Page 5 - Proceedings of the 2017 ITU Kaleidoscope

Foreword

Chaesub Lee
Director
ITU Telecommunication Standardization Bureau

The long-term vision of academia helps ITU to prepare for the future. At Kaleidoscope 2017, we saw
that our future will be built on the smart use of data. 2017 will produce more data than the entire
history of humanity. In our knowledge-driven modern economies, this data is quickly becoming our
most valuable natural resource. Data will fuel innovation in all industry sectors and public-sector
bodies. ITU’s standardization sector aims to provide the technical foundations of this innovation.

Kaleidoscope 2017: Challenges for a data-driven society called for original academic papers investigating
the technical, business and policy challenges underlying effective data management and analysis. The
conference encouraged the development of data-driven applications and services of benefit to society.
It highlighted the importance of a shared, integrated data ecosystem in maximizing the collective
benefits to be drawn from our fast-growing wealth of data.

The Kaleidoscope conference is ITU’s flagship academic event. Now in its ninth edition, the
conference has matured into one of the highlights of ITU’s calendar of events. These peer-reviewed
academic conferences increase dialogue between academics and ICT standardization experts. The
conference identifies emerging trends in ICT research and associated implications for international
standardization.

I would like to extend my gratitude to all of Kaleidoscope’s participants for their invaluable support
to this series of academic conferences. Academic and research institutes are longstanding contributors
to the work of ITU, a productive relationship that was formalized with the introduction of an ITU
Academia membership category in 2010. Academic and research institutes are now able to participate
in all areas of ITU work for a very modest fee. Over 150 academic and research institutes have
become ITU members to participate in ITU’s expert groups alongside policymakers and industry-
leading engineers and business strategists.

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