Getting action as well as consensus is an art.
With 30 countries it`s more like black magic.
As HTML is for web pages, standards are the hidden ‘wiring’ which makes the information age and knowledge economy work. ISO is the International Standards Organisation and it is one of the leading global organisations for the development of management, quality and technical standards across all industries. ISO is responsible for standards for video (MPEG), images (JPEG), databases (SQL) and representation of human languages/characters (UNICODE). The committee with the snappy title of ISO/IEC JTC1 SC36 covers all aspects of Information and Communication Technologies in Learning Education and Training. Patrick has been a regular member of the UK delegation to this committee since 2000, representing the interests of both the UK governments and private sector. |  | |
The committee was facing a challenge as it expanded to 30 countries of making its work directly relevant to market needs and making its purpose and value clear in a crowded world of NGOs and intergovernmental organisations. Patrick led the strategic review of the committees operations, working with delegates from all over the world to develop a new vision, strategic priorities and working practices. Recommendations from this review that were implemented were stricter criteria for standards based on industry adoption and user need, better research to provide evidence of requirements and strategic partnerships with other leading bodies working in this area. As a result, he programmed and co-organised UK and US government sponsored conference in London on the future governance of e-learning standards worldwide with the involvement of UNESCO. This has culminated in the leading worldwide e-Learning standard being put through this ISO committee to be made an official International Standard. | ||