Folks,
The 20th Annual STS Conference Graz 2022 'Critical Issues in Science,
Technology and Society Studies' will be held 2 - 4 May 2022 in Graz,
Austria (Covid-19 or any successors permitting, that is; right now, I'm
not overly optimistic ... :-(( ....).
For a couple of years now the conference also includes a session related
to standardisation research. This year's session title is
'Standardisation for (the Digital) Society'; you will find the
description below. You may find more information about the event via
https://stsconf.tugraz.at/.
The submission deadline for abstracts (up to 500 words) is 21 January.
Submissions must be made via
https://www.conftool.com/sts-conference-graz-2022/.
Greetings from Aachen.
Kai.
Standardisation for (the Digital) Society
Today, standards for the digital domain are developed mostly by
engineers and computer scientists, typically employed by large
companies. As a result, technical expertise and economic interests guide
standardisation and thus technical development; societal issues are
hardly considered (if at all). This is an untenable situation,
especially considering the trend towards smart systems, AI and Machine
Learning. These technologies have the potential to change society – for
better or worse.
“The shaping process [of a technology] begins with the earliest stages
of research and development”. Standardisation represents such an early
stage. This suggests to exploit the standards setting process to also
contribute broader, non-technical (e.g. societal, environmental, legal
and ethical) expertise to the standardisation of particularly the above
technologies. This, in turn, requires active contributions from an
additional broad range of stakeholders including citizens, NGOs, unions,
(local) administrations as well as e.g. lawyers, sociologists and
philosophers.
This session solicits contributions that discuss aspects of such a
‘Responsible Standardisation’ from both a practical and a theoretical
perspective. Potential topics include but are not limited to:
Possible contributions of societal stakeholders to standards
development.
The role and representation of societal stakeholders in standardisation.
How to increase participation of societal stakeholders in standards
setting?
Legitimacy and influence of different players in standards development.
Potential ethical and legal issues in the standardisation of smart
systems, AI and Machine Learning.
Social norms and their impact on standardisation.
--
Kai Jakobs
RWTH Aachen University
Computer Science Department
Informatik 4 (Communication and Distributed Systems)
Ahornstr. 55, D-52074 Aachen, Germany
Tel.: +49-241-80-21405
Fax: +49-241-80-22222
Kai.Jakobs@comsys.rwth-aachen.de
EURAS - The European Academy for Standardisation.
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