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March 2015 Table of Contents 2015 European Regional ITS Conference ITS Announces Two Additional 2015 Regional Conferences: Los Angeles and New Delhi Taipei to Host 2016 ITS Biennial Conference Benefits of Global Corporate Membership in ITS
——————- 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 Don Romaniuk, ITS Secretariat at secretariat@itsworld.org —————— Editor: Don Romaniuk Graphic Design Artist:
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2015 European Regional ITS Conference The 26th European Regional ITS Conference will be held at the World Heritage site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain.
The Royal Site of San Lorenzo de El Escorial is located approximately 45 kilometres northwest of Madrid. UNESCO declared it a World Heritage Site on November 2, 1984. The theme of the 26th European Regional ITS Conference is What Next for European Telecommunications? Among the subjects expected to be addressed during the Conference are the following:
Further details on this Conference, including information on registration and accommodation, are available on the Conference website at http://www.itseurope.org. Please be sure to add June 24-27, 2015 to your calendar for the 26th European Regional ITS Conference. ————————————————– New ITS Committee Chairs ITS Chair, Erik Bohlin, announced the appointment of two new ITS Committee Chairs following the meeting of the ITS Board in Rio de Janeiro at the end of November 2014. The new Chair of the ITS Membership and Nominations Committee is ITS Board member, Anders Henten, while the new Chair of the Publications Committee is ITS Board member, Johannes Bauer. In separate correspondence with each, Dr. Bohlin warmly welcomed the incoming Committee Chairs and wished them every success in their new duties. Stepping down from his position as Chair of the ITS Membership and Nominations Committee was Stanford (Sandy) Levin. Dr. Levin had served as Membership Committee Chair since 1998. He then took over as Chair of the combined Membership and Nominations Committee in 2002, a position he held until the Rio Biennial. In his letter thanking Dr. Levin for his 16 years of dedicated service as Chair of these Committees, Dr. Bohlin commended Dr. Levin for his great many contributions to ITS over that period. Dr. Levin’s accomplishments included implementing a program for attracting more Corporate members to ITS, increasing the transparency of Board and officer elections, instituting more rigourous procedures for maintaining and updating individual and corporate membership lists as well as for membership renewal, working closely with successive editors of Interconnect to improve the flow of information between ITS and its membership as well as the manner of its presentation and dissemination, initiating — and actively participating in — the rewriting of the organization’s bylaws in 2005, serving as one of the prime organizers of the 2008 ITS Biennial in Montreal, actively supporting the work of the Scientific Committees for several other ITS Biennials and, more generally, playing an active role in all meetings of his Committees, the ITS Executive and ITS Board. Dr. Levin remains on the ITS Board and, following the Rio Biennial, was appointed to serve as a member of the Finance Committee. Also relinquishing his position as a Committee Chair after a decade of service was Gary Madden. In his letter thanking Dr. Madden for his 10 years as Chair of the Publications Committee, Erik Bohlin applauded Dr. Madden’s many outstanding contributions to our non-profit scientific organization, including the following: editing several ITS Conference-related publications (including books and special issues of journals), providing the Executive Committee with critical advice in the transition to Telecommunications Policy as the ITS membership journal, providing support for edited books for Edward Elgar Publishing, spearheading and organizing six ITS Africa-Asia-Australasia Conferences, and actively participating in Publication Committee and ITS Executive Committee and Board meetings. Dr. Madden remains on the ITS Board and continues to serve as a member of the Publications Committee. New ITS Committee Chairs It was announced at the Board meeting in Rio de Janeiro, that long-time Board member, Ernst-Olav Ruhle would not be seeking a third term on the ITS Board. In his thank-you letter to Dr. Ruhle, the ITS Chair commended him for his decade of faithful service to ITS and noted his many accomplishments including having been a principal organizer of the 23rd European Regional ITS Conference in Vienna in 2012, his eight years of committed service (2004-2012) as ITS Secretary, and his successful efforts in attracting new Corporate members to ITS. The ITS Chair extended to Dr. Ruhle his warmest best wishes for further success in his career. ————————————————– Benefits of Global Corporate