Architecture Committee
Committee Description
The NISO Architecture Committee was formed in early 2007 in response to a strategic restructuring. The Architecture Committee is responsible for providing strategic direction for the organization, provide oversight and leadership for standards development in areas new to NISO, and coordinate with and provide guidance to the NISO Topic Committees (Information Creation & Curation, Information Discovery & Interchange, and Information Policy & Analysis).
NISO Framework
The NISO Framework is laid out fully in the article, "NISO Framework to Direct New Committee Governance Structure," written by Todd Carpenter, NISO Managing Director (now Executive Director), for the NISO journal Information Standards Quarterly (ISQ -- Volume 19, issue 2/3 -- April/July 2007). The Framework is "an overarching model and roadmap for all of NISO’s standards work" and is reviewed regularly by the Architecture Committee.
In 2014, the Architecture Committee, together with the full Topic Committees, reviewed its areas of work and performed some analysis of relationships. The resulting NISO Strategic Directions document, published in January 2015, is an affirmation of the continuing validity of the Framework.
Architecture Committee and Topic Committee Structure
Mission
During its April 2010 meeting, the NISO Board of Directors took the time to review the role of the Architecture Committee. Because most of the significant work regarding NISO's strategic goals has been completed (or near completed), the NISO Board agreed that there was a strong need to restructure this group to focus on issues of Topic Committee scope and coordination, and advising the Board on strategic questions vis-a-vis NISO's standards development program.
To achieve this, in September 2010 the Board reconstituted the membership of the Architecture Committee to include only the Topic Committee co-chairs as members, with the NISO Board Vice-Chair to serve as chair for the Architecture Committee so that a greater connection between the two groups exists. NISO's Executive Director and Associate Director for Programs will serve as ex officio members to provide additional support and guidance to this committee.
During its first call in September, the newly restructured Architecture Committee started to specifically identify topics that it would undertake as part of its charge. Just some of these were:
- Addressing areas of overlap between topic committees
- Leveraging shared activities, taking advantage of capabilities
- Protocols/processes/procedures—how we do things (e.g., standards review, coordinating with working groups)
- Looking at how to encourage grass-root efforts to come to NISO
- Making sure there is clear understanding about and visibility of NISO's work processes/procedures in the community