Infoterm

Last updated
Infoterm
Formation1971
Type GO, NGO
HeadquartersVienna (Austria)
Official language
English, French, German
President
Albina Auksoriūtė [1]
Website www.infoterm.info

The International Information Centre for Terminology (Infoterm) was founded in 1971 by UNESCO. Its goal is "to support and co-ordinate international co-operation in the field of terminology." [2] Infoterm members are national, international and regional institutions, organizations, networks and specialized public, semi-public or other non-profit institutions engaged in devising and standardizing terminology. [2] Members are drawn from Africa, the Americas, Asia and Europe.

Contents

History

Since the early 1930s in Wieselburg, Austria, industrialist Eugen Wüster led a private centre studying terminology as part of his engineering firm. His research on international technical communication resulted in the 1936 founding of the Technical Committee for Terminology Standardization of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO/TC 37). During the 1950s and 1960s Wüster formulated a general theory of terminology and was a pioneer of terminological standardization. In 1951 the Austrian Standards International (ASI) made Wüster general secretary responsible for its terminology principles and coordination efforts (the ISO/TC 37 technical committee).

As a result of his pioneering activity, in 1971 UNESCO signed a contract with ASI establishing Infoterm as an international organization; from that year until 2008 Infoterm would assume guidance of the secretariat that Wüster had led for its first 20 years. After Wüster's death in 1977, his fame as the father of terminology science gained widespread currency, and Infoterm took control of his legacy in 1982. In 1996 Infoterm became an independent international non-profit scientific association and established the Eugen Wüster Archive at the University of Vienna.

Infoterm activities

Infoterm aims to coordinate terminological cooperation internationally to facilitate subject-area communication and knowledge exchange, enabling all who are active in a particular field to participate. Its main areas of action are international collaboration on terminology, terminology policy, legal aspects of terminology data (copyright), theory and methodology of structured content (terminology database management) and terminological standardization.

Eugen Wüster Prize

From 1997, Infoterm began awarding the now triennial Eugen Wüster Prize to recognize outstanding performance in the field of terminology. [3]

Prize winners have included:

Infoterm and the ISO

Infoterm is represented on ten committees or subcommittees of the International Organization for Standardization:

Infoterm and Esperanto

Since 1988 Infoterm has maintained regular contact with the Esperanto world [6] through Terminologia Esperanto-Centro, the terminology centre of the World Esperanto Association, known by its Esperanto initials UEA. After many years of friendly relations, the UEA joined Infoterm as an associate member in May 2011 with the signing of a co-operation agreement. Goals include exchanging information, mutual support and joint activities for projects, meetings, publications and so on, especially in the field of terminology.

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Universal Esperanto Association</span> International organization of Esperanto speakers

The Universal Esperanto Association, also known as the World Esperanto Association, is the largest international organization of Esperanto speakers, with 5501 individual members in 121 countries and 9215 through national associations and in official relations with the United Nations. In addition to individual members, 70 national Esperanto organizations are affiliated with UEA. Its current president is the professor Duncan Charters. The magazine Esperanto is the main organ used by UEA to inform its members about everything happening in the Esperanto community.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">ISO/TC 37</span>

ISO/TC 37 is a technical committee within the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) that prepares standards and other documents concerning methodology and principles for terminology and language resources.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Eugen Wüster</span> Industrialist and terminologist

Eugen Wüster was an industrialist and terminologist.

The Terminologia Esperanto-Centro is the terminology centre of the Universal Esperanto Association (UEA). UEA decided in 1985 that a terminology centre was needed for Esperanto. The centre was officially funded in 1987. Although TEC was not always as active as its creators had hoped it would be, the centre is still active and UEA is now cooperating both as an Associate Member of the International Information Centre for Terminology (Infoterm) in Vienna and as an A-liaison to the technical committee 37 on terminology and other language and content resources of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).

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ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 39 Sustainability for and by Information Technology is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), that develops and facilitates standards within the field of sustainability and resource efficiency through Information Technology. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 39 is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI), located in the United States.

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 Software and systems engineering is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), that develops and facilitates standards within the field of engineering of software products and systems. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 7 is the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) located in India.

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 25 Interconnection of information technology equipment is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1, of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which develops and facilitates standards within the field of interconnection of information technology equipment. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 25 is the Deutsches Institut für Normung (DIN) located in Germany.

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 28 Office equipment is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), that develops and facilitates international standards, technical reports, and technical specifications within the field of office equipment and products, and systems composed of combinations of office equipment. The group's main focus lies within the area of printers and copiers. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 28 is the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC) located in Japan.

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 Coded character sets is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), that develops and facilitates standards within the field of coded character sets. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 is the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC), located in Japan. SC 2 is responsible for the development of the Universal Coded Character Set which is the international standard corresponding to the Unicode Standard.

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32 Data management and interchange is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which develops and facilitates standards within the field of data management and interchange. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 32 is the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) located in the United States.

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 29, entitled Coding of audio, picture, multimedia and hypermedia information, is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). It develops and facilitates international standards, technical reports, and technical specifications within the field of audio, picture, multimedia, and hypermedia information coding. SC 29 includes the well-known JPEG and MPEG experts groups, and the standards developed by SC 29 have been recognized by nine Emmy Awards.

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 23 Digitally recorded media for information interchange and storage is a standardization subcommittee of the joint technical committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which develops and facilitates standards within the field of removable digital storage media for digital information interchange. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 23 is the Japanese Industrial Standards Committee (JISC) located in Japan.

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 Cards and personal identification is a standardization subcommittee of the Joint Technical Committee ISO/IEC JTC 1 of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), which develops and facilitates standards within the field of identification cards and personal identification. The international secretariat of ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 17 is the British Standards Institution (BSI) located in the United Kingdom.

ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 31 Automatic identification and data capture techniques is a subcommittee of the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Joint Technical Committee (JTC) 1, and was established in 1996. SC 31 develops and facilitates international standards, technical reports, and technical specifications in the field of automatic identification and data capture techniques. The first Plenary established three working groups (WGs): Data Carriers, Data Content, and Conformance. Subsequent Plenaries established other working groups: RFID, RTLS, Mobile Item Identification and Management, Security and File Management, and Applications.

References

  1. ↑ Infoterm Executive Board, 28 November 2011. Accessed 2012-06-15.
  2. 1 2 Infoterm website, Vienna, 2011. Accessed 2012-06-14.
  3. ↑ Terminology Awards, Infoterm, 12 October 2011. Accessed 2012-06-14.
  4. ↑ Eugen Wüster Prize 2010 to Prof. Sue Ellen Wright Ph.D. and Prof. Dr. Klaus-Dirk Schmitz, 22 September 2010. Accessed 2012-06-15.
  5. ↑ Dr. Alan Melby Receives the Prestigious Eugen Wüster Prize, 4 October 2007. Accessed 2012-06-15.
  6. ↑ Kio estas TEC? ("What is the TEC?"), 30 April 2005, Terminologia Esperanto-Centro. Accessed 2012-06-15.
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