Why You Need Standards

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Why You Need Standards

August 6, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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Department of Justice Antitrust Case Filings

…When we talk about standards in our personal lives, we might think about the quality we expect in things such as restaurants and first dates. But the standards that exist in science and technology have an even greater impact on our lives. Technical standards keep us safe, enable technology to advance, and help businesses succeed. They quietly make the modern world tick and prevent technological problems that you might not realize could even happen…”

Technical Requirements for Weighing & Measuring Devices

Bulletin Board

August 6, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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“Labor omnia vicit improbus” (trans. ‘Steady, unyielding labor conquered all things’)

Georgics, Book I — Publius Vergilius Maro

Standards exist to sustain the ordinary rhythms of civilization.  Behind every meal, classroom, laboratory, concert, hospital, farm, playing field and family home stands a network of standards that quietly enables daily life. Our work is to understand, improve and explain those standards in service to the educational settlements they support.  

NIST | USPTO | ANSI | IEEE | ICC | ASTM | ASHRAE | UL | TIA | ASME | ASCE | AGA

Michigan Standards Developers : NSF | ACI | NETA | ASABE | HL7 | RIA | JCSEE | BIFMA | PJRFSI | SAE

Global: SA | BSA | NSAI | CSA | CEN & CENELEC | ISO & IEC*

 

APPA was founded at the University of Michigan| See our ABOUT

 

 

* ISO and IEC have opted out of the X-social media platforms.  FYI: X is 13 times the size of BlueSky in terms of scale and reach.

Fountain of the Four Seasons

August 6, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com

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Standards Iowa | Art School | Art on Campus

The Four Maidens are four seated limestone sculptures by Danish-American artist Christian Petersen, installed in 1941 as part of the Fountain of the Four Seasons outside Iowa State University’s Memorial Union. These iconic figures, depicting Native American women inspired by an Osage tribe chant of thanksgiving, represent the annual cycle of corn agriculture and family life: Spring (planting corn, east), Summer (sheltering a young plant, south), Fall (holding the harvest, west), and Winter (nursing a child, north). They symbolize renewal, growth, harvest, and sustenance. Recently replicated in durable Bedford limestone after erosion, they remain a beloved campus landmark.

https://www.museums.iastate.edu/visit/art-on-campus-collection/fountain/where-maidens-now

“Knoxville: Summer of 1915”

August 6, 2026
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Michigan Central

Williams College is a private liberal arts college located in Williamstown, Massachusetts, USA. Founded in 1793, it is one of the oldest institutions of higher education in the United States. The college was established through a bequest of Colonel Ephraim Williams Jr., a war hero who died in the Battle of Lake George during the French and Indian War. In his will, Colonel Williams left funds for the establishment of a free school on the condition that it be located in Williamstown.

Dawn Chorus: Bird Song

August 5, 2026
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“Awake, harp and lyre! I will awaken the dawn.”

— Psalm 108:2

Standards New York | ♡ Homophily New York ♡

 

Animal Welfare Act (AWA) Regulations for Birds (9 CFR Part 3, Subpart G)

University Policy 1.2: Research Integrity

Terrestrial Animal Health Code


Animal Safety

Cornell University’s status as a land-grant institution, coupled with its location in Ithaca, far from New York’s urban centers, fosters a campus atmosphere of grounded normalcy. As a land-grant university, Cornell emphasizes practical education, research, and outreach, rooted in its mission to serve the public good. This ethos cultivates a community focused on collaboration and accessibility rather than elitism.

Ithaca’s rural setting, surrounded by gorges and rolling hills, creates a tight-knit, insulated environment where students engage deeply with academics and each other without the distractions of a bustling city. The slower pace encourages a balanced lifestyle, with traditions like Slope Day and local eateries fostering camaraderie. The lack of urban pressures allows for a focus on intellectual curiosity and personal connections, while diverse student organizations and cooperative extension programs reinforce a sense of purpose and community, grounding Cornell’s atmosphere in authenticity and approachability.

Methods of Building Measurement

August 5, 2026
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“The Ideal City” 1480 Giuliano da Sangallo

Inspired by Lord Kelvin’s “If you can not measure it, you can not improve it” and Peter Drucker’s adage “If you can’t measure it, You can’t improve it” and  W. Edwards Deming’s counter-argument — “It is wrong to suppose that if you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it – a costly myth.” we present the standards catalog of the Building Owner’s Management Association:

BOMA Standards

BOMA Area Measurement Standards Timeline 1915-2021

At the moment all titles in this catalog seem to be stabilized although a great deal of economic activity in the commercial real estate market involves adjustment to the circumstances of the pandemic.  Largely because a sizeable portion of square footage in every school district, college, university and university-affiliated healthcare research and clinical delivery system derives at least part of its funding from governments at all levels there are workgroups devoted to measuring square footage and documenting its use.   For example:

Space Management: University of Oklahoma

Space Management: Texas A&M University-San Antonio

Space Management Policy: University at Buffalo

Getting square-footage right is essential for securing an organization’s sustainability and “green” claims for example.  The links in previous posts provide for information about future public consultations.

