Standards Australia recently released its new Data and Digital Standards Landscape report, which should help shape the future of our Information & Communications Technology (ICT) industry. We created this report to help Australia maintain an edge in the competitive global digital space.

Developed by our expert contributors and staff – and with input from international experts - the report sets the direction for this crucial sector and offers recommendations for how Australia should shape its efforts on data and digitisation into the future.

Data and Digital Standards Landscape assesses, and provides recommendations for, six key technology areas, including artificial intelligence (AI), data management, information security, the ‘internet of things’ (IoT), cloud computing and smart cities.

The recommendations stress the importance of partnerships, collaboration and standards to address strategic gaps. As Standards Australia Board member and NSW Chief Data Scientist Dr Ian Oppermann points out, failing to address these recommendations could put Australia behind in this crucial arena.

Australia’s prosperity is intrinsically linked to our nation’s ability to stay at the forefront of technological advances.

At Standards Australia, we strive to do our part – and have identified that up to 4000 new standards will be required over the next decade in order to keep pace with rapid global changes, and many of these will be in the data and digital space.

Through this report, we have issued a call to arms for Australian government and business to engage with international standards development for the benefit of our nation.

Importantly, Data and Digital Standards Landscape is also a reflection of Standards Australia’s own journey to strengthen our digital capabilities to better serve our contributors, customers and the Australian community.  A core objective of our Strategic Plan is to strengthen our Reach and Relevance, and this new report speaks directly to these objectives.

I encourage you to learn more by downloading the report here.  

— Adrian O'Connell, Chief Executive

Authored by Standards Australia, with input from national and international experts, the Data and Digital Standards Landscape report sets the direction and offers recommendations for Australia’s efforts in data and digital standardisation, now and in the future.

The report assessed, and provides key recommendations for six key technology areas, including artificial intelligence (AI), data management, information security, the ‘internet of things’ (IoT), cloud computing and smart cities.

Read more here.

The Standards Development & Accreditation Committee (SDAC) is a Committee of the Standards Australia Board. The committee assists us to fulfill our responsibilities as Australia’s peak national standards body, and meets regularly to discuss the wide range of matters relating to standards development and accreditation work.

Often unseen, SDAC has been referred to by many as the engine room of Standards Australia, powering our contributors to get things done.

Since October 2020, a Communique of SDAC meetings is being made available to stakeholders. The goal is to provide a direct insight into the discussions and recommendations of the committee and reflects our commitment to lead with transparency and include stakeholders in our processes.

You can access the August 2022 SDAC communique (PDF) and further details on SDAC and its members on our website.

Recognising the importance of quantum computing to science, technology and the economy, Standards Australia has been making inroads in this complex arena.

Earlier this year the organisation held a Forum on Quantum Computing, which identified opportunities in international standards development to assist with its commitment.

The intent of the forum was to identify and inform stakeholders on industry challenges and opportunities for standards development in this important space.

During the Forum, Dr Ian Oppermann - NSW Chief Data Scientist - outlined the importance of international alignment in the development of standards. allowing for the Australian industry to easily be part of the international marketplace.

Find out more here.

Standards Australia is pleased to announce a pilot program for an innovative new subscription model for users of standards.

This new model – known as Named User Access – aims to meet the expectations of our customers and other stakeholders, by modernising access to standards and enabling Standards Australia to serve Australians into the future.

Find out more here

Standard Australia’s Voice of Customer program is designed to give customers the opportunity to provide feedback about their experience working with us. This program is critical to ensure that customer needs drive business priorities.

The core purpose of this program focuses on capturing and acting on stakeholder feedback and is an important driver for understanding our stakeholder needs and expectations.  

In May 2022, the company launched the third wave of surveys to gather feedback from key stakeholder groups, allowing us to understand what we do well and where we need to improve.  

See the results to-date here.

Standards Australia invites government and industry stakeholders to join a virtual Digital Twin (DTw) informational webinar on Monday 19th September.

A digital twin is a virtual representation of an object or system that spans its life-cycle, is updated from real-time data, and uses simulation, machine learning and reasoning to help decision making.  

Adam Beck, Head of Digital Urbanism at ENE.HUB and Chair of DTw, will present updates on current DTw standards projects. These include draft standards on Digital twin concepts, terminology, reference architecture and use cases.

Adam Beck will also moderate a panel session with a number of guests who will share their journey in building Digital Twin capability and what they have encountered along the way.

This is a must attend event for anybody interested in contributing to digital twin standards development, learning more about the digital twin space, or wanting to connect with experts from industry or government.

Date:                  

Monday, 19 September 2022

Time:                  

3.00pm – 4.00pm (AEST).

Registration:      

REGISTER HERE

Are you a committee member and want to improve your knowledge of standards development?

Then make sure to join us at one of our in-person drafting workshops!

Our workshops are an excellent opportunity to expand your standards knowledge, develop skills and connect with other members of the Australian standards community.

Melbourne: Cliftons Melbourne - Level 1, 440 Collins Street, Melbourne Victoria 3000

• 19/09/22 Principles of Drafting
• 20/09/22 Drafting Rules for Australian Standards

Brisbane: Cliftons Brisbane - Level 3, 288 Edward Street, Brisbane Queensland 4000

• 22/09/22 Principles of Drafting
• 23/09/22 Drafting Rules for Australian Standards

Click here to register for upcoming sessions.

Can't attend in person? Register here for a virtual session instead.