Membership in ITS ITS currently has 19 corporate members, 11 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), NTT DOCOMO (Japan), 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 400 fully-paid individual members from over 45 different countries, including Canada, the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Mexico, the Caribbean, nearly a dozen countries in Asia 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 ————————————————– ITS Conferences 2015 June 26th European Regional ITS Conference 7th ITS Ph.D. Seminar October ITS Regional Conference December ITS Regional Conference 2016 June 26th ITS Biennial Conference Other Conferences of Potential Interest 2015 March EuroCPR2015 Florence School of Regulation – Communications and Media Annual Scientific Seminar on the Economics, Law and Policy of Communications and Media May International Institute of Forecasters and the ESSEC Business School Second Workshop on ICT and Innovation Forecasting June International Institute of Forecasters (IIF) 35th International Symposium on Forecasting – ISF 2015 July International Association for Media and Communication Research IAMCR 2015 Conference CPR LATAM 2015 Communication Policy Research Conference August CPRsouth2015 September 2015 TPRC | 43rd Research Conference on Communication, Information and Internet Policy |
ITS will convene a 7th Ph.D. Seminar on June 27 in San Lorenzo de El Escorial immediately following the closing ceremony for the 2015 European Regional ITS Conference. The two-day event will be held at the same venue as the main Conference. As with all prior ITS Ph.D. Seminars, the objective of the 2015 event is to allow leading academics, industry experts and researchers to share their knowledge and expertise in the ICT field with a select group of graduate students in a highly focused learning environment. In this spirit, the discussion will centre and build upon ideas presented by the student participants, rather than focus on the mere presentation of papers. Up to 12 graduate students will be invited to participate based on responses received to the Call for Papers (CFP), which was issued in January 2015. (Note that the deadline for abstract submissions was March 15). An equal number of distinguished international scholars from within the ITS community will participate as discussants. The Ph.D. Seminar is being organized by ITS and Chalmers University of Technology. Successful participants will receive a certificate from the International Telecommunications Society. All participants are also eligible to receive 5 ECTS credits, after approval of a revised paper, and successful participation in the Seminar. PhD students whose paper has been selected for presentation will receive a subsidy of 500€ to cover accommodation and travel expenses. Access to the Ph.D. Seminar will be free of charge to all participants in the 2015 European Regional ITS Conference. Student participants in the Ph.D. Seminar will also be able to attend the main Brussels Conference on a complimentary basis. A selection of papers presented at the Seminar will be encouraged for refereed submission in Telecommunications Policy. Further details about the Ph.D. Seminar are available on the main European Regional ITS Conference web site at http://www.itseurope.org/. ————————————————– ITS Announces Two Additional 2015 Regional Conferences: Los Angeles and New Delhi The ITS Conference Committee is pleased to announce that it has approved proposals for two additional ITS Regional Conferences to be held in 2015, one in Los Angeles and the other in New Delhi. The theme of the Los Angeles Conference is The Intelligent World: Hopes and Challenges. The Conference will be hosted by the Data Sciences and Operations Department of the Marshall School of Business, University of Southern California and will be held October 25-28, 2015.
Among the broad subject areas expected to be addressed at this Conference are the following:
The theme of the New Delhi Conference, meanwhile, is Connectivity for All: Future Technologies, Markets and Regulation. It will be held December 13-15, 2015 and will be hosted by IIM Ahmedabad IDEA Telecom Centre of Excellence (IITCOE).
The preliminary programme envisions the following broad subject areas for discussion and scientific inquiry:
Further details on both these Conference, including the respective Calls for Papers, will be disseminated to ITS members via the ITS-L and the ITS web site as soon as they become available. In the meantime, please mark the dates for these Conferences in your calendar. ————————————————– Taipei to Host 2016 ITS Biennial Conference ITS is delighted to announce that Taipei, Taiwan has been selected to host the 21st ITS Biennial Conference. The theme of the Conference, to be held 26-29, June 2016, is Interconnecting Everything: Harnessing Business, Policy and Smart Societies. The Conference venue will be the Regent Taipei Hotel in Taipei.
