Interconnect January 2017

Call for Papers for ITS Passau 2017

The 28th European Regional ITS Conference will be held in Passau, July 30-August 2. Located in Bavaria at the confluence of three rivers (the Danube, Inn and Ilz), Passau is one of Germany’s most picturesque cities.

Passau’s origins can be traced back at least two millennia. A part of the Roman Empire for more than 400 years, Passau later became the largest diocese in the Holy Roman Empire and, during the Renaissance and early modern period, was renowned for the high quality of the swords, knives and other precision-ground blades crafted by its artisans. When much of the city was destroyed by fire in 1662, Passau’s gothic Old Town was rebuilt in the Baroque style.

Among the architectural masterpieces of that era is Saint Stephen’s Cathedral with its distinctive onion-domed towers. In 1928, what was then the world’s largest cathedral pipe organ was installed inside, further adding to the allure and enduring appeal of the Cathedral as a destination of interest.

Overlooking the city from a hilltop high above the Danube is Veste Oberhaus, a 13th century fortress and former stronghold of the Bishop of Passau. Presently housing a local museum and observation tower, the fortress dominates the city’s skyline much as it has for the past eight centuries.

These and many other historical, cultural, and architectural attractions await participants of ITS Passau 2017.

The theme of the Passau Conference is Competition and Regulation in the Information Age.

The Call for Papers, which was issued in December 2016, invites abstract submissions and proposals for panel sessions on the following subjects (although submissions on other topics are also welcomed): 

• 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 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 analyzing 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

Complete details on the Call for Papers, including specifications for — and how to electronically submit – abstracts, are available on the Conference website at: http://www.itseurope.org/2017/call-for-papers.

Authors are reminded that the (non-extendable) deadline for submitting paper abstracts and proposals for panel sessions is March 30, 2017.

The Conference will begin with a welcome reception on the evening of July 30, 2017. Conference sessions will be spread over two and a half days, starting with the opening plenary session and Keynote address the morning of July 31.

Confirmed guest presenters include Professor Ingo Vogelsang (Boston University) who will speak on Regulatory Inertia versus ICT Dynamics. There will also be a special panel session on IP Interconnection in the Information Age featuring Dr. Cara Schwarz-Schilling (Head of Internet Regulation at the Federal Network Agency), Harald Summa (CEO of eco, Association of the Internet industry and DE-CIX), Dr. Falk von Bornstaedt (Head of Peering & IP-Trading, Deutsche Telekom) and Prof. William Lehr (MIT).

All sessions and related activities will take place at the University of Passau, the Conference host. Lunches on the first and second days of the Conference will be provided to all registered attendees. Coffee and refreshments will also be provided on all three days of the Conference.

The social program for ITS Passau 2017 includes a Conference dinner on the River Danube on August 1, as well as guided city and cathedral tours on the afternoon of August 2.

Local Organizer:

Prof. Dr. Jan KRÄMER
Chair of Internet and Telecommunications Business
University of Passau, Germany
ibusiness@uni-passau.de

ITS:

Dr. Brigitte PREISSL
German National Library of Economics, Hamburg, Germany
b.preissl@zbw.eu 

Prof. Jason WHALLEY
Northumbria University, Newcastle, UK
jason.whalley@northumbria.ac.uk

All Conference-related inquiries should be directed to ITS Vice Chair, Professor Jason Whalley, at jason.whalley@northumbria.ac.uk.

We look forward to seeing you in Passau this summer.

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Message from the Chair

Dear ITS Colleagues:

In the thirty years since the founding of ITS, communications has evolved from a discrete industrial sector to the critical infrastructure that underpins activities and transactions throughout economies and societies and, indeed, across the globe.  The quality and availability of networks, access to the content produced and carried on those networks, and government rules and policies relating thereto, now impact and determine the prospects and trajectories of individuals, families, cities and nations.  It is no exaggeration to say that, in the Internet age, digital policies are very much social and economic policies.

