Knowledge Age Standards 1 Chapter I Knowledge Age Standards: A brief introduction to their dimensions Yesha Y. Sivan Tel Aviv University and The Knowledge Infrastructure Laboratory, Ltd. Copyright © 2000, Idea Group Publishing. OVERVIEW The diverse uses of “standards” define the goal of this work, namely, to develop a general framework of standards and to reflect on the process and outcome of the development of the framework. My intention is to devise a theoretical framework that may be translated into practice at some future point. The principle outcome is a framework of standards that includes five dimen- sions: Level, Purpose, Effect, Sponsor, and Stage, each of which contains five categories that together define the dimension. The dimensions show: • how standards can be produced and used by entities from different Levels (individual, organizational, associational, national, and multinational); • how they can have one or more Purposes (simplification, communication, harmonization, protection, and valuation); • how they can cause diverse Effects (constructive, positive, unknown, nega- tive, and destructive); • how they can be developed by different Sponsors (devoid, nonsponsored, unisponsored, multisponsored, and mandated); and • how they can be in different Stages (missing, emerging, existing, declining, and dying). In presenting the framework, the chapter also touches on the roles of stan- dards in the industrial age, their potential roles in the knowledge age, and the current turmoil in the standards community. It includes reflections on designing and judging the framework.