foreign upstarts dare to use their own languages [was: Re:bla ck hat .cn networks]

Thu May 10 00:48:48 UTC 2001

> From: Eric A. Hall [mailto:ehall at ehsco.com]
> Sent: Wednesday, May 09, 2001 3:51 PM
> 
> > > Think about the acronyms we use in network-speak every day - how
> > > many of them stand for phrases in a language other than English?
> > 
> > CCITT, and of course the favorite ISO, International 
> Organization for
> > Standardization.
> 
> ISO is not an acronym
> 
>       http://www.iso.ch/infoe/intro.htm
> 
>       Many people will have noticed a seeming lack of
>       correspondence between the official title when used in full,
>       International Organization for Standardization, and the
>       short form, ISO. Shouldn't the acronym be "IOS"? Yes, if
>       it were an acronym - which it is not.
> 
>       In fact, "ISO" is a word, derived from the Greek isos,
>       meaning "equal", which is the root of the prefix "iso-" that
>       occurs in a host of terms, such as "isometric" (of equal
>       measure or dimensions) and "isonomy" (equality of laws,
>       or of people before the law).
> 
>       From "equal" to "standard", the line of thinking that led to
>       the choice of "ISO" as the name of the organization is easy
>       to follow. In addition, the name ISO is used around the
>       world to denote the organization, thus avoiding the
>       plethora of acronyms resulting from the translation of
>       "International Organization for Standardization" into the
>       different national languages of members, e.g. IOS in
>       English, OIN in French (from Organisation internationale
>       de normalisation). Whatever the country, the short form of
>       the Organization's name is always ISO.
> 
> Sounds revisionist but I'll buy it.

Revisionist? I'll say ... Mind you that this is from the tail-end of the
haze-daze and the memory isn't quite clear. But, when I was writing ISO/OSI
protocol stacks (a brain damn-aging activity in [and of] itself), ISO stood
for "International Standards Organization". It was an acronym like GNU is an
acronym, with multiple connotations and meaning. However, it was ALSO an
acronym. This comes from around 83-84 when DOD decided to stop waiting and
go with TCP/IP (a hack around layer 6 and 7 politics).

> As for CCITT, well, what do you expect. They can't even get 
> phone numbers
> in a common presentation form. :/

I thought the CCITT was folded into the ITU?