs. "By moving this standard to NISO and
making it an American National Standard, its approval consensus body and
ongoing development and maintenance can include a wider base of
stakeholders-industry, libraries beyond the Library of Congress, academia,
and system vendors-many of whom are impacted by the standard. Adoption of
such a profile will ease technical communications between industry, the
federal government, and the international community in the transmission of
country-related data."

More background on the GENC standard and the need to differentiate some
codes from ISO 3166 can be found in the new work item proposal on the NISO
website at:  <http://tinyurl.com/pcq4o89> tinyurl.com/pcq4o89. Anyone
interested in participating on the working group to develop the U.S. profile
of the ISO 3166 standard, should contact NISO at  <mailto:nisohq at niso.org>
nisohq at niso.org.

 

 

Cynthia Hodgson

Technical Editor / Consultant

National Information Standards Organization

chodgson at niso.org

301-654-2512

 

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