• Standards Australia releases distribution and licensing framework to encourage partners in the distribution of its content.
• Future partners will help deliver Australian Standards in new and different ways, with innovation as a key criteria.
• New distribution partners are planned to be up and running in early 2020.

A little over a year ago, Standards Australia set out to put in place a framework that would allow for its content to be used more broadly and in innovative ways across the economy. Earlier today, following months of consultation, Standards Australia released its distribution and licensing framework to encourage partnerships in the use of its content.

“We have been on this journey for over 5 years and it’s great to be staking the ground and actively encouraging the use of our content in new and different ways,” said CEO of Standards Australia, Adrian O’Connell.

“The policy framework has innovation at its core. We are excited about the opportunities to deliver even more value to end users.”

The framework has been released to outline the way in which additional distributors can be utilised to improve access to all the content of Standards Australia through a variety of forms and distribution types including bulk licensing arrangements already of interest to industries and governments.

“For many years the documents published by Standards Australia have been in print or PDF. These remain very important to us and our users. As well as seeking new partnerships for the delivery of content this way, we want to move far beyond PDFs and hard copy books and consider the apps and web platforms being utilised across different industries.”

“We know there are already apps out there that help tradespeople do their work, but they do so without the standard as part of the workflow – today’s release of the framework means we can start working with the developers of these apps to incorporate our content and make it easier for Australia to be a safer and more efficient economy.”

In addition, Standards Australia has committed to funding access to its content for personal, domestic and household use by 2023.

“The commitment to funding access for personal, domestic or household use is part of a package of distribution changes we’ve been striving for and will be in addition to any access available in libraries,” said Mr O’Connell.

“Standards Australia has a very well-known primary objective which is delivery of public benefit. Today’s announcement is us reaching out and saying come and work with us to deliver greater benefit in more ways to more people,” concluded Mr O’Connell.

A copy of Standards Australia’s Distribution and Licensing Policy Framework is available here.

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