Standards produced by the Institute are developed using a globally-recognized formal, consistent, reliable standards development process providing legitimacy and credibility to industry and governments choosing to use them.

Standards are typically voluntary, in that they are not enforced by government. However, failure to meet relevant voluntary standards could result in lawsuits or in the unwillingness of consumers, governments and retailers to either distribute, buy, or sell a product or service.

In some cases, standards may be mandatory because of:

• Digital Governance Council Members committing to adopt and implement the standard in their public and private sector organizations to lead by example
• A connection to the technical environment (e.g. if the product must be interoperable with other products)
• The standard being so widely accepted in the market that a deviation would not be accepted (e.g. the QWERTY standard for keyboards)
• A buyer specifying certain standards (e.g. in procurement)
• A customer requiring a certificate based on meeting certain standards
• The law encouraging or requiring the use of a standard by having incorporated it by reference in a regulation.

The Institute’s standards development activities involve the formation of technical committees established by the Standards Policy Committee, led by a committee chair, supported by a secretariat, and comprised of subject matter experts.

Technical committees operate by consensus and provide an open forum offering:

• Equal access and participation by any interested party
• Technical committees are not restricted in size and there is no fee to participate.
• Respect for diverse interests and identification of those who should be provided access to provide the needed balance of interests
• A mechanism for dispute resolution.

Technical committees are responsible for:

• Developing and approving a standard or standards assigned to it, including requests to revise or amend existing standards
• Interpreting the standard
• Reviewing standard(s) to ensure they are kept current.

Any stakeholder may make a proposal to develop a new standard, or revise or withdraw an existing standard. Such proposals are considered by the Institute’s Standards Policy Committee, which evaluates the need for it and other interests, including whether other similar standards work is being undertaken by other standard setting organizations and Canada’s language requirements. Upon approval of a proposal, the Standards Policy Committee directs the work to a new or existing technical committee of the Institute. 

The Standards Policy Committee governs the Council’s standardization policies, sets standardization priorities and is responsible for:

• Coordinating standards development activities by establishing, dissolving, and assigning responsibility to technical committees, approving new technical work, and handling complaints of a procedural nature, by meeting or through correspondence
• Determining priorities, review cycles and the withdrawal of technical work
• Maintaining the Institute’s standards policies, procedures and other rules for the technical work.

For non-members of the Digital Governance Council, there is a fee to participate on the Institute’s Standards Policy Committee.

See our get involved  page for more details on how to join a technical committee.

Any stakeholder can participate in the development of standards through a technical committee. 

Most technical committee work is conducted electronically. Technical committees use Central Collab, a Slack application, available 24/7 and 365 days a year, providing an online platform for communication and collaboration.

Through the Central Collab, each technical committee has a dedicated channel, providing an environment for technical committee participants to collaborate on setting standards through messaging, commenting, polling, document sharing, and more. Technical committees also meet using video conferencing. In-person meetings are convened only when it is necessary to discuss draft standards or other matters of substance which cannot be settled by other means. 

The technical committee chair, appointed by the Standards Policy Committee, tests for consensus on draft standards using any combination of the following:

• The Institute’s online collaboration tools (e.g. polling)
• A recorded vote at a technical committee meeting
• Letter ballot.

Draft standards are considered approved when the technical committee achieves consensus. Consensus is achieved when all of the following conditions are met:

• More than 50% of the technical committee participants cast votes in favour
• A minimum of two-thirds of the votes cast by the technical committee are in favour
• Not more than one-quarter of the total number of votes cast are negative
• The technical committee has dispositioned a final call for comments, including comments
  received during a review by the public
• The technical committee has addressed negative votes and, if accepted, the required adjustment(s) have been made to the technical aspects of the draft standard. If not accepted, rationale has been provided by the technical committee and the voter informed of the decision.

A pdf copy of the Directives can be downloaded here.