What is ANSI and what do they do?

The American National Standards Institute doesn’t itself write standards. Most standards in the United States (and much of the Western World) are written by non-governmental organizations—trade associations, professional associations, consortia, and private businesses—that see a need for standards to simplify business and life, to protect health and the environment, and to do innumerable other things that can be done if interested parties in a field of human endeavor can agree on a common set of rules, procedures, or specifications that will benefit all in the long run. ANSI helps these efforts by functioning as a central information clearinghouse and coordinating body for its member organizations and by providing model procedures for standard bodies to follow in managing the consensus standards development process in a fair and open manner.

ANSI ensures that fair and open procedures are followed, 1) by accrediting a standards developer if the developer’s formal, written procedures meet ANSI’s essential requirements for fairness, and 2) by vetting the records documenting the development of a standard, and approving that standard; if the records show that the approved procedures had been followed. ANSI does not judge the content of a document, only the process used in writing it.

Some of the major features of the American National Standards process include: 

• A centralized project initiation notification system that allows interested and affected parties to comment on whether or not a project should be pursued, as well as providing them with information on how to participate in the work;
• Consensus on a proposed standard being reached by a consensus body (a voting group) that includes representatives from materially affected and interested parties;
• One or more open public reviews for any draft standard, during which any member of the public may submit comments;
• A process in which comments submitted by voting members of the relevant consensus body and by public review commenters are evaluated, responded to, and, if appropriate, incorporated into the draft standard; and
• An appeals process that anyone can use if he believes that due process principles were not sufficiently respected during the standards development process.
  
  For more information on ANSI or Accreditation of Standards Developing Organizations, please visit www.ansi.org.