The American subsidiary of the PDF Association has been authorized by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) to act as administrator of the Technical Advisory Group for the USA. The Technical Advisory Group belongs to the ISO Technical Committee (TC) 171, Subcommittee (SC) 2, which focuses on PDF format, PDF variants, including PDF/A and PDF/UA, and related file formats. The PDF Association thus replaces the 3D PDF Consortium, which held this function from 2017 to 2020.
The ANSI-approved American Technical Advisory Group represents the United States at ISO meetings by developing and communicating votes on the activities and resolutions of the ISO subcommittee working groups. In its new role, the PDF Association will perform the administrative and management functions necessary for the smooth running of the American Technical Advisory Group and the ISO Working Groups in accordance with ANSI international procedures and ISO rules.
"The integration and alignment of the standard development program for PDF and related technologies with our own member community solidifies the overall work of the PDF Association," said Duff Johnson, executive director of the PDF Association. "We look forward to advancing enhancements and extensions to PDF standards and developing new features that will further enhance the value of the format for all users and industries."
Matt Kuznicki, Chairman of the PDF Association, said: "Our association already connects the industry to ISO through a so-called liaison relationship, and thus to the ISO standard development process. By taking over the leadership of the responsible Technical Advisory Group, we can strengthen our orientation towards the process of standard development and additionally involve our association and our members more closely in this process. This will help to better drive innovation in the PDF ecosystem and ensure continued awareness of PDF as the leading technology platform for digital documents".
"The current global corona pandemic underscores the importance of reliable and universal technologies that enable people to work anywhere," said Leonard Rosenthol, PDF Association board member, Adobe Senior Principal Scientist and chairman of Technical Committee 171 SC 2, "The expanded role of the PDF Association will help accelerate the development of PDF technology," he added. Adobe, a member of the PDF Association, supports the expanding association organization through its Standards Support Endowment.
The U.S. Technical Advisory Group is not limited to PDF Association members and PDF work, but is open to anyone who meets the definition criteria of the U.S. National Interested Party.
Personnel Changes
To ensure that the PDF Association becomes an independent organization for the development of standards, the association has taken appropriate measures. Duff Johnson, long-time Executive Director, has taken over the role of Managing Director from Thomas Zellmann. As an evangelist, Thomas Zellmann will focus on the further dissemination of PDF. In addition, Betsy Fanning, former member of the 3D PDF Consortium and AIIM, will join the PDF Association as Director of Standards. In addition, the PDF Association plans a number of other initiatives, including new working groups, additional services for members and attractive events in 2020.
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