The 2016 Biennial Conference will be hosted by four leading universities and institutes: Yuan Ze University, National Chengchi University, Shih Hsin University and the Taiwan Communications Society. The Co-Chairs of the Conference Organizing Committee are K. Robert Lai, Director of the Innovation Center for Big Data & Digital Convergence, Yuan Ze University, ITS Board member Yu-li Liu, Dean of Office of Research and Development, National Chengchi University, and Ching-ho Chen, Vice President of Shih Hsin University. The Organizing Committee envisions six main tracks for the Conference programme and more than two dozen sub-tracks including, but not limited to, the following: The Future of Broadband
ICT Development
Innovative Business and Applications
Policy and Regulation
Smart Society
Content Issues
The Call for Papers for the 2016 Biennial is expected to be issued in June 2015. It will be distributed via the ITS-L Listserv once it becomes available. ITS also plans to hold a Ph.D. Seminar at the same venue immediately following the conclusion of the 2016 Biennial. Further details on the Ph.D. Seminar will be announced early in the fall of 2015. ————————————————–
Dear ITS Colleagues: I’m delighted to report that the 2014 ITS Biennial Conference, which recently concluded in Rio de Janeiro, was a tremendous success for ITS on many levels. Attendance was high, many excellent papers were presented, the plenary sessions were both insightful and intellectually stimulating, and the social events and activities were both exceptionally well organized and a pleasure to attend. On behalf of ITS, I wish to extend our sincerest thanks and appreciation to TIM Brasil for hosting and sponsoring this outstanding event and, equally, to Mario Girasole, TIM Brasil’s representative on the ITS Board, for his vision and commitment in arranging for ITS to stage the 20th Biennial Conference in South America, the first such Conference to be held on that continent in 14 years. We are also deeply grateful to Professors Andrea Renda and Sergio Colcher for the strong academic support they provided to the Conference in their capacity as co-Chairs of the Conference Scientific Committee. Finally, ITS owes its sincerest thanks to Ms. Anna Carolina Meireles De Oliveira for the excellent technical, administrative and logistical support she and her team provided ITS before, during and after the Conference. Please note that copies of all papers presented at the Rio Biennial are archived online at http://www.econstor.eu/dspace/escollectionhome/10419/106828 I also wish to report that there were a number of changes to the composition of ITS Committees and the ITS Board following the meeting of the ITS Board in Rio de Janeiro. In particular, Stanford (Sandy) Levin and Gary Madden, long-time Chairs of the ITS Membership and Nominations Committee and the ITS Publications Committee, respectively, stepped down from their respective positions after each had served for more than a decade in that capacity. The new Chair of the ITS Membership and Nominations Committee is ITS Board member, Anders Henten, while ITS Board member, Johannes Bauer, is the new Chair of the ITS Publications Committee. I would ask all ITS members to join me in sincerely thanking Sandy Levin and Gary Madden for their extraordinarily dedicated and accomplished service to ITS over these past many years and to warmly welcome Anders Henten and Johannes Bauer to their new positions. A more detailed report on these changes in the composition of ITS Committee Chair positions is provided in a separate article in the current (March 2015) issue of Interconnect. Drs. Levin and Madden both remain on the ITS Board. Finally, I wish to extend my heartfelt thanks to Ernst-Olav Ruhle for his 10 years of exemplary service on the ITS Board. Among Dr. Ruhle’s many contributions to ITS were his service as ITS Secretary from 2004 to 2012 and his having organized the very successful European Regional ITS Conference in Vienna in 2012. He did not seek re-election to the ITS Board after his second term of service expired at the end of 2014. On behalf of all of us, I wish Dr. Ruhle every success in his future endeavours. Looking forward over the next two years, I am delighted to report that 2015 is shaping up to be one of the busiest years for ITS in recent memory. Preparations are now well underway for the 26th European Regional ITS Conference to be held June 24-27 in San Lorenzo de El Escorial, Spain. It will be immediately followed by the 7th ITS Ph.D. Seminar, which will take place at the same venue. I am also very pleased to announce that ITS will hold two additional Regional Conferences in the latter half of 2015 – one in Los Angeles (October 25-28) and the other in New Delhi (December 13-15). Further details on these three Conferences and ITS Ph.D. Seminar can be found in separate articles in the current (March 2015) issue of Interconnect. It also gives me great pleasure to announce that the ITS Board has selected Taipei, Taiwan as the host city for the 2016 ITS Biennial Conference. The theme of the 21st ITS Biennial Conference will be Interconnecting Everything: Harnessing Business, Policy and Smart Societies. Further details on 2016 ITS Biennial Conference are provided in a separate article in the current (March 2015) issue of Interconnect. I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible at one or more of our upcoming Conferences in 2015 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 |
