Interconnect May 2016




Interconnect May 2016



Interconnect header

May 2016

Table of Contents

2016 ITS Biennial Conference Only Weeks Away

Call for Papers for 40th Anniversary Issue of Telecommunications Policy

Preliminary Programme for the 27th European Regional ITS Conference – Cambridge, UK

11th ITS Ph.D. Seminar

1st East Asia Regional ITS Conference – Kyoto, Japan

Benefits of Global Corporate Membership in ITS

Message from the Chair

Calendar of Events – 2016

Moving – Stay in Touch

ITS Corporate members

ITS Board of Directors

ITS Executive Committee

Previous Interconnect issues

——————-

MOVING?
STAY IN TOUCH!

To ensure uninterrupted delivery of the ITS membership journal, Telecommunications Policy, as well as e-mail announcements of upcoming Calls for Papers, publications, conference registration discounts and similar news of potential interest sent via the
ITS-L Listserv, ITS members are requested to please keep the Secretariat updated by sending their new coordinates to:

Don Romaniuk, ITS Secretariat at secretariat@itsworld.org

Return to top

——————

INTERCONNECT

Editor: Don Romaniuk
Calgary, Canada

secretariat@itsworld.org

Graphic Design Artist:
Mike Latajka
Calgary, Canada

hypnografix@shaw.ca

2016 ITS Biennial Conference Only Weeks Away

Final preparations are now well underway for the 21st ITS Biennial Conference to be held in Taipei, Taiwan, June 26-29, 2016. The theme of the 2016 ITS Biennial, to be held at the Regent Taipei Hotel, is Interconnecting Everything: Harnessing Business, Policy and Smart Societies. The Conference will be hosted by four leading universities and institutes: Yuan Ze University, National Chengchi University, Shih Hsin University and the Taiwan Communications Society.

All persons interested in attending this Conference are reminded that significantly reduced registration fees are available until May 10, 2016.

The registration fee schedule is as follows:

These registration fees include all Conference sessions, lunches, dinners and local tours. They also include a two-year individual membership in ITS, the normal cost of which is $250 USD. Membership in ITS, in turn, comes with many other benefits including a subscription to the scientific journal, Telecommunications Policy (which is published 11 times a year), and reduced registration fees at all ITS Regional Conferences. In a word, Conference attendees will enjoy a very generous benefits package.

The preliminary programme for the Conference includes two keynote speeches, two plenary sessions and 37 parallel sessions (including one industry panel discussion) spread over two and a half days of proceedings. Among the key ICT-related subjects to be addressed at the Conference are the following:

  • Digital inclusion
  • Market analysis
  • Mobile services
  • Policy and regulation
  • Broadband services
  • Market diffusion of hardware
  • Big data
  • Cloud services
  • Social media
  • Public participation
  • Network neutrality
  • Impact analysis
  • Internet of Things
  • OTT services
  • Consumer reaction
  • Broadcasting
  • Convergence
  • Consumer protection

In all, 139 papers will be presented by over 270 authors and co-authors.

The Conference will be held at the Regent Taipei, located in the heart of the city’s most vital financial, shopping, entertainment and cultural districts. The Hotel is 45 minutes from Taoyuan International Airport, 15 minutes from Taipei Song Shan Airport, and just a five-minute walk from Chung Shan MRT station. The Hotel is also well served by buses and taxis which provide easy (and inexpensive) access to all of Taipei’s hot spots and tourist attractions including world-class museums and art galleries; bustling night markets; other must-see cultural and historical sites; a dizzying array of shopping destinations; and a range of dining establishments from the most traditional to the ultra-modern serving outstanding dishes to meet every taste and budget.

The local organizer will provide pre- and post-conference tours to a number of special tourist attractions. Lunches and dinners will also be provided at attractive hotels. 

Full details on the Conference including the preliminary programme, online registration, hotel accommodation and tourist information for Taipei and Taiwan, are available on the main Conference web site at http://www.its2016taiwan.com.

Return to top

————————————————–

1st East Asia Regional ITS Conference – Kyoto, Japan

The ITS Conference Committee is very pleased to announce that the first-ever East Asia Regional ITS Conference will be held in Kyoto, Japan, June 24-27, 2017.

A city of 1.5 million people, Kyoto served as the imperial capital of Japan for over 1000 years.

Kyoto is famous for its history, architecture, and the natural beauty of its surroundings. It boasts 17 UNESCO World Cultural Heritage sites and over 2,000 temples and shrines. It is also a recognized centre of academic excellence, research and innovation.

The theme of the Kyoto Conference is Mapping ICT into Transformation for the Next Information Society.

The Call for Papers for this Conference will be issued in late August or early September of 2016. The Conference web site is expected to be ready by then as well. Further announcements about this Conference will be disseminated to all ITS members via the ITS-L Listserv. Updates will also be posted on the ITS web site at www.itsworld.org. Additional coverage will also be provided in future issues of Interconnect.

