What PCA is and offers
Industrial information is often interpreted and mapped again as it moves between organizations, standards, and systems. PCA helps that information travel without losing its meaning by making standards and reference data easier to find, use, share, and improve.
PCA provides persistent digital references that people can understand and systems can reuse. It also supports structured extensions and community review when shared content needs to evolve. PCA does not replace the authority of standards bodies, content owners, or an organization's own systems; it provides a shared digital reference between them.
PCA brings together three related things:
- an organization that coordinates communities, governance, and long-term stewardship
- a digital platform that helps people find, use, create, review, and publish digital content
- a growing set of libraries, standards, ontologies, reference data, and related digital assets
These are connected, but they are not the same.
PCA as an organization¶
PCA provides the governance, communities, and maintenance structures needed to keep digital content useful over time. This includes decision-making, review processes, and collaboration between members, working groups, committees, standards bodies, and maintenance organizations.
PCA also participates directly in international standardization. It is a Category A liaison organization to ISO/TC 184/SC 4 and ISO/TC 347, and ISO 23726-3 is being developed with PCA as its maintenance agency for future updates.
PCA as a platform¶
The platform is divided into six thematic areas, based on what you want to do:
| What you want to do | PCA name |
|---|---|
| Find and understand data | PCA Explore |
| Use data in applications | PCA Consume |
| Create and extend content | PCA Evolve |
| Review and approve changes | PCA Govern |
| Publish your content | PCA Host |
| Learn and get support | PCA Empower |
PCA as a content ecosystem¶
PCA also makes digital content available for use and reuse. This includes, but is not limited to:
- standards
- ontologies
- reference data
- information models
- reusable instance data
- mappings
- engineering symbols
Some readers come primarily for the platform. Others come for the content itself. This documentation hub covers both perspectives.