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there are several kinds of standards coordination...

legislative metadata standards, -- akoma ntoso, metalex, xml.house.gov

standards bodies:  (from an email to the sunlight labs list)

There are literally thousands of different national, international, regional, and industry associations standards. I will focus on two for data standards only.

1. De jure, formal standards that are the work of accredited standards bodies such as UN/CEFACT, IEEE, and AIIM. In the United States, such standards bodies are accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI). The main standards body in the international arena is the International Organization for Standardization (ISO).
2. Standards produced by independent specification/ standards consortia, such as the W3C, IETF, and OASIS.

• American National Standards Institute Accredited Standards Committee X12 (ANSI X12), www.x12.org. develops electronic data interchange (EDI) standards and related documents for national and global markets. This includes standards for syntax neutral metamodels and XML. ANSI X12 standards are used by Federal, State, and local government agencies.
  * AIIM, www.aiim.org. Standards for managing unstructured business information, including documents, content, records, and business processes. Used by Federal Agencies. State and Local use unknown.
  * Government Electronics & Information Technology Association (GEIA), http://www.geia.org/index.asp. Promotes the interests of the U. S. electronics, communications and information technology industries.
  * Health Industry Business Communications Council, The (HIBCC), www.hibc.org. Promotes electronic communications through the development of standards for information exchange among all health care trading partners.
  * Health Level Seven (HL7), www.hl7.org. Produces standards in the domain of clinical and administrative data. Used by Federal, State, and local healthcare agencies.
  * International Standards Organization (ISO), www.iso.org. Worldwide federation of national standards bodies from more than 140 countries, one from each country. ISO is a non-governmental organization.

I will update this entry soon to list the specific committees within ISO that focus on business data.

• United Nations Centre for Trade Facilitation and Electronic Business (UN/CEFACT), www.uncefactforum.org. UN/CEFACT's mission is to contribute to the growth of global commerce by improving the ability of business, trade and administrative organizations, from developed, developing and transitional economies, to exchange products and relevant services effectively. Used by the Federal Government.
  I will update this entry later to list specific committees.
  * Organization for the Advancement of Structured Information Standards (OASIS), http://www.oasis-open.org/hoe/index.php. Specifications for the development, convergence, and adoption of open standards for the global information society. Used by Federal, State, and Local agencies.
  

• The Minnesota State Archive's "Preserving State Government Digital Information" project: http://www.mnhs.org/preserve/records/legislativerecords/index.htm