Broad subject areas expected to be addressed at the Conference include the following:

  • Wireless broadband
  • New paradigms of policy and regulation
  • ICT and innovation
  • Spectrum management
  • Convergence in telecommunications
  • New applications: e-Health, m-Health and e-Government
  • ICT and economic growth
  • Content markets
  • Information security and privacy
  • Internet and “Bottom of the Pyramid”

The Conference will begin with a welcome reception on the evening of June 24, 2017. A banquet will take place on June 25, and a farewell buffet will be held on June 27. Conference sessions will be spread over two and a half days, starting in the morning of June 25. All sessions and related activities will take place at the world-renowned Kyoto International Conference Center.

The Conference Organizing Committee consists of the following individuals:

  • Masatsugu Tsuji (University of Hyogo)
  • Hiroki Idota (Kinki University)
  • Shiro Uesugi (Ehime University)
  • Norihiro Kasuga (Konan University)
  • Toshinobu Kakizawa (Osaka University)

ITS Board member, Professor Masatsugu Tsuji, will serve as Chair of the Conference Organizing Committee.

Please be sure to add the dates June 24-27, 2017 to your Conference calendar. The 1st East Asia Regional ITS Conference promises to be an event ITS members won't want to miss.

Return to top

————————————————–

Calendar of Events

ITS Conferences 

2016

June

21st ITS Biennial Conference
Interconnecting Everything: Harnessing Business, Policy and Smart Societies
Taipei, TaiwanJune 26-29, 2016
http://www.its2016taiwan.com

September

27th European Regional ITS Conference
Cambridge, UKSeptember 7-9, 2016
http://www.itseurope.org/2016/conference/

11th ITS Ph.D. Seminar
Cambridge, UKSeptember 10-11, 2016
http://www.itseurope.org/2016/conference/

2017

June

1st East Asia Regional ITS Conference
Mapping ICT into Transformation for the Next Information Society
Kyoto, JapanJune 24-27, 2017
www.itsworld.org

Other Conferences of Potential Interest
to ITS Members

2016

June

International Institute of Forecasters (IIF)
36th International Symposium on Forecasting – ISF 2016
Santander, SpainJune 19-22, 2016
http://forecasters.org/isf/

CPR LATAM
2016 Communication Policy Research Conference
Cancun, MexicoJune 22-23, 2016
http://www.cprlatam.org

July

International Association for Media and Communication Research IAMCR 2016 Conference
Memory, Commemoration and Communication: Looking Back, Looking Forward
Leicester, UKJuly 27-31, 2016
http://iamcr.org/leicester2016

September

CPRsouth 2016
Inclusive Innovation
ZanzibarSeptember 8-10, 2016
http://www.cprsouth.org/

IEEE
Second International Smart Cities Conference (ISC2 2016)
Improving the Citizens’ Quality of Life
Trento, ItalySeptember 12-15, 2016
https://events.unitn.it/en/isc2-2016

CMI Ph.D. Summer School
The Political Economy of ICT 4D
Aalborg University, Copenhagen Campus
Copenhagen, Denmark
September 12-16, 2016
http://www.phdsummerschool.cmi.aau.dk

2016 TPRC | 44th Research Conference on Communications, Information and Internet Policy
Arlington, Virginia, USASeptember 30 – October 1, 2016
http://www.tprcweb.com/

November

DigiWorld Summit 2016
The Internet of Trust
Montpellier, FranceNovember 15-17, 2016
http://www.digiworldsummit.com

2017

January

Pacific Telecommunications Council (PTC) Conference
PTC'17: Changing Realities
Honolulu, HI, U.S.A.January 15-18, 2017
http://www.ptc.org

Return to top

Call for Papers for 40th Anniversary Issue of Telecommunications Policy

2016 marks the 40th year of publication of Telecommunications Policy, which, since January 2010, has been the official membership journal of the International Telecommunications Society.

In recognition of this important milestone, a Call for Papers was circulated recently for a very special issued of the journal titled: Celebrating 40 Years of Telecommunications Policy – A Retrospective and Prospective View.

Complete details on this important Call for Papers are available at the following link:
http://www.journals.elsevier.com/telecommunications-policy/call-for-papers/celebrating-40-years-of-telecommunications-policy-a-retrospe/

Please direct all inquiries and expressions of interest to Dr. Erik Bohlin, Editor-in-Chief, Telecommunications Policy, at erik.bohlin@chalmers.se.

The deadline for paper submissions is June 1, 2016.

Return to top

————————————————–

Preliminary Programme for the 27th European Regional ITS Conference – Cambridge, UK

The 2016 European Regional ITS Conference will be held September 7-9 in Cambridge, UK. The Centre for Development Studies, Cambridge University, and the Institute for International Management Practice, Anglia Ruskin University, will co-host the Conference. All events will take place on the Cambridge campus of Anglia Ruskin University.

