American National Standards Institute (ANSI) | Standards and Specification Organizations

Five engineering societies and three U.S. government agencies founded the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) in 1918 as a private, nonprofit membership organization sustained by its membership. ANSI's mission is to encourage voluntary compliance with standards and methods. ANSI's membership includes almost 1,400 private companies and government organizations in the United States as well as international members.

ANSI does not develop the American National Standards (ANS) documents, but it facilitates their development by establishing a consensus between the members interested in developing a particular standard.

To gain ANSI approval, a document must be developed by a representative cross section of interested industry participants. The cross section must include both manufacturers and end users. In addition, a rigorous balloting and revision process must be adhered to so that a single powerful member does not drive proprietary requirements through and establish a particular market advantage.

Through membership in various international organizations such as the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC), ANSI promotes standards developed in the United States. ANSI was a founding member of the ISO and is one of the five permanent members of the ISO governing council and one of four permanent members on the ISO's Technical Management Board.

ANSI standards include a wide range of information-technology specifications, such as SCSI interface specifications, programming language specifications, and specifications for character sets. ANSI helped to coordinate the efforts of the Electronic Industries Alliance (EIA) and the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) to develop ANSI/TIA/EIA-568, the cabling specification in the United States. ANSI/TIA-568-C is discussed in more detail later in this chapter. You can find information on it and links to purchase the documents on ANSI's website at www.ansi.org.