formed in The organisation operates along ISO lines, with Technical Com- December 1987, by several suppliers and users, as the European mittees and Task Groups. It is dedicated to the production of data forum for the development and promotion of OSI functional stand- processing standards, which are not covered by other standards ards. It has a Secretariat in Brussels, under the auspices of USA standards organisations 22/23 CEN/CENLEC. The Commission of European Communities sup- 3. Dialogue with suppliers, where TMA maintains a series of ports it and DG IX is a member of the steering committee. channels through which its members and principal suppliers, Membership of EWOS is primarily from the SPAG, European such as BT and Mercury, can interact. The prime aim is to MAP and TOP User Groups, CEN/CENLEC national bodies, and encourage the development of a range of telecommunication ECMA. services of sufficient quality and tariffed to address customer The EWOS is similar in structure to the US National Institute for needs. Standards and Technology (NIST). Its Steering Committee is drawn from constituent organisations and the CEC. The EWOS technical programme is managed by a Technical 22.4.7.6 The TUA Assembly, its standards work being done by Expert Groups. Their outputs are primarily technical guides and functional standards, The Telecommunications Users Association (TUA) was created in which are submitted to CEN/CENLEC for adoption as ENVs and to 1980 by a group of independent UK companies to represent their ISO for adoption as International Standard Profiles (ISPs). interests. It later merged with the Telephone Users Association, The EWOS works closely with ETSI, NIST - OIW and the Asia which was founded in 1965. It is a limited company, owned and Oceania OSI Workshop, which is based in Japan, the three Work- funded entirely by its members, who elect a Board of non-executive shops having set up a Regional Workshop Co-ordinating Committee Directors from its membership. It has about a thousand members, (RWS-CC) to ens