SC 6

Revision 2012

Annex 2: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 6 Telecommunications and Information Exchange between Systems

The first moves towards the creation of SC 6 occurred in Paris in 1962 when ISO/TC 97 set up a Special Working Group (WGF) to study Data Link Control Procedures and Modem Interfaces under Alan (Al) Stillman from the USA.  Werner Hofmann (from Germany) and Lionel Durand (from France) attended this meeting and remained with SC 6 for many years.   Jack Wheeler from the USA, another of our long-standing members, attended the first WGF meeting in Geneva in 1963.

The formal establishment of SC 6 came in New York City in 1964 when TC 97 formed several sub-committees.

The author joined at the third meeting of SC 6 in Stockholm in 1966 and has attended all the subsequent meetings of SC 6.

Alan Stillman was elected as the first Chairman and he held this position until his untimely death in 1973.  He was known as “Al” to everyone in SC 6 and he had an eloquent turn of phrase.  Jack Houldsworth remembers reporting that he had to leave one of the meetings early and receiving the response, “Gee, there’ll be an empty saddle in the old corral tonight.”

Mario Ballabeni from Italy stepped in as Chairman for one year in 1973 and then Ed Lohse, our longest serving Chairman, held the position for over 12 years.  Hal Folts took over in 1988 when Ed retired after a long and distinguished career in the Computer Industry.  Jack Wheeler succeeded Hal in 1993 to be followed by Jim Carlo in 1997.  The USA held the secretariat from the first meeting, right up to the year 2001 when they handed over to Korea.  We had a new secretariat under Jooran Lee, and a new Chairman, Professor Joon Kim, who was already well known to the delegates as the Convener of the Data Link Layer Group.

Lionel Durand was the first convener of Working Group 1, which handled Data Link Control Procedures and he held this position until he left SC 6 in 1981.  Bert Way stepped in for one year and then Dave Carlson held the job for a while until Ron Prince from Canada became convener  When Ron retired to set up a ski lodge, Professor Joon Kim took over and remained in post until 2003.

In the early days, modem interfaces were handled by the CCITT representative, Virg. Vaughan, but Maurice Maniere was appointed to the position in 1973 when the Physical Layer work was formalized under a new Working Group WG 3.   Werner Hoffman was appointed WG 3 convener in 1979 and he held the position until 1988 when he left the committee – returning for a guest appearance in Berlin in 1991. Professor Haas took over as Convener and held the job until his retirement in 1999 when WG 1 and WG 3 were merged.

There are many names that can be recollected from the early days notably Fred Warden, Van Berkel, Rolf Kerker, C. (“Win”) Ngo Mai, Gerry Schutz, Bud Emonds, George Allery, Virg. Vaughan, Dave Ackerman, Phil Arneth, Walter Riemer, and Kas Houter, who was active as the Convener of the Network Layer Working Group (WG 2) from its formation in 1973 until he left SC 6 in 1978.

For additional information please see www.iso.org/jtc1/sc6 .