What is a voluntary consensus standard?

​For some, voluntary consensus standard (also called Non-Government Standard) is a statutory or regulatory obligation.  For others, the term ‘voluntary’ creates a perception of a wide-open, unstandardized market in which closed, proprietary applications and/or services reign; and access and control of data, serve as the value propositions to attract customers and clients.

The most important concepts to understand about voluntary consensus standards:

- Voluntary consensus standards refer to data to be exchanged, shared, reported, sold and/or licensed between at least two separate and independent parties.

- While the value of voluntary consensus standards lies in the open, transparent, neutral and balanced process in place in the user community to participate (equally), develop, produce and maintain a standard, the value proposition is based in costs-savings, return on investment, improved data quality and efficiencies gained in overall data management and service delivery.

- Federal rules and regulations clearly articulate the roles and responsibilities for all Federal agencies with regard to voluntary consensus standards and Government-Unique Standards, including annual reporting to the Department of Commerce.

- Voluntary consensus standards are governed by standards-setting bodies that operate on a voluntary consensus-based model.

- A voluntary consensus standard can be mandated or required by an authoritative entity and emerges as a best practice model.

- A Government-Unique or proprietary standard can become a voluntary consensus standard.

The U.S. General Accounting Office describes voluntary consensus standard in a summary of the National Technology Transfer and Advancement Act (NTTAA) of 1995 https://www.gao.gov/new.items/rc00122t.pdf:

“Government standards are developed by individual federal agencies for their own use. Although unique government standards sometimes are appropriate, such as standards for certain specialized military equipment, in other cases, a voluntary standard would suffice. This creates duplication for industry, which may have to provide two lines of production to meet both government and private needs and can put U.S. companies at a disadvantage in international trade.”

The major challenge for standards-development bodies and standards-setting bodes, like PESC, is maintaining a trusted, open, transparent, neutral, balanced and free voluntary consensus standard that in essence “levels the playing field,” while simultaneously promoting innovation in a market that may perceive the voluntary consensus standard as merely anti-competitive or optional compared to other technical standards.

From a Federal Agency perspective, there may be a lack of confidence in the utility, timeliness and sustainability of a voluntary standard and inconsistent guidance in existing statute, rules and regulations.

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​​PESC APPROVED STANDARD

REQUEST/RESPONSE

VERSION 1.3

Core Main v 

Admissions Application v 

Admissions Record v

Implementation Guide v

XML Technical Specification

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​​PESC APPROVED STANDARD

FUNCTIONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMWENT

VERSION 1.0

Core Main v1.3 

Academic Record v 1.2

Acknowledgement v 1.0

Implementation Guide v 1.0

XML Technical Specification v 2.2

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​​PESC APPROVED STANDARD

REQUEST/RESPONSE

VERSION 1.4

Core Main v 

Admissions Application v 

Admissions Record v

Implementation Guide v

XML Technical Specification

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PESC APPROVED STANDARDS​​

PESC APPROVED STANDARDS are available openly and free of charge for education and workforce, health and medical, military and government, and all teaching and learning communities - the cornerstone principle of PESC, PESC's Mission and PESC's Membership.

PESC APPROVED STANDARDS are Workgroup developed, proposed, approved, ratified and maintained through an open, transparent, rigorous, community-based, collaborative process, including a public notification when development initiates and a formal 30-day public comment period before approval, all governed by PESC Members.  

PESC APPROVED STANDARDS are platform and application neutral; used, implemented, adopted and integrated in systems, networks, applications, products & services; are hub and spoke and web services friendly; support a transaction or business process;​ and, can be implemented or used one independently from another.​​​​​

One PESC APPROVED STANDARD (e.g. the College Transcript Standard) is made available in several different technologies (e.g. EDI, JSON, PDF, XML), providing more technical choice for users. The EDI, JSON, PDF and XML data modeling guidelines and specifications, definitions and business processes are aligned and governed under PESC's Standards Development Forum for Education.  This alignment instills trust between different technologies, enables reliable data mapping across different technologies, and ensures data quality and integrity across different technologies.​​

​For use of PESC APPROVED STANDARDS, 
the PESC Website and PESC Work Products 

in which you do not mention or

provide attribution to PESC:

use, access and downloading of 
PESC APPROVED STANDARDS 
are provided openly and free of charge.

You can also develop

derivative products and services from

PESC APPROVED STANDARDS 
and you are responsible for any use of 
PESC APPROVED STANDARDS you make.

FOR XML 

For XML, PESC APPROVED STANDARDS include:

• XML schema that outline data file design & record structure
  
• Implementation Guides that explain & describe adoption, integration & use
  
• Instance Documents that display examples based on sample data​ (This mandate is a recent requirement and may not be included in some.)
  

