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March 2014 Table of Contents 2014 Rio Biennial Organizing Committee Announces Conference Academic Partner Registration Begins for Brussels Conference ITS Elects Two New Board Members – Rekha Jain and Claudio Feijoo Benefits of Global Corporate Membership in ITS Invitation to Academic/Non-Profit Scientific Societies Focusing on ICT Research
——————- 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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Dear ITS Colleagues: One of the telltale signs of spring, at least within our organization, is a pronounced acceleration in conference related activities. Preparations are now well into high gear for our two major conferences in 2014, the 20th ITS Biennial to be held November 30–December 3 in Rio de Janeiro, and the 25th European Regional ITS Conference that will convene June 22-25 in Brussels. We will also be holding our 6th ITS Ph.D. Seminar in Brussels June 25-26 and the possibility remains that a 7th ITS Ph.D. Seminar will be announced later this year. On the subject of conference preparations, I am very pleased to inform you that the Rio Biennial Conference Organizing Committee has announced that Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) has agreed to join with ITS as our academic partner for this scientific event. Further information about PUC-Rio can be found in the current (March 2014) issue of Interconnect. Please note that there is still time for persons interested in presenting a paper at the Rio Conference to submit their abstract. The deadline for doing so is May 15. Full details on the Call for Papers and the process to be followed in submitting an abstract can be found on the Rio Conference web site at www.itsrio2014.com. In Brussels, meanwhile, the deadline for abstract submissions has now come and gone, peer review of submissions has been completed, and notifications of paper acceptance have been issued. Work is currently underway on developing the final programme for the Conference which, once complete, will be posted on the Brussels Conference web site at http://www.itseurope.org/ and announced via the ITS-L. Online registration for the Brussels Conference and associated Ph.D. Seminar will also be available at the main Conference web site starting in early April. Other recent developments of note include the election of two new ITS Board members. I am delighted to report that Dr. Rekha Jain (India) and Dr. Claudio Feijoo (Spain), both of whom have a long history of active participation in our organization, were elected Directors effective March 1 and April 1, 2014, respectively. Each brings to ITS impeccable ICT research and policy development credentials as well as a deep store of hard-earned industry expertise and organizational skills. The addition of industry experts of their calibre will serve to further strengthen what is already a very talented, hard working and dedicated Board. I would encourage all ITS members, especially those not yet personally acquainted with Drs. Jain and Feijoo, to take a few moments to read their personal profiles in the current issue of Interconnect. February 28, 2014 also marked the departure from the ITS Board of Dr. Hee-Su Kim of KT Corporation. Dr. Kim stepped down from the Board after having served ITS as KT's representative for several years. On behalf of our entire organization, I wish to extend to Dr. Kim our gratitude and appreciation for his faithful service to ITS and to wish him every personal success in his future endeavours. As always, I look forward to seeing as many of you as possible in the months ahead at one or more of our 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 ————————————————– Registration Begins for Brussels Conference The 25th European Regional ITS Conference, the theme of which is Disruptive Innovation in the ICT Industries: Challenges for European Policy and Business, will be held in Brussels, Belgium, June 22-25, 2014. Online registration for the Conference will commence very early in April (see http://www.itseurope.org/). Notification of same will be provided over the ITS-L Listserv. Persons interested in attending this Conference are reminded that very significant registration discounts are available for those who register prior to the May 1 early bird deadline. Further discounts are available to ITS members in good standing. Given that an annual membership in ITS, at a cost of only US $125, also includes a 12-month subscription to the journal, Telecommunications Policy, eleven issues of which are published every year, please consider joining ITS or renewing your expired ITS membership prior to registering for this Conference. To apply for or renew your ITS membership, please visit www.itsworld.org. The programme for the Brussels Conference will cover a broad range of topics including, but not limited to, telecommunications economics and regulation; broadband and next generation networks; new services and business models; media, content and telecoms; emerging policy issues; and ICT and economic development. The Conference is being hosted by iMinds, an independent research institute, founded by the Flemish government, the mission of which is to stimulate ICT innovation. All Conference sessions will be held at the KVAB (Koninklijke Vlaamse Academie van België – Royal Flemish Academy of Belgium). The Conference Organizing Committee comprises Pieter Ballon (Chair): iMinds-SMIT-Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB); Sven Lindmark: iMinds-SMIT-VUB; Luciano Morganti: iMinds-SMIT-VUB; Sofie Verbrugge: iMinds-IBCN-Universiteit Gent; and ITS Board members, Brigitte Preissl: German National Library of Economics (ZBW) and Jason Whalley: University of Northumbria, UK.