The policy dialogue has also evolved in the last 30 years.  While discrete, national-level policies remain important, many issues (privacy, cybersecurity, digital societies, net neutrality, etc.) have an international dimension and the accompanying policy dialogue needs be equally broad in geographic reach.  ITS has an important role to play in facilitating this global policy conversation by providing a non-aligned, non-partisan forum where members drawn from government, industry and academia can meet to analyze, discuss and develop policy options that address these pressing issues.

This is succinctly captured in the ITS Mission Statement, as follows:

…ITS focuses on the evolving applications, services, technology, and infrastructure of the communications, computing, Internet, information content, and related industries. The goal of ITS is to research and analyze issues related to the emergence of a global information society. The organization places particular emphasis on the interrelationships among socioeconomic, technological, legal, regulatory, competitive, organizational, policy, and ethical dimensions of the issues it addresses.

ITS achieves its goals by providing forums where academic, business, and government researchers as well as industry practitioners, policy makers, representatives of international bodies, and consultants present and discuss research results…

As the Mission Statement goes on to describe, the most important forums in which our members gather to share and discuss new research and policy ideas are our Biennial Conferences, annual Regional Conferences, and other local and regional symposia, seminars, workshops and courses.

What ITS has learned over the years, both through direct experience in organizing scores of Conferences around the globe and from the feedback it has received from thousands of attendees and participants, is that the most successful Conferences typically share the following attributes:

• The quality of speakers and papers presented is of a high calibre
• Programme content is of immediate relevance, importance and applicability to attendees and participants alike (be they from government, industry or academia)
• The Conference location is attractive and easily accessible by air and/or rail, at reasonable cost, and without the need for a travel visa
• Registration fees are affordable, and hotel accommodations are reasonably priced
• The dates selected do not unduly interfere with the academic school year

ITS has two major Regional Conferences planned for 2017 – the first in Kyoto, Japan (June 25-27) and the second in Passau, Germany (July 30-August 2). The Calls for Papers for these Conferences were issued late in 2016 and are posted on each respective Conference website, as well as on the ITS website at www.itsworld.org. The deadline for submitting abstracts for the Kyoto Conference is February 20, while the deadline for abstract submissions for the Passau Conference is March 30.

I would encourage ITS members and non-members alike who might be interested in presenting a paper at, or simply attending, one or both of these events, to please visit the Kyoto and Passau Conference websites and consider how well they reflect many of the above-described attributes of Conferences that are as engaging as they are professionally worthwhile. (For ITS Kyoto 2017, please see: http://itskyoto2017.org and for ITS Passau 2017, please see: http://www.itseurope.org/2017/). I’m confident you’ll agree that each of these Conferences is likely to meet or exceed the benchmarks by which our members assess the quality, attractiveness and value of the major events ITS organizes.

A further benefit available to all ITS members in good standing who attend either of these Conferences is the reduced registration fees they will be required to pay. Add this benefit to the significant savings available to all participants and attendees (whether ITS members or not) who register online before the respective early bird registration fee deadline for each of these Conferences, and there is every reason to add ITS Kyoto 2017 and ITS Passau 2017 to your Conference calendar this summer, not to mention the additional incentive to sign up on the ITS web site at www.itsworld.org for an ITS membership or membership renewal if you have not already done so.

I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in the months and years ahead and to engaging you in discussions on the issues and subjects of greatest interest and concern to the telecommunications and broader ICT industry. I also welcome your thoughts on how we can make ITS more relevant and valuable to you and to the broader ICT community.

Sincerely,

Stephen Schmidt
ITS Chair

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Benefits of Global Corporate Membership in ITS

ITS currently has 20 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 some 300 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, Stephen Schmidt, at Stephen.Schmidt@TELUS.com, ITS Membership and Nominations Committee Chair, Anders Henten, at henten@cmi.aau.dk or the ITS Secretariat, Don Romaniuk, at secretariat@itsworld.org.

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