ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) - Highlights of ITU-T activity under Directorship of Malcolm Johnson

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Highlights of ITU-T activity under Directorship of Malcolm JOHNSON

Introduction of Kaleidoscope academic conferences in 2008 to encourage greater involvement of students and researchers in the work of ITU-T. Since then over 70 universities have forged an association with ITU-T.
Free downloading of ITU-T Recommendations was recommended to Council-07. Sales of copies were running at around 5000 a year, now downloads are over 3 million copies a year - many to developing countries
Reorganisation of ITU-T's secretariat the Telecommunication Standardization Bureau (TSB) to place greater resources on projects such as bridging the standardization gap
Introduction of Bridging the Standardization Gap forums, beginning in Kigali October 2007, to highlight main topics in ITU-T and encourage greater participation from developing countries
Over 100 meetings held with remote participation in 2008
Five preparatory meetings for WTSA: Brazil for Americas; Ghana for Africa; Vietnam for Asia Pacific; Uzbekistan for CIS countries; and Syria for Arab States.
Some of the WTSA 1^st's
- 1^st time chaired by a woman
  - Lyndall Shope-Mafole, Director-General, South African Ministry of Communications
- 1^st time in Africa
- 1^st time preceded by Global Standards Symposium
- 1^st time academia invited
- 1^st time side events held: accessibility; climate change; and cybersecurity
- 1^st