Prudence Lawrence dedicates her time to sustainable development goals (SDG), responsible business practices, geospatial insights and advancements and data-driven decision-making and digital transformation.

Currently working as a Geospatial Manager at Australian Spatial Analytics, Ms Lawrence is an active participant in both Smart Cities committees (IT-268 and IT-269) as well as the Working Group for Digital Twin under IT-042. Ms Lawrence is involved with standards on an international level and has been commended multiple times for her work in City Information Modelling with the International Electrotechnical Commission’s (IEC) SyC Smart Cities committee.

‍When and why did you become involved with standards development?

‍I became involved with standards development in May 2019 when I was nominated by my employer to be a part of the Standards Australia Smart Cities Reference Group.

At the time I was working on the development and proof-of-concept applications of 3D land administration data. This small piece of work was just a part of a  larger conversation that was happening within Australia and internationally in regard to cadastral modernisation and the digital twinning of land ownership and infrastructure assets. At the time I had also been awarded the Surveyor General International Fellowship and was travelling to Europe and South-east Asia to interview experts in the area of cadastral modernisation, as well as participate in geospatial and smart cities conferences and technical workshops. 2019 was very much a year spent drinking from a fire hose of data, geospatial and smart city technologies. My work with Standards Australia during that time allowed me to take a more holistic and high-level perspective to balance the more granular research and transformation work I was performing at other times.  

‍How do standards impact and interact with your industry?

‍It’s a mixed bag within the industry. You have areas of geospatial activities and technologies where standards and specifications are very important to everyday operations and data management, and then you have other datasets or areas where it is ad-hoc with very subjective modelling, structuring, and sharing. It really depends on the people at the helm and purpose of the data, from my experience. But I imagine this type of relationship with standards would be happening across industries that don’t have the mitigation of risk heavily embedded in their operations. Industries with high risk such as electrical installation, for example, see the benefits of standards and specification compliance in a far different way than other parts of industries that do not have exposure to those kind of risk profiles.

Communicating the benefit of standards when the disadvantages or risks are perhaps obscured is a little more difficult. My area of smart cities, sustainability and digital twins is associated with the risks of time, cost, resilience and innovation. For me the driver is to improve present efficiency and facilitate innovation, and a nice consequence that I see of those characteristics being addressed is the triple bottom line. Doing away with these legacy processes - duplication of effort and siloed converting of information (data) - and doing away with these inefficiencies of operation and mindset allows us to see new ways of utilising this precious and ever-increasing resource of rich data, and to use it to address the salient issues of our time.  

‍Why is access to standards important?

‍Standards allow for a shared understanding or language when we look to utilise data and manage pipelines of activities that rely on the communication of information across companies or industries. There are such great costs on time involved in trying to interpret data, trying to share data and the worst of them all - the recreation of existing data. Access to standards allows us to share a language within our industries and domains that facilitates efficiency in understanding and meaning. We often neglect that ‘understanding’ is not actually easy and straightforward, even among those who share the same native tongue. Standards can assist in building frameworks for understanding at a very basic level: the shared terminology of a domain area. At a higher level, standards help us to understand the syntax (composition or architecture) and application of the language, and that drives greater understanding between parties within an industry and when sharing data assets into a system of systems, such as those present in a functional smart city or digital twin.

‍What is the future of standardisation in your area of work?

‍I think that interest in adopting standards for areas such as digital twins and smart cities is growing, and I see geospatial data playing a key role in filtering and channelling data in meaningful ways. I see geospatial as an aggregator and a distributor of disparate data.

Currently I am involved with a specific working group looking to understand the current knowledge and usage of standards within our industry, specifically around digital twin applications. Preliminary results of a short survey show me that there is likely to be a knowledge gap of what constitutes a standard, despite there being adoption within the products and services being undertaken. Custodians and producers of data and data services may not distinguish what has been rubber-stamped as a ‘standard’. I believe unveiling the current standards being used in the industry will lead us forward in discussing how they have been of value.

We need to clarify the current standards in wide adoption and then we can uncover and adopt additional standards that assist in delivering geospatial as a horizontal technology that supports the architecture of smart cities and digital twins.

Over the last 100 years, individuals from technical, business, academic, government and community backgrounds have contributed their expertise to developing standards - helping make Australia a safer and more efficient country.

This month, we’re celebrating our Standards Awards heroes who have contributed their time to safety.

Read more about our standards heroes here, and our centenary here.

With the support of the Australian Government’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT), Standards Australia has begun a two-year program to boost capability for Critical and Emerging Technologies (CET) in South-East Asia.

The program began with a Community of Practice Virtual Workshop held on Tuesday 16th August. Attendees included participants from the 2021 CET Summit and Masterclasses who volunteered for Community of Practice in 2021 and South East Asian National Standards Body (NSB) representatives.

The interactive session detailed the CET program, and polled attendees on areas of interest and areas of training. The session allowed attendees to reconnect and build networking opportunities.

Find out more here.

Standards Australia represents Australia on the two major international standards development bodies, the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Our activities are reported on our International Updates page.

Click here to view our highlights from August (PDF):

• ISO Annual Meeting 2022
• Opportunity to review ISO 18295•    IEC Smart city survey

Access the latest standards development news in your industry sector via our Sectors page.

The public comment process provides an opportunity for stakeholders and members of the public to make valuable contributions. With the launch of our new public comment platform, draft standards currently open for comment are now available via Connect.