FIRST CALL FOR PAPERS

11bth International Conference on

Standardisation and Innovation in Information Technology (SIIT)
- The Past, Present and FUTURE of ICT Standardisation -

8 - 10 September 2021
RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, Germany



Standardisation in a changing world

Over the past decade, the ICT industry has undergone a dramatic transformation. One effect of this has been a shift of economic and technical power to some of the largest corporations in the world. This has had massive ramification for investments in this sector, as well as for the ecosystem of ICT application and product development. Has this development impacted standardisation and innovation and if so, how?

Moreover, it appears that the ICT industry has become overly obsessed with being first and being unique; change has become a desirable end in itself. In such an environment, standardisation may quickly be devaluated in stakeholders' mind sets. It is still necessary but ╘someone else's problem'. And this will lead to long term (interoperability) problems.

Against this background, SIIT 2020 aims to take a step back and do some stock-taking. What have we got? What do we need? How can we close the gap (if any)? Where will we probably go from here and where should we go? Can we learn something from history? How do ongoing technical, economic, political, social or legal developments impact standardisation, and how can/should the current standardisation system adapt to these developments (if at all)?

Since 1999, SIIT conferences are bringing together experts from academia, government and industry with an interest in ICT standardisation. It thus serves as a platform to foster the exchange of insights and views on all issues surrounding standards, standardisation and innovation. Contributing academic disciplines include, but are by no means limited to: Business Studies, Computer Science, Economics, Engineering, History, Information Systems, Law, Management Studies and Sociology.


Topics

All types of papers (e.g. theoretical, empirical, analytical, case studies) are welcome. We specifically encourage submissions that relate directly to the conference theme. However, all submissions that foster our understanding of innovation and standardisation, the links that exist between them and with the broader technical, social or legal environment will be considered. Aspects include, but are certainly not limited to:

* Standardisation in a flux!?
* ICT Standardisation in the world's different regions.
* The impact of legal and societal developments on standardisation.
* Smart systems' standardisation - stakeholders, society, environment, sustainability.
* Patterns of participation in ICT standards setting.
* Powerful players in the ICT industry vs. standardisation?
* Will concerns about Huawei (and others) impact ICT standardisation?
* Can we learn from the past?
* Impact of standards (e.g. on innovation, competition, convergence).
* Alternative interoperability strategies .
* Adoption, implementation and diffusion of standards.
* Standardisation management and strategies.
* Standards setting processes and organisations.
* Open standards, open source, open innovation
* IPRs and the legal dimension of standards.
* Standardisation policies and regulation.
* Economics of standards.
* History of standardisation.


Paper Submissions

SIIT 2021 invites submissions of original (unpublished) papers for one of these categories:

* Academic papers will typically adopt a more theoretical approach and will ideally inform academics as well as practitioners (up to 20 pages).

* Industry papers address relevant topics from a more practical perspective and should also help ╘ground' academic research (up to 20 pages).

* Presentation papers are intended for presentation only. They will not be published in the conference proceedings in order to allow a subsequent journal publication (relevant to certain fields of science; up to 20 pages).

* Opinion papers should focus on well-motivated personal views (up to 10 pages).

* Work-in-progress papers report and discuss ongoing activities (up to 10 pages).

* Poster papers will typically report new ideas or early work in progress (up to 5 pages).

All papers should adhere to the formatting guidelines and will undergo a double blind peer-review process. Authors may submit more than one paper, but each author will be allowed to present only one paper during the conference. At least one author of each accepted paper is required to register for the conference and present the paper, otherwise the paper will not be included in the proceedings.

A paper template with formatting guidelines may be found at
https://www.comsys.rwth-aachen.de/fileadmin/downloads/SIIT_Template_Submissions.zip

Submissions must be made through the EasyChair system at https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=siit2021.

All accepted papers (except presentation papers) will be published in the conference proceedings, as part of the ╘EURAS Contributions to Standardisation Research' book series (no copyright transfer required). They will also be fast-tracked for inclusion in the International Journal on Standardization Research (IJSR) (subject to approval by the authors).


Important Dates

Submissions due: 26 April 2021
Notification of acceptance/rejection: 21 June 2021
Final paper due: 19 July 2021
All information about the conference will be announced at http://siit2021.org.


Venue

The conference will be held at RWTH Aachen University's Computer Science Centre, Lecture Hall AH VI, Ahornstr. 55, 52074 Aachen.
The venue and how to get there: https://www.informatik.rwth-aachen.de/cms/Informatik/Fachgruppe/Kontakt/~mwfu/Anfahrt/lidx/1/


Patronage Opportunities

Different patronage packages are available to companies and organisations that would like to be visible at this event. Please contact (Kai.Jakobs@comsys.rwth-aachen.de).


Previous SIIT Conferences

1999 RWTH Aachen University, DE
2001 University of Colorado, Boulder, US
2003 TU Delft, NL
2005 ITU, Geneva, CH
2007 University of Calgary, CA
2009 Kogakuin University, Tokyo, JP
2011 TU Berlin, Berlin, DE
2013 ETSI, Sophia-Antipolis, FR
2015 Synopsys, Sunnyvale, US
2017 UIBE, Beijing, China
2020 Virtual Roundtables


Further Information

For any enquiries please contact Kai Jakobs at kai.jakobs@comsys.rwth-aachen.de
For information about RWTH Aachen University please visit: https://www.rwth-aachen.de/
For information about Aachen please go to: https://www.aachen-tourismus.de/en/


Technical Program Committee

Chair: Rudi Bekkers, TU Eindhoven, NL
Martin Adolph, ITU, CH
Nitin Aggarwal, SJSU, US
Paolo Bellavista, U. Bologna, IT
Knut Blind, TU Berlin, DE
Nils Brunsson, Uppsala U., SE
Carl Cargill, Consultant, US
Simao Campos, ITU, CH
Jorge Contreras, U. of Utah, US
Donggeun Choi, KSA, KR (tbc)
Tineke Egyedi, DIRoS, NL
Erwin Folmer, TNO, NL
Vladislav Fomin, Vilnius U., LT
Linda Garcia, Georgetown U.,
Matt Heckman, Zuyd U. of Applied Sciences, NL
Kai Jakobs, RWTH Aachen U., DE
Geerten van de Kaa, TU Delft, NL
Thomas Kalling, U. of Lund, SE
Olia Kanevskaia, KU Leuven, BE
Ken Krechmer, isology, US
Heejin Lee, Yonsei U., KR
Bjorn Lundell, U. of SkÜvde, SE
Kalle Lyytinen, Case Western Reserve U., US
Brian McAuliffe, HP, IE
Anne Mione, U. of Montpellier, FR
Marta Orviska, UMB, SK
Cesare Riillo, STATEC, LU
Andrew Russell, SUNY, US
Tim Schoechle, NISLAPP, US
Mostafa Hashem Sherif, Consultant, US
Jan Smits, TU Eindhoven, NL
Michael Spring, U. of Pittsburgh, US
Kees Stuurman, U. of Tilburg, NL
Valerio Torti, Luiss-Guido Carli U., IT
Klaus Turowski, Magdeburg U., DE
Karthikeyan Umapathy, U. of North Florida, US
Henk de Vries, Erasmus U., NL
Ray Walshe, DCI, IE
Marc van Wegberg, Consultant, NL
Martin Weiss, U. of Pittsburgh, US
Robert van Wessel, ApexIS, NL (tbc)
Robin Williams, U. of Edinburgh, UK