Page 25 - Volume 8, Issue 1 Winter 2013

Sweden still depends on international trade today, and international standards are an important part of this exchange. Whereas the question in the USA is how to bring American standards to the international level, the process in Sweden is most often the reverse.
There is very little reason for a small country like Sweden to develop standards that are unique to us. When the members of Technical Committee 110—Acoustics and Noise—of the Swedish Standards Institute (SIS) consider proposing a new standard, we first ask if there is any possibility to propose this new idea to the International Organization for Standardization (ISO). If the proposal is successful and leads to an International Standard, we would later ask if we also would like
this new standard to be a Swedish Standard. Those of us in Technical Committee 110 of SIS who are project leaders are all conveners of a working group of Technical Committee 43 of ISO. There are no uniquely Swedish standardization projects in acoustics. That would only be a waste of time.
International Standards expand our horizons
Like English as an international business language, International Standards provide us a common frame of ref- erence that facilitates exchange and collaboration beyond our national borders. Could you imagine humanity and a global economy without these common frames of refer- ence?AT
Östen Axelsson is an environmental psychologist and pho- tographer. He obtained his PhD degree in psychology from Stockholm University, Sweden, on his doctoral thesis “Aesthetic Appreciation Explicated.” In acoustics, Dr. Axelsson is most known for his research on soundscape, and as the convener of the working group ISO/TC 43/SC 1/WG 54 “Perceptual assessment of soundscape quality” of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
24 Acoustics Today, January 2012