heres of computing, telecommunications and audiovisual entertainment. This structured convergence, and the standards that result, cannot help but have a profound effect on organizations, and society as a whole. INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS ORGANIZATION (ISO) The International Standards Organization was founded in 1947 to promote the development of international standards and activities that relate to the exchange of goods and services worldwide. Its membership consists of national bodies that are populated by representatives of relevant user and vendor communities. Members in a national body consist of corporations, companies, partnerships, and other firms that engage in industrial or commercial enterprises (or in education, research and testing). In the U.S. American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in the U.S. The ISO is affiliated with the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Like the ITU-T, the ISO/IEC is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. The ISO/IEC has developed many important standards including the Motion Pictures Experts Group (MPEG) and Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG) standards for high-resolution image compression. JPEG is the international standard for still image compression. It begins with a digital image in the format YCbCr (such as is defined in CCIR-601-2) and provides several levels of compression. JPEG-1 is defined in ISO/IEC DIS 10918-1. MPEG (ISO/IEC 11172) outlines four different standards for handling tightly-compressed motion sequences: MPEG-1, MPEG-2, MPEG-3 and MPEG-4. MPEG is described in detail in Appendix B of this book. According to ISO Internet information the term "ISO" is not an acronym. Rather, it is derived from the Greek word isos, which means equal. For example, isochronous transmission means, "equal in length of time," and an isosceles triangle has two equal sides. Standards are great equalizers and the ISO intends that they remain SO. The name ISO offers the further advantage of being valid in all the official languages of the organization (English, Fre