ISO is proud to announce the launch of its new
Online Browsing Platform (OBP). This is another step for ISO in implementing top technologies for publishing International Standards. Based on XML, this new platform has been specifically designed to give ISO member bodies and correspondent members, standards users and standards developers, a simpler, faster and better way to access and use ISO Standards and publications.
Key OBP Benefits
With OBP, you can browse terms and definitions contained in ISO Standards. The platform contains the terms and definitions extracted from the entire collection of ISO Standards. It also allows the user to see if and how a term has been defined in one or more ISO Standards.
The OBP also provides easy search and preview of more than 4'000 graphical symbols contained in ISO Standards. A simple user interface allows on-screen viewing of the symbols, and a link allows users to purchase them in various formats such as AI, EPS, DWG or PNG.
Country, currency and language codes can also be searched and viewed from the platform.
The platform will be updated regularly to include data from the most recent standards, and will replace ISO's Concept Database (CDB) which will be discontinued in the second quarter of 2012.
Forthcoming developments
The new Online Browsing Platform has also been designed to hold standards in XML format. A second version, planned for end April 2012, will include elements extracted from ISO standards in XML format.
These elements will be:
- table of contents
- introduction
- scope and
- all bibliographical references
This will provide users and customers with a comprehensive preview of standards before purchasing them. Later releases of the platform will offer ISO member bodies and correspondent members access to the full catalogue of ISO Standards for online browsing through their web sites, meaning that they will be able to give their customers access to the OBP via the ISO member's own online services.
ISO catalogue conversion to XML
In parallel, we are also converting the entire collection of ISO Standards into XML: existing English, French and Russian versions. When converted, standards will be uploaded to the OBP and also made available to ISO member bodies and correspondent members from the ISOSTD server. This is ongoing so, by the end of 2012, we intend to have a substantial part of the ISO collection converted to XML, with the above elements available for browsing on the platform.
This new Online Browsing Platform and its contents will bring the benefits of ISO standards to an increasing number of stakeholders, and will help to meet their evolving needs. A mechanism to give feedback is provided on the platform itself. Please use it to give us your comments which we will use to continually improve this tool.