There are numerous bodies defining telecommunications standards, but the principal ones relevant to videoconferencing are:

• International Telecommunication Union (ITU) http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-T/publications/Pages/default.aspx
• International Organization for Standardization (ISO) http://www.iso.org/iso/home.htm
• International Electro technical Commission (IEC) http://www.iec.ch/
• Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) http://www.ietf.org/
• European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) http://www.etsi.org/WebSite/homepage.aspx

These bodies have representatives from manufacturing, users, government and independent consultants. They aim to produce telecommunications standards that ensure universal interworking of equipment from different manufacturers. Equipment that is standards-based and can communicate easily and effectively is termed interoperable or compliant.

Three bodies, the ITU, the ISO and the IEC are responsible for most of the videoconferencing standards in use. The IETF is concerned with standards specifically relating to the Internet:

The standards most likely to be encountered in education are those from the ITU. They are responsible for setting a raft of electronic standards, but a subgroup (the ITUT group) has the task of defining telecommunications standards including those relating to videoconferencing.