Moving standards into the digital age

The browser-based editions recently used during consultation on the draft revisions of NZS 3604 Timber-framed buildings and NZS 3404.1 and NZS 3404.2 Steel structures are early steps in that transition.

We recognise that the change has generated debate. Some users are comfortable working with downloadable PDFs or printed standards and would prefer those familiar formats to continue indefinitely. Others have asked for better search, navigation, accessibility, mobile device compatibility, collaborative review and integration with the digital systems they use every day.

Both perspectives are understandable. However, the wider direction is clear. Industry is becoming increasingly digital, and standards must evolve with it.  

Why Standards New Zealand is changing

For too many years, Standards New Zealand’s principal publication formats have been paper and PDF. PDFs were transformative when they emerged in the early 1990s, but they are essentially a digital representation of a printed page. They were not designed for today’s mobile devices, integrated business systems, apps, accessibility expectations, artificial intelligence tools or increasingly sophisticated copyright and licensing requirements.

Standards New Zealand has previously communicated to industry that its existing hard-copy and PDF offering is based on 1990s-era technology and is no longer meeting all contemporary market needs. It has identified browser-based digital editions as a minimum capability needed to improve accessibility, navigation and interoperability with modern platforms and business systems. 

A web-based standard can offer functionality that a conventional PDF cannot provide as effectively. Depending on the product and licence, this may include:

• structured navigation through clauses and sections
• faster and more accurate searching
• hyperlinks between related provisions
• bookmarks, highlighting and digital notes
• responsive display across computers, tablets and mobile devices
• better compatibility with assistive technology
• controlled access to current, authorised content
• collaborative review and commenting
• future integration with design, compliance and business software.

During the recent revised NZS 3604 consultation, Standards New Zealand introduced a web-reader edition that allowed organisations to review the draft. Following stakeholder feedback, additional guidance and alternative submission arrangements were also developed. 

The consultation experience has not been perfect for some, and we have listened carefully to usability concerns. This is how responsible digital transformation should work: introduce improved capability, listen to users, address issues and continue refining the service and product offerings.

Protecting New Zealand’s intellectual property

Standards are valuable intellectual property. They bring together years of technical knowledge and the collective expertise of industry practitioners, researchers, regulators, businesses and professional organisations.

For New Zealand-developed standards, purchasing a copy does not transfer ownership of the underlying content or provide unrestricted rights to reproduce, adapt, store, distribute or commercialise it. Standards New Zealand must manage Crown-owned standards content responsibly and must also meet contractual copyright obligations associated with joint Australian/New Zealand and international standards. Standards New Zealand has a statutory obligation to own and protect the IP of standards content, including after sale, and we take that responsibility seriously. 

This responsibility has become more important as technologies capable of extracting, reproducing and redistributing content have advanced. A downloadable PDF can be too easily copied, forwarded or entered into other digital systems outside the controls intended to protect the accuracy, currency and authorised use of the material. This is despite it being a breach of copyright to do so. Such practices can bypass copyright and licensing arrangements and create uncertainty about whether the content later presented to users remains accurate and current.

Draft standards require particular care. A consultation draft is not the final standard and may change substantially after public comments have been considered by the committee. Uncontrolled circulation creates a risk that an obsolete draft will later be mistaken for the approved publication or used for practical work. Our consultation management of NZS 3604 specifically identified preventing the future misuse and circulation of draft editions as one of the risks needing to be managed. Copyright infringements are unfortunately all too frequent in the standards world.  

Digital rights management is not about preventing legitimate use. It is about providing access under conditions appropriate to the purpose, whether that purpose is consultation, individual professional use, organisational access or licensed incorporation into another product.

Revenue sustains the national standards body

Standards New Zealand is not funded through a general public, taxpayer funded, appropriation to provide standards and services. It operates on a full cost-recovery user-pays basis and must generate its operating revenue through standards sales, sponsored access, commissioned standards-development work, subscriptions, royalties and copyright licensing revenue streams.

That revenue supports the development, adoption, maintenance and publication of standards, New Zealand’s participation in international standardisation, and the infrastructure required to provide trusted standards services. Protecting established revenue streams is necessary to sustain the national standards body, business activities need to avoid unintended revenue cannibalisation.

Where a government regulator or another organisation sponsors a standard, users may receive access without paying at the point of use. The standard is not free. The cost has been met by the sponsor rather than individually by each purchaser.  Without sponsorship, Standards New Zealand must recover the costs of its work from the sale and licensed use of the resulting IP.  Making an uncontrolled draft freely downloadable can undermine future sales revenue of the completed standard, particularly when the draft is sufficiently advanced to be mistaken for, or used instead of, the approved edition.

Modern digital publication therefore supports two connected objectives: making standards easier to use and ensuring that the system that produces them remains commercially sustainable.

New Zealand is not alone

The movement beyond static documents is well established internationally.

Standards Australia provides a web reader that operates across computers, tablets and mobile devices and includes commenting, highlighting, bookmarking and temporary offline access. It offers web-reader access alongside other formats rather than treating PDF as the only form of digital delivery. 

The United Kingdom’s national standards body, BSI, provides online standards platforms through which organisations can search, access, manage and monitor standards. Its subscription services include multi-user access, update alerts and tracked-change functionality, moving standards management beyond the purchase of isolated static files. 

ISO and the International Electrotechnical Commission are jointly progressing SMART standards. Their objective is to develop formats, processes and tools that allow standards to be used more effectively by both people and technology. The programme envisages standards content that can be tailored, kept current and increasingly integrated into product lifecycles and digital systems. 

France’s national standards organisation, AFNOR, is also developing machine-readable standards intended to reduce manual searching, input errors and interpretation difficulties, while enabling content to be incorporated into users’ software and information systems. 

These developments demonstrate that digital standards are not an isolated New Zealand experiment. They are part of an international transition from static publications to structured, searchable and increasingly machine-readable information.

None of this means that every new digital product will be immediately intuitive to every user. Familiarity matters. People who have worked with printed standards and PDFs for decades have developed effective ways of navigating, annotating and comparing those formats.

New digital editions require some adjustment. Standards New Zealand has a responsibility to make that adjustment easier by providing clear guidance, responsive support and tools that are fit for professional technical review, where our means allow. We must also continue to learn from industry feedback and improve accessibility and usability.

Users also have a role. Digital capability is now part of normal professional practice across design, engineering, construction, manufacturing and regulatory compliance. As people become familiar with searching, bookmarking, linking, annotating and collaborating within digital format standards, the benefits become more apparent.

The choice is not between respecting experienced practitioners and embracing technology. The goal is to combine industry knowledge with better tools.

Change is inevitable, but it must deliver value

Standards New Zealand will not abandon familiar formats simply for the sake of novelty. Nor will it remain permanently tied to technologies developed for the working environment of the 1990s.

We will adopt improved digital formats progressively, as resources and funding permits and where customer, commercial and business needs justify the investment. Different standards and user groups may require different access arrangements, and future decisions will continue to balance usability, accessibility, intellectual property protection, licensing obligations, affordability and commercial sustainability.

What will not change is our commitment to authoritative industry standards, developed by industry, for industry. What must change is how those standards are delivered and used in an increasingly digital age and economy.

The world of standards is moving forward. Standards New Zealand must move with it, and we are committed to bringing New Zealand industry with us.