New and Emerging Specs and Standards (October 2021)

ISO/IEC 18033-1:2021 Information security — Encryption algorithms — Part 1: General
Technical Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 27 Information security, cybersecurity and privacy protection

"This document is general in nature and provides definitions that apply in subsequent parts of the ISO/IEC 18033 series. It introduces the nature of encryption and describes certain general aspects of its use and properties. The ISO/IEC 18033 series specifies encryption systems for the purpose of data confidentiality. The inclusion of encryption systems in this document is intended to promote their use as reflecting the current state of the art in encryption systems.

The primary purpose of encryption systems is to protect the confidentiality of stored or transmitted data. An encryption algorithm is applied to data (often called plaintext) to yield encrypted data (or ciphertext). This process is known as encryption. The encryption algorithm should be designed so that the ciphertext yields no information about the plaintext except, perhaps, its length. Associated with every encryption algorithm is a corresponding decryption algorithm, which transforms ciphertext back into its original plaintext."

ISO/IEC 21823-3:2021 Internet of things (IoT) — Interoperability for IoT systems — Part 3: Semantic interoperability
Technical Committee: ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 41 Internet of things and digital twin

"This document provides the basic concepts for IoT systems semantic interoperability, as described in the facet model of ISO/IEC 21823-1, including: – requirements of the core ontologies for semantic interoperability; – best practices and guidance on how to use ontologies and to develop domain-specific applications, including the need to allow for extensibility and connection to external ontologies; – cross-domain specification and formalization of ontologies to provide harmonized utilization of existing ontologies; – relevant IoT ontologies along with comparative study of the characteristics and approaches in terms of modularity, extensibility, reusability, scalability, interoperability with upper ontologies, and so on, and; – use cases and service scenarios that exhibit necessities and requirements of semantic interoperability."

First Public Working Draft: Synchronization Accessibility User Requirements
[W3C]

"The Accessible Platform Architectures Working Group has published a First Public Working Draft of Synchronization Accessibility User Requirements. This document outlines accessibility-related user needs and associated requirements for the synchronization of multimedia. The successful synchronization of multimedia content, especially audio and video, is essential to accessible web-based communication and cooperation. Understandable media is therefore media synchronized to very specific limits, according to multiple research studies. By clarifying the parameters of adequate synchronization, we can influence the development of future technologies, specifications, and accessibility guidelines. Comments are welcome through 5th November 2021."

Announcing The Unicode® Standard, Version 14.0
The Unicode Consortium

"Version 14.0 of the Unicode Standard is now available, including the core specification, annexes, and data files. This version adds 838 characters, for a total of 144,697 characters. These additions include five new scripts, for a total of 159 scripts, as well as 37 new emoji characters. The new scripts and characters in Version 14.0 add support for modern language groups in Bosnia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Java, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, and the Philippines, plus other languages in Africa and North America. […] The Unicode Standard is the foundation for all modern software and communications around the world, including operating systems, browsers, laptops, and smart phones—plus the Internet and Web (URLs, HTML, XML, CSS, JSON, etc.). The Unicode Standard, its associated standards, and data form the foundation for CLDR and ICU releases."