Group 1  “How can stakeholders in Norway better participate in IEC standardization”?

Indeed the group ended up more to discuss how to reach the level of participation – how to get in to it:

• Generally; more information (advertisement) to management in companies so that they understand the importance of participation in the development of standards (to get time and money for it).
• Make it clearer that it is possible to have influence on standards development even if you come from a small company (e.g. participate in a WG or SC).
• More help/support from the National Committee, especially in information about how to participate.
• Schools, universities and other educational institutions should be more informed about the work of IEC and the National Committee.
• Put it more on the agenda for the National Industry – Innovation Norway is an important actor.
• Try to get the stakeholders closer to the process – so that they “feel a sort of nearness” to the development of standards. This might be more of a challenge for the National Committee.
• Sort of Information about the cost for testing. “Ok, now we finally got a standard, and then it sometimes comes as a “shock” for the manufacturers that it might be very expensive to test the product according to the standard. Are there a sort of “win-win situation” due to the fact that it might be expensive to perform tests?  This should be more communicated on both national and international level.

Group 2 “How would I improve IEC Standardization Process”?

Group 2 gave the following advice:

• Possibility to receive documents from only one WG, instead of the whole TC in myIEC, myNewDocs.
• The future standard number should be included in the filename of the draft, without making it too long.
• When revising a draft, a change-overview should be made for the large changes, in addition to a line in the margin for minor changes. This would save a lot of time for the persons reading and commenting it.
• There is a wish of seeing other NCs comments that are already collected before commenting, and to be able to supplement comment of other NCs comments.
• Increased use of IT tools for the IEC Standardization Processes with continued ease of use.

Group 3 “How would I improve IEC tools”?

Group 3 gave the following advice:

• Figures and tables should be possible to put into the lines of the commenting form
• Word 2010 use “Colibri” for formulas / equations. IEC tool for Arial is desired
• Standards map like for smart grid are beneficial
• Current projects have nice project listings. Similar would be nice for also finished projects