We maintain the BOMA catalog on the agenda of our Space Planning, Hammurabi and Architectural colloquia, hosted 6 to 8 times annually.   See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting, open to everyone.

€ 492 Million: Wirtschaftsuniversität Wien

Posted March 20,  2021

We drill into the specifics commonly found in education communities: sub-lease of space to private industry in publicly-owned facilities.  The Building Owners and Managers Association International is an ANSI-accredited consensus standard developer and revised its standard — BOMA Z65.5 Retail Properties: Standard Method of Measurement.  Measuring the area of a retail building can quickly become complex when variables must be considered such as ancillary space, mezzanines and storefront lease lines.  Many large research universities have long since leased space within many of their building envelopes for private industry to service their communities — student unions, hospitals, dormitories and athletic venues, for example.  From the project prospectus:

Z65.5 is intended exclusively for retail properties and their associated structures and may be applied to single-tenant, multi-tenant or multi-building configurations. It features a single method of measurement, with two levels of measurement data, known as Partial Measurement and Overall Measurement for retail properties. It does not measure sidewalks, surface parking, drainage structures, or  other ancillary site improvements.  This standard is chiefly designed to generate Gross Leasable Area figures, a key metric in retail leasing; however, it also produces area figures which may be of interest to those examining space utilization, valuation, benchmarking, and the allocation of building expenses to various cost centers. The scope of this standard is not intended to be submitted for consideration as an ISO, IEC, or ISO/IEC JTC-1 standard.

Public consultation is open until February 8th.  

You may obtain an electronic copy from: floorstandards@boma.org.   Send comments (with optional copy to psa@ansi.org) to: floorstandards@boma.org.  We encourage user-interest subject matter experts in education facility management to participate directly in the BOMA standards development process by communicating directly with Tanner Johnson at BOMA (tjohnston@boma.org) or 202-326-6357 for more information.

We keep the BOMA catalog on the standing agenda of our colloquia devoted to building construction best practice.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [14-117]

Category: Architectural, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

More

National Center for Education Statistics: Postsecondary Education Facilities Inventory and Classification Manual

Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education

Posted February, 20  2020

The Building Owners and Managers Association International (BOMA) is an ANSI-accredited consensus standard developer.  BOMA has initiated the process of revising its real property measurement standard —  BOMA Z65.2 For Industrial Buildings: Standard Methods of Measurement.  The primary objectives of this standard are:

– To promote an unambiguous framework for determining the areas of Industrial Buildings with a strong focus on Rentable Area calculations;
– To facilitate transparency and clear communication of building measurement concepts among all participants in the commercial real estate
industry;
– To allow a comparison of values on the basis of a clearly understood and generally agreed upon method of measurement; and
– To align concepts and measurement methodologies with the International Property Measurement Standards: Industrial Buildings (January 2018)
document.

Comments due March 15th

Click here to view these changes in full (Page 2) 

Send comments (with optional copy to psa@ansi.org) to: tjohnston@boma.org

"The past is never dead. It's not even past" -- William Faulkner

Standards Michigan follows, but d0es not advocate in most of the BOMA standards suite for the following reasons:

  • Educational facility occupancies are fairly well accounted for in existing federal and state regulations
  • Advocacy in energy-related best practice titles are a better use of resources at the moment.

We encourage user-interest subject matter experts in education facility management to participate directly in the BOMA standards development process by communicating directly with Tanner Johnson at BOMA (tjohnston@boma.org) or 202-326-6357 for more information.

We maintain the entire BOMA suite on our periodic Model Building Code colloquia.  See our CALENDAR for the next online meeting; open to everyone.

Issue: [15-200]

Category: Architectural, Space Plaaning, Facility Asset Management

Colleagues: Jack Janveja, Richard Robben

LEARN MORE:

Facilities Information Management

Guideline for Square Footage Requirements for Educational Facilities

Guide to School Site Analysis and Development

Mixed Use Standard

 

ARCHIVE / BOMA

5.18.20

S. 542: English Language Unity Act of 2025

August 5, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Language

Hanging Gardens of Babylon | National Geographic

Related:

The White House: Designating English as the Official Language of The United States

H.R. 9742 (IH) – English Language Proficiency Act

Standardize: Aligning Language Models with Expert-Defined Standards for Content Generation

 

The language of the Internet is shaped by large language models, international standards, and software platforms developed by people from many linguistic backgrounds. The challenge is not that many contributors are non-native English speakers — and that is a serious cultural problem — the challenge is ensuring that, despite the differences in how English is taught, understood and used — technical English remains precise, stable, and consistently interpreted.

