The Online Standards Development (OSD) platform is now accessible on the IEC Collaboration Platform.

This is a major step towards integrating the tool fully into the IEC ecosystem of tools, processes, and services. Early adopters access their project in the workspace of IEC Collaboration Platform. Access and permissions are now administered by the IEC Expert Management System (EMS).

Under development by IEC and ISO, the platform aims to address the needs of experts and facilitate the process of developing international standards. User groups and early adopters in both organizations have been key to progress, using the tool to write content (standards) and give their feedback to the developers.

“We’re building a collaborative tool, which enables commenting and comment resolution within the OSD platform itself. At the end of the process, it will allow the production of structured content and semantic markup, for product creation and more intelligent use of the content,” said Alisdair Menzies, Standards Production Manager at IEC and member of the OSD project team.

Latest features

The new version’s features enhance authoring, and include improved:

• Terminology management 
• Table formatting, new feature for copying tables 
• Auto numbering and structure management 
• External references   

Upgrades also increase usability, such as:

• New read-only mode available 
• New visualization of document clause status, including the name of the user locking a clause 
• Export to PDF format  
• Bug fixing and performance improvements 

The project is progressing well as the next phase of member commenting development begins. Other aspects currently being worked on include integrating the OSD platform more deeply in the IEC IT systems, improving WG-internal consultation features and integrating the ISO/IEC Directives Part 2 editorial rules into the content quality check. Improvement of authoring features is ongoing, in particular, around section locking.

Learn more and get involved

The next key releases are expected in November 2021 and February 2022. Find out more about the OSD platform project. Check out the recent OSD webinar to see how the tool works, and the Q&A.

For more information, contact authoring@iec.ch to see how you can participate.