The theme of this Conference is The Evolution of the North-South Telecommunications Divide: The Role for Europe.

The Conference will begin with a welcome reception for all participants the evening of September 7. The preliminary programme envisions four to five parallel sessions at a time, numbering 30 in all, spanning the next two full days. The following broad subject areas will be covered:

  • Digital divides – their character and how they can be overcome
  • The contribution of telecommunications to economic growth and development
  • The development and socio-economic impact of mobile applications
  • The provision of telecommunication services to marginalised communities
  • Regulation – its implementation, form and future development
  • The impact of regulation on operator strategy and investment
  • Operator strategies – consolidation, investment and innovation
  • The impact of OTT, its regulation and future development
  • Convergence – technological, economic and regulatory
  • The interaction between content and telecommunication markets – development, bundling and convergence
  • Broadband – spectrum and mobile broadband, funding and forms of infrastructure investment
  • Mobile markets – national roaming, convergence with fixed, the challenges of mature markets
  • Innovative business models – content and the Internet of Things
  • Innovative new services – e-health, m-health, e-education etc.
  • Online markets – the value of personal and location data, children as online actors,
  • Big data – tools and techniques of collecting and analysing large datasets, socio-economic consequences of big data
  • Net neutrality – debates, challenges and future
  • Internet governance and the control of content and customers
  • Cyber security and privacy as an infrastructure issue

More than 75 presenters will deliver over 80 papers during the two-day Conference. The programme will also include panel sessions.

Co-Chairs of the local Organizing Committee for this Conference are Professor Emanuele Giovannetti (Anglia Ruskin University) and Dr. Shailaja Fennell (University of Cambridge). The ITS Organizing Committee is being led by ITS Board members Dr. Jason Whalley (Newcastle Business School) and Dr. Brigitte Preissl (ZBW).

Further details on this Conference including full particulars of the preliminary Conference programme and information on registration, accommodations and local tourist attractions are available at http://www.itseurope.org/2016/conference/.

ITS members wishing to attend this Conference are reminded that they will be eligible for reduced registration fees

Return to top

————————————————–

11th ITS Ph.D. Seminar

The 11th ITS Ph.D. Seminar will convene on September 10-11, 2016, one day after the close of the 2016 European Regional ITS Conference. The Ph.D. Seminar will be held at the same venue as the main Conference (Cambridge campus of Anglia Ruskin University).

As with all prior ITS Ph.D. Seminars, the objective of the 2016 Cambridge event is to share the valuable expertise in the information, communications and technology sectors represented by leading academics, industry experts and renowned researchers with a selected group of graduate students in a highly focused learning environment. In this spirit, the focus will be on the discussion of ideas presented by the student participants, rather than simply on the presentation of papers.

The Call for Papers (CFP) for the 11th ITS Ph.D. Seminar was issued via the ITS-L during the first week of May 2016.

The CFP is also available on the 27th European Regional ITS Conference web site at http://www.itseurope.org/2016/conference/.

Up to 12 students will be invited to participate in the Seminar. A number of distinguished international scholars from within the ITS community will participate as discussants.

Papers presented at the Seminar will be considered for refereed submission in Telecommunications Policy.

Participation in the Ph.D. Seminar is free of charge. Successful participants will receive a certificate from the International Telecommunications Society. Ph.D. students whose papers have been selected for presentation will receive a subsidy of up to 500&euro to cover accommodation and travel expenses.

The principal organizers of the Cambridge Ph.D. Seminar are ITS Chair, Dr. Erik Bohlin (Chalmers University of Technology) and ITS Board member, Dr. Brigitte Preissl (ZBW).

Expressions of interest from Ph.D. students wishing to present papers at the Seminar should be sent to Erik Bohlin and Brigitte Preissl at erik.bohlin@chalmers.se and b.preissl@zbw.eu, respectively, as soon as possible.

The deadline for submission of full papers is June 10, 2016.

Return to top

————————————————–

Benefits of Global Corporate Membership in ITS

ITS currently has 19 corporate members, 10 of which are Global Corporate members. Included in the latter group are Arnold & Porter LLP (UK), AT&T (USA), Deutsche Telekom (Germany), KDDI Research Institute, Inc., (Japan), Orange (France), Telecom Italia, NERA (USA), the National Broadcasting and Telecommunications Commission (Thailand), TELUS (Canada) and TIM Brasil.