————————————————– Benefits of Global Corporate Membership in ITS ITS currently has 18 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/content/?ab7 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, Stanford (Sandy) Levin, at slevin@siue.edu or the ITS Secretariat, Don Romaniuk, at secretariat@itsworld.org ————————————————– ITS Conferences 2014 June 25th European Regional ITS Conference 6th ITS Ph.D. Seminar November-December 20th ITS Biennial Conference 2015 African Regional ITS Conference
Other Conferences of Potential Interest 2014 May 8th International Conference on Pervasive Computing Technologies for Healthcare 12th International Institute of Forecasters (IIF) Workshop 3rd CMI GTUC International Conference CPR LATAM (formerly ACORN-REDECOM) June 13th International Conference on Mobile Business International Institute of Forecasters (IIF) July International Association for Media and Communication Research August 2014 Ph.D. Summer School on Political Economy of ICT 4S/ESOCITE Annual Meeting September CPRsouth2014 2014 TPRC | 42nd Research Conference on |
2014 Rio Biennial Organizing Committee Announces Conference Academic Partner The Organizing Committee for the 20th ITS Biennial Conference to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is pleased to announce that Pontifical Catholic University of Rio de Janeiro (PUC-Rio) has signed up as the academic partner for the Conference. Founded in 1940, PUC-Rio is a non-profit philanthropic institution and was the first private graduate-level educational institution in Brazil. A Catholic University based on Christian humanistic principles, it welcomes students, staff members, teachers, researchers and administrators of all religions, nationalities, ethnic groups and social classes. PUC-Rio offers graduate degree programs in numerous disciplines, among the highest ranked of which are its programs in Exact Sciences and Informatics, Social and Human Sciences, Engineering and Production, and Communication and Information. The theme of the 20th ITS Biennial is The Net and the Internet: Emerging Markets and Policies. The Conference will take place November 30 – December 3, 2014 and is being hosted by TIM Brasil. The Conference Call for Papers, which was issued in January 2014, envisions five main programme tracks: 1) Infrastructure layer (the “net”) Inherent in the five programme tracks is a layered approach to the study and analysis of emerging markets' policies in cyberspace. Among the core issues to be addressed are (1) the tradeoffs between encouraging large-scale (and profitable) investment in new infrastructure while facilitating vigorous competition for the benefit of consumers; (2) optimal approaches not only to “net neutrality”, but to emerging analogues including “search neutrality” and “cloud neutrality”; (3) the sustainability of for-profit content creation, broadcasting and copyright protection in light of evolving new media platforms and new internet business models; (4) future national and international internet governance initiatives; and (5) re-envisioning the role of broadband communications as simultaneously enabling, enhancing and transforming economic, social and political activity and interaction at all levels of society. It is anticipated that a number of similar and equally challenging policy issues directly affecting social welfare, economic growth and development and, increasingly, the very foundations of modern society will also be addressed in the Conference program. Complete details on the Rio Call for Papers are available at the Conference web site at http://itsrio2014.com/ Authors of selected papers from the Conference will be invited to submit to special issues of Telecommunications Policy as well as other international peer-reviewed academic journals. Persons interested in presenting a paper at this Conference are reminded that the deadline for submitting abstracts is May 15. To submit an abstract, please visit the Rio Conference web site at: http://itsrio2014.com/callforpapers.html Please direct all inquiries related to the Call for Papers to: its2014rio@easychair.org General Conference inquiries should be directed to Glória Rubião of the local Organizing Committee at grubiao@timbrasil.com.br
————————————————– ITS will convene its 6th Ph.D. Seminar on June 25 in Brussels, immediately following the closing ceremony for the 2014 European Regional ITS Conference. The two day event will be held at the main offices of iMinds-SMIT at Vrije Universiteit Brussel. As with all prior ITS Ph.D. Seminars, the objective of the 2014 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 15 graduate students will be invited to participate based on responses received to the Call for Papers (CFP), which was issued in January 2014. (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 and will be hosted by iMinds. Access to the Ph.D. Seminar will be free of charge to all participants in the 2014 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, including information about registration, are available on the Brussels Conference web site at http://www.itseurope.org/.
