The International Organization for Standardization began operations on the 23rd of February 1947. This date marked the official start of a global body dedicated to creating technical standards following delegates from 25 countries meeting in London during October 1946.
The name ISO does not stand for an acronym like International Standardization Organization. Founders chose the letters from the Greek word meaning equal to ensure the short form remained consistent across all languages.
There are currently 173 national members representing the International Organization for Standardization in their home countries. Membership falls into three distinct categories: participating, correspondent, and subscriber with varying rights based on economic status.
The approval process for Office Open XML sparked significant criticism around 2008 because Microsoft intensely lobbied countries that traditionally had not participated in ISO activities. Allegations arose that technical committees were stacked with employees and resellers sympathetic to the proposal leading to calls for halting processes where trust was abused.
Many products now carry names derived directly from International Organization for Standardization designations including disk images ending in .iso files which use the ISO 9660 file system as their foundation. Photographers refer to film speed using numbers like ISO 6 or ISO 5800 while shipping containers often get called ISO containers due to standardization efforts in ISO 668.