There are a number of attractive benefits that attend ITS corporate membership at the Global Corporate level (the fee for which is US $6,000 annually). These include: (1) a seat on the ITS Board; (2) three complimentary individual memberships in ITS, including three annual subscriptions to Telecommunications Policy; (3) three complimentary registrations for any three individuals of the corporate member's choice at every conference, seminar and workshop that ITS organizes; (4) access to the ITS-L Listserv; (5) the ability to direct attention and resources towards new areas of theoretical and applied economic research either by way of participation on the ITS Conference Committee or on the Program Committee for any ITS conference; (6) enhanced opportunities to present research and/or strategic policy papers at conferences, workshops or seminars hosted by ITS; (7) opportunities to provide one or more featured executives as guest speakers at key international conferences; (8) opportunities to host and contribute to the design of programs for ITS workshops, seminars or conferences; (9) opportunities to meet and interact with public policy decision-makers and corporate executives at numerous ITS-sponsored events around the globe; (10) extensive professional networking opportunities; and (11) marketing and brand-building opportunities (given the prominent placement afforded to ITS corporate members on the ITS web site, the ITS newsletter and brochure, and in conference announcements and other materials that ITS publishes. See, for example, the corporate members page on the ITS website at http://www.itsworld.org/corporate-members.html which includes links to each member's corporate web site).

There is no better time than the present for any corporation heavily engaged in the ICT field to become a Global Corporate member of ITS. Individual and corporate memberships in ITS have grown significantly over the past decade. At the moment, ITS has nearly 450 fully-paid individual members from over 40 different countries, including Canada, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, a number of countries in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean, and most countries in Europe. ITS also interacts with over 1300 ICT professionals on a weekly, if not more frequent basis, through regular communications over the ITS-L Listserv. In addition, more detailed information is exchanged regularly with this diverse, technically skilled and highly educated audience through the online publication of Interconnect, as well as through the ITS web site at www.itsworld.org

Should your organization wish to inquire further about Global Corporate membership in ITS, please do not hesitate to contact ITS Chair, Erik Bohlin, at erik.bohlin@chalmers.se, ITS Membership and Nominations Committee Chair, Anders Henten, at henten@cmi.aau.dk or the ITS Secretariat, Don Romaniuk, at secretariat@itsworld.org

Return to top

————————————————–

Message from the Chair

Erik Bohlin

Dear ITS Colleagues:

ITS convenes its premier event once every two years in a major world centre. Past ITS Biennial Conferences have been held in such cities as Rio de Janeiro, Bangkok, Tokyo, Montreal, Beijing, Berlin, Seoul, Buenos Aires, Sydney, Stockholm and Venice among many others. The 21st ITS Biennial will be held June 26-29, 2016 in Taipei, Taiwan. Full details on the 2016 Biennial are available at http://www.its2016taiwan.com. A comprehensive overview is also provided in the current (May 2016) issue of Interconnect.

ITS also has two Regional Conferences on the immediate horizon. The first is the 2016 European Regional ITS Conference, which will convene at the Cambridge campus of Anglia Ruskin University in Cambridge, UK, September 7-9 together with the 11th ITS Ph.D. Seminar on September 10. The second upcoming Regional ITS Conference is the just-announced 1st East Asia Regional ITS Conference to be held in Kyoto, Japan, June 24-27, 2017. Please see http://www.itseurope.org/2016/conference/ for further details on the Cambridge Conference and Ph.D. Seminar, as well as the current issue of Interconnect for additional information on all of these upcoming events.

I am very pleased to report that the 1st Africa Regional ITS Conference was successfully convened in Accra, Ghana, March 10-11. It was hosted by Ghana Technology University College (GTUC) in cooperation with the Center for Communication, Media and Information technologies (CMI), Aalborg University, Copenhagen. Our entire organization is deeply grateful to ITS Board member, Anders Henten, and to Ezer Osei Yeboah-Boateng, Head of the Faculty of Informatics at GTUC, as well as the many other members of the local Organizing Committee, for their efforts in putting together this outstanding event and in seeing it through to a most successful conclusion.

I would also like to commend ITS Board members Jason Whalley, Brigitte Preissl and Anders Henten for their enthusiasm, energy and dedication in organizing the 10th ITS Ph.D. Seminar, which took place in Accra in conjunction with the Ghana Regional Conference. Seven Ph.D. papers were accepted for the Seminar (five from Africa and two from Spain).

Discussants/reviewers included a number of subject experts including two from GTUC, one from the Ghana Conference Program Committee and several from ITS. The Seminar discussions were lively, informative and, based on the feedback received, of considerable value to the student participants and discussants alike. Students who participated in the Seminar received funding from ITS of up to U.S. $500 each to offset expenses for travel and accommodations as well as Conference-related fees. Aalborg University issued diplomas to students for their participation and two university credits (ECTs) for submitting a paper and presenting it at the Seminar.

As always, I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at one or more of our upcoming Conferences and to engaging you in discussions on the issues and subjects of greatest interest and concern to the telecommunications and broader ICT industry.

Sincerely,

Erik Bohlin signature

Erik Bohlin
ITS Chair

Return to top