————————————————– ITS Elects Two New Board Members – Rekha Jain and Claudio Feijoo ITS is pleased to announce the election of two new Directors to the ITS Board: Dr. Rekha Jain (India) and Dr. Claudio Feijoo (Spain). Both bring impressive academic and professional credentials, a wealth of ICT experience, strong organizational skills and an abundance of enthusiasm and energy to the ITS Board. Brief personal profiles on each of the two newest members of the ITS Board follow below. Dr. Rekha Jain
Dr. Jain is currently a Professor at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad, India, where she has taught since 1985. She is also Executive Chair of the IIMA-IDEA Telecom Centre of Excellence in Ahmedabad. Dr. Jain serves as an Advisor to the Telecom Sector Skill Council of India and in 2012 was elected as an Executive Council Member in Development Organization of Standards for Telecom in India. She has also served as Vice Chair of the Focus Group – Bridging the Gap: From Innovation to Standards at ITU-T since 2012. Professor Jain holds an M.Sc. degree in Physics from Delhi University (1976), an M.Phil. degree from the Department of Computer Science at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi (1979), and received her Ph.D. from the Indian Institute of Technology, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, in New Delhi (1985). She was awarded a senior Fulbright Fellowship in Telecom Regulation in 1997-98 and was a Visiting Scholar at Fundacao Dom Cabral, Brazil from May to June 2011. Dr. Jain has consulted extensively with several national and international organizations including the World Bank, DFID, Commonwealth Telecommunications Organization, IDRC, the Department of Telecommunications, NASSCOM, and the Indian Department of IT, among many others. She has also been a member of several national level committees in the telecom and IT sectors including the Spectrum Committee, IT for Masses and the Working Group on Internet Proliferation and Governance. Her areas of research specialization include telecom policy and regulation, ICT strategy and management, spectrum management, information system implementation and impact assessment in the ICT domain, infrastructure development and public private partnerships. In addition to having authored numerous scholarly publications in national and international journals, Dr. Jain is a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Global Information Management and is a Board member of several professional organizations. Her ITS activities include having served as the principal organizer of the first-ever ITS Regional Conference to be held in India (2012), as a co-Chair of the 17th ITS Biennial Conference held in Montreal (2008), and as an advisor at the 5th ITS Ph.D. Seminar held in Florence (2013). She has also participated as a presenter at numerous ITS Conferences around the globe. When it's time to relax, Professor Jain loves to cook, travel and to read—mostly fiction, but also the occasional non-fiction literature that peaks her interest. She may be reached at rekha@iimahd.ernet.in. Dr. Claudio Feijoo
Dr. Feijoo holds M.Sc. and Ph.D. degrees in Telecommunication Engineering from the Technical University of Madrid (UPM), where he is currently Full Professor and serves as Deputy Director of the Research Centre on Applied Information and Communication Technologies. He also holds an M.Sc. degree in Quantitative Economics from Distance Learning National University. He is also a guest lecturer in digital business at IE Business School in Madrid (one of the top-ranked graduate business schools in the world). Dr. Feijoo has 25 years of in-depth experience in the ICT industry dealing with not only the technological and economic foundations of the sector but also its institutional and entrepreneurial dimensions. He served for two years at the Institute for Prospective Technological Studies of the European Commission (2007-2009), held the position of Chair in Telecommunications Regulation and Information Society Public Policies at UPM (2004-2007), and participated in information society development plans and broadband deployment strategies while serving as an adviser to the Spanish State Secretary on Telecommunications and Information Society (2003-2004). He also spent three years working on the launch of a university spin-off devoted to the transfer of know-how in technology, media and telecommunications (2000-2003). Most recently, he co-founded the Masters Programme in City Sciences at UPM, an international education initiative aimed at developing holistic managers