Ambiguous wording, subtle shifts in meaning, or differing cultural assumptions can introduce confusion into engineering, law, medicine, and public policy when replicated at Internet scale. The remedy is not linguistic exclusivity but stronger standards: carefully defined vocabularies, consensus terminology, authoritative style guides, and rigorous editorial review by diverse experts.

English has become the principal working language of science, engineering, and commerce because it supports a vast body of technical literature and international collaboration. Preserving its precision is therefore a matter of stewardship. As AI systems increasingly generate and interpret technical information, maintaining a common, standards-based engineering English will become as important as maintaining reliable communication networks themselves.

ARCHIVE: UM Welcomes ANSI 2015

August 5, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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Related:

“Tea, Earl Grey, Hot”

The Goose that Laid the Golden Egg

August 5, 2026
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Homophily Michigan

Cornell Cooperative Extension: Click image for roast goose recipe

Wild Harvest Table

Grounding, Bonding, Earthing and all that

August 4, 2026
mike@standardsmichigan.com
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National Electrical Code (NFPA 70): Article 250 Grounding & Bonding

2026 Code Panel 5: Transcript of Proposed Changes

Electrical grounding is vital for safety and system protection. It provides a path for excess electrical current to safely dissipate into the earth, reducing the risk of electric shock, fire, and equipment damage. Grounding stabilizes voltage levels, ensuring the proper operation of electrical systems and devices. It also protects against electrical surges and lightning strikes by diverting harmful currents away from sensitive components. Overall, grounding enhances the safety, reliability, and performance of electrical installations, making it a fundamental practice in electrical engineering and construction.

In other words, without grounding, electric energy does no useful work.  Today we review the grounding principles for exterior lightning protection and building interior telecommunication and audio-visual systems.  Use the login credentials at the upper right our home page.

“Railroad Sunset” | Edward Hopper

Grounding protects buildings from lightning by providing a safe path for the immense electrical energy of a lightning strike to travel into the earth, thereby minimizing damage. Here’s how it works:

  1. Lightning Rods: Metal rods placed on top of buildings intercept lightning strikes. These rods are connected to a network of conductors.
  2. Conductors: These metal cables or strips carry the electrical charge from the lightning rod to the ground.
  3. Grounding System: The conductors are connected to grounding rods buried deep in the earth, dispersing the electrical charge safely into the ground.

This system prevents lightning from passing through the building’s structure, reducing the risk of fire, structural damage, and electrical hazards.

“Rain in Charleston” 1951 Thomas Fransioli

Grounding in telecommunication systems is crucial for ensuring safety and operational reliability. Here’s how it works:

  1. Surge Protection: Grounding helps protect telecommunication equipment from voltage surges caused by lightning strikes, power line faults, or switching operations. By providing a direct path to the earth, grounding allows excess electrical energy to be safely dissipated, preventing damage to sensitive equipment.
  2. Electromagnetic Interference (EMI) Reduction: Proper grounding minimizes EMI, which can disrupt communication signals. By creating a common reference point for electrical potentials, grounding reduces noise and interference, ensuring clearer and more reliable signal transmission.
  3. Safety: Grounding protects personnel from electrical shocks by ensuring that any fault currents are directed away from equipment and safely into the ground. This is particularly important in environments with high-power transmission equipment.
  4. System Stability: Grounding stabilizes voltage levels within the system, preventing fluctuations that could cause equipment malfunctions or failures. This stability is crucial for maintaining consistent and reliable telecommunications services.

Overall, grounding enhances the safety, performance, and reliability of telecommunication systems by managing electrical faults, reducing interference, and protecting both equipment and personnel.

“Telegraph Poles with Buildings” | Joseph Stella (1917)

Grounding in audio systems is essential for ensuring high-quality sound output and preventing various types of electrical noise and interference. Here’s how it works:

  1. Noise Reduction: Proper grounding minimizes hums and buzzes often caused by ground loops, which occur when different pieces of equipment are grounded at different points. By ensuring a common ground point, the potential differences that cause these loops are eliminated, leading to cleaner audio signals.
  2. Shielding: Grounding provides a reference point for the shielding in audio cables, which helps to block external electromagnetic interference (EMI) and radio frequency interference (RFI). This shielding prevents unwanted noise from being introduced into the audio signal.
  3. Safety: Grounding protects both the equipment and users from electrical shocks. In the event of a fault, the grounding system directs the fault current safely to the earth, reducing the risk of electric shock and equipment damage.
  4. Signal Integrity: By maintaining a consistent ground potential, grounding helps preserve the integrity of audio signals. This ensures that the signals are transmitted and received accurately without degradation, resulting in better sound quality.
  5. Equipment Protection: Proper grounding can protect sensitive audio equipment from power surges and static discharge, extending the lifespan and reliability of the components.

Overall, grounding is a fundamental practice in audio systems to ensure high-quality sound, protect equipment, and maintain safety for users.

Related:

History of grounding/earthing practices in the united states

 

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