|
New Year Message from Malcolm Johnson, Director, Telecommunication
Standardization Bureau |
Dear ITU-T Membership
As we head into the New Year and new decade, TSB continues to strive to
provide high-quality services to its membership so as to help fulfill the ITU mandate to
Connect the World.
I would first like to wish you all a very successful and enjoyable 2010, and
secondly thank you all for your support and contributions to ITU-T during 2009.
I believe it was a successful year for ITU-T and I would like to recall some of
the highlights:
Despite the financial crisis, most of ITU-T's study groups saw increased
participation. It was especially pleasing to see more countries participating.
There were some high profile ITU-T Recommendations such as the first global
standard for a fully networked home (ITU-T Rec. G.9960; ex G.hn) and an
energy-efficient one-charger-fits-all new mobile phones solution. These have
generated extensive press coverage.
ITU-T Study Group 5 on Environment and Climate Change is developing a methodology to measure the impact of ICTs on climate change for use in international standards with involvement of 20 other organizations. This generated a lot of interest at the COP 15 meeting in Copenhagen and a number of new organizations have asked to join the work.
At COP15 ITU also succeeded in generating increased knowledge of the positive role that ICTs can play in mitigating climate change. We will continue to take part on the COP process to push for acknowledgement of this in any eventual legally binding agreement.
In April, TSAG approved a TSB developed WTSA-08 Action Plan which is
publicly available on the ITU-T website and is being continuously updated.
This is the first time we have done this.
TSB organized around 30 workshops and seminars in 2009 around the world, many in collaboration with BR and BDT, on implementation of WTSA-08 decisions, or standardisation activity related to climate change, cybersecurity, NGN or accessibility. TSB also organised together with the Korea Communications Commission the first fully virtual ITU symposium on ICTs and climate change.
A new Focus Group on Future Networks was established open to researchers
from around the world working on clean-slate approaches to future internet.
The 2nd ITU Kaleidoscope event held in Argentina in September on the theme
of Innovations for Digital Inclusion attracted many new universities and
researchers from Latin America.
New Technology Watch Briefing Reports were issued on Distributed Computing:
Utilities, Grids and Clouds (March 2009); The Future Internet (April 2009);
Mobile Applications (July 2009) and ICTs & Food Security (July 2009).
The first meeting for high level industry executives (CTO Group) was held on 6 October 2009 during TELECOM World 2009. Nineteen major CTOs or equivalents attended and agreed an action plan. Cisco has kindly offered to host the next meeting on 9 April 2010.
Thanks to the sponsorship of NHK, NTT and Cisco, a video on the role of
ITU-T standards in a real world scenario was placed on the ITU-T website and
YouTube and has received very good reviews.
For the first time, ITU hosted the Global Standards Collaboration (GSC-14, July 2009) consisting of the major regional and national ICT standards bodies whose remit includes supporting ITU’s preeminent role in global standards.
We have implemented a new database for ITU-T Recommendations with advanced
search facilities and a number of new electronic working applications are
ready to be launched at the beginning of the New Year.
Finally Council approved the setting up of an ITU-T/ITU-D group to continue the discussions on IPv6 including consideration of the proposal that ITU should allocate and register IPv6 addresses for interested Member States.
Lastly I would like to take the opportunity to welcome one new staff member to TSB and an existing staff member into a new role. A new face to TSB but not to ITU-T or the standards world is Bilel Jamoussi formerly Director, Nortel Strategic Standards, Corporate CTO Office. Bilel will take up the new position of Chief Study Group Department on 25 January. In this strategically important role, Bilel will bring many years of experience to help guide the work of ITU-T in the coming years. Art Levin who has many years experience in ITU including the last 18 months in TSB, took up the position of Chief Services Department as from 1 January. Many of you will know Art from his key role at WSIS and Plenipotentiary Conferences, and more recently the Global Standards Symposium and leader of the policy and technology watch work in TSB. Among his tasks will be preparation for WTSA-12 and the associated WCIT and GSS.
On behalf of the TSB staff, we look forward to the continued challenge of providing an effective and efficient service to our membership in order to develop the key standards for the growth of the Information Society in 2010.
|
Again, best wishes for the New Year
Mes meilleurs vœux pour la Nouvelle Année!
¡Le deseo un Feliz Año Nuevo!
Желаю Вам счастливого Нового года!
أتمنى لكم عاماً جديداً سعيداً
祝您新年快乐！
Malcolm JOHNSON
|
|
|