of future cities. Professor Feijoo started his career in the field of radar and radio-navigation systems, following which he has devoted 20 years to researching the evolution and socio-economic impact of emerging information society technologies, with a focus on broadband infrastructures, mobile communications, and digital content and media industries. Lately, his research has been directed towards energy efficiency, context-awareness, augmented reality, immersive content, social media and digital identity, all from a multidisciplinary perspective and linked to sustainability and the institutional framework for innovation and entrepreneurship. He has led or been part of more than 100 research and know-how transfer projects, both public and private, for leading organizations and firms in the information and communications technology sector in Europe, north Africa, Latin America, China and Australia. His extensive international record of involvement in such projects led to his appointment in October 2013 as National Contact Point of ICTs in the EC's Horizon2020 framework. Dr. Feijoo is a prolific author having published more than 80 scientific articles from a multi-disciplinary perspective (including engineering, economics, the social sciences generally, and extending even to the legal domain) in numerous leading, peer-reviewed, indexed journals. He has also published more than 30 monographs and book chapters, among them basic reference titles in Spain and Latin America on electronic communications regulation. In addition, Dr. Feijoo is a regular presenter at international congresses, and has been invited to lecture at the European Parliament, the European Commission, the Spanish Parliament, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Curtin University in Perth, the International Institute for Communications, and the Body of European Regulators in Electronic Communications. Dr. Feijoo also has a long record of organizing experts' conferences, workshops, and roundtables and has been a very active participant in ITS events worldwide since 2000. He is frequently invited to participate as a member of the scientific committees of major conferences (both ITS and non-ITS), is a member of the editorial board of Communications & Strategies, and has served as a guest editor for special issues of both Info and Telecommunications Policy. Professor Feijoo maintains a number of outside interests. Most intriguing, perhaps, is the independent rock label he founded 20 years ago and is still involved with. He also enjoys long-distance running and exploring different countries and cultures when time permits. Persons interested in contacting Professor Feijoo can reach him at claudio.feijoo@gmail.com. ————————————————– Invitation to Academic/Non-Profit Scientific Societies Focusing on ICT Research In the spirit of extending the scope of scientific inquiry, research and collaboration in the field of ICT studies and related policy development, ITS wishes to invite scientific organizations and non-profit societies with an ICT focus to consider partnering with ITS in promoting each other's conferences, seminars, workshops and related events. For many years, ITS has actively participated in joint marketing initiatives with organizations similar to itself pursuant to which each partner has engaged in the dissemination of information about the other organization's Calls for Papers and conference/seminar/workshop announcements on reciprocal terms via their respective electronic and ‘bricks and mortars' distribution channels. In the case of ITS, this has meant allowing partner organizations access to the ITS-L Listserv distribution list; publishing partner conference announcements in Interconnect, the ITS membership newsletter, under the heading, Calendar of Events – Other Conferences of Potential Interest to ITS Members; and in welcoming the placement of partner organization brochures in the registration area of ITS conferences. Given the mutual benefits of such arrangements, ITS is interested in expanding the number of organizations with which it has similar agreements in place. If you are a member of, or are otherwise affiliated with, another academic society or non-profit scientific organization the primary mandate of which is the research and study of ICT-related social, economic and/or policy issues and wish to explore a joint marketing arrangement with ITS, please contact the ITS Secretariat at secretariat@itsworld.org or Dr. Yu-li Liu, Chair – ITS Marketing and Promotions Committee, at yuliliu2009@gmail.com. We'd be delighted to hear from you. |