Dependent on when developed and released, each are based on specific versions of:

• Academic Record Sector
• Core Main Components
  
• PESC's XML Technical Specification​​
  

The Academic Record is an XML schema that contains a dictionary of element type definitions that can be used to construct and validate XML messages. The library contains element types that are specific to information about a student's academic experience and accomplishments.  

Core Main is also an XML schema that contains a dictionary of common element type definitions that can be used to construct and validate XML messages.

​The PESC XML Technical Specification outlines PESC XML Schema Structure, development methodology and design rules.

FOR EDI 

While PESC has adopted certain EDI standards as PESC APPROVED STANDARDS and hosts corresponding EDI Implementation Guides, users must obtain the EDI standards from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI).  For more information, please see the Introduction & Overview of SPEEDE/ExPRESS.

​Terms & Conditions of PESC Membership & 

Use of PESC Intellectual Property (IP) 

Intellectual Property (IP) Policy & User Agreement

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​​PESC APPROVED STANDARD

FUNCTIONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMWENT

VERSION 1.1

Core Main v 1.10

Academic Record v 1.6

Acknowledgement v 1.1

Implementation Guide v 1.1

XML Technical Specification

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​​PESC APPROVED STANDARD

REQUEST/RESPONSE

VERSION 1.1

Core Main v 

Admissions Application v 

Admissions Record v

Implementation Guide v

XML Technical Specification

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​​PESC APPROVED STANDARD

FUNCTIONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMWENT

VERSION 1.2

Core Main v 1.13

Academic Record v 1.8

Acknowledgement v 1,2

Implementation Guide v 1.2

XML Technical Specification v 2.2

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PESC APPROVED STANDARD

​REQUEST & RESPONSE

VERSION 1.0

Core Main v 1.19.1

Academic Record v 1.14

ISO 3166

Request v 1.0

Response v 1.0

Implementation Guide v 1.0

Instance/Example Request

Instance/Example Response

XML Technical Specification v 2.2​​

​​PESC APPROVED STANDARD

REQUEST/RESPONSE

VERSION 1.2

Core Main v 

Admissions Application v 

Admissions Record v

Implementation Guide v

XML Technical Specification

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PESC APPROVED STANDARD

BATCH

VERSION 1.0

Core Main v 1.19

XML Technical Specification v 2.2​​

​​PESC APPROVED STANDARD

FUNCTIONAL ACKNOWLEDGEMWENT

VERSION 1.3

Core Main v 1.14

Academic Record v 1.9

Acknowledgement v 1.3

Implementation Guide v 1.3

XML Technical Specification v 2.2

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​​Leading the  ESTABLISHMENT AND ADOPTION OF TRUSTED, FREE & OPEN DATA STANDARDS ACROSS THE EDUCATION DOMAIN SINCE 1997

PESC APPROVED STANDARDS, Technology and Services are community-sourced

and driven by PESC serving as an incubator to pilot and launch data standards

using an open, transparent and collaborative process (based on a voluntary consensus model); and,

by PESC serving as an open, data standards-development and open, data standards-setting body.  

PESC governs resource mapping and maintenance of education eco-system taxonomies,

schemas and shared code sets in various technologies (e.g. EDI, XML, PDF, JSON, JSON-LD)

produced and released as PESC APPROVED STANDARDS.

FREE & OPEN STANDARDS DEVELOPMENT

PESC’s standards development model welcomes the entire community

to help develop lifelong data standards!

PESC Workgroups (or Standards Development Workgroups) looking to produce

a PESC APPROVED STANDARD – XML, JSON, JSON-LD, etc., are fully free and open,

meaning everyone can participate whether a PESC Member or not.

Eligibility to serve as Chair (or Co-Chair) and the right to vote on the Workgroup, however,

is only available to PESC Member organizations on the Workgroup.

As PESC relies on Members to help fund and drive PESC, reserving leadership roles

and voting rights for PESC Members – the stakeholders most likely to adopt and implement standards –

provides a fairer and more equitable voice.

PESC looks to capture the best wisdom and intelligence from the broadest group within the community

to inform its development process, and thereby produce more robust, usable, ‘lifelong learning’ data standards.

Prohibiting non-Member organizations and stakeholders from participating and contributing ideas and efforts,

when they are willing to but not yet ready to become a Member, does not serve PESC or the community.

With this PESC Workgroup model, the entire community is now welcome and able

to participate in PESC Workgroups and the mission of data standardization

can now be adopted broadly and widely. 

PESC Members continue to serve as the leaders and funders of PESC,

enabling PESC to offer all data standards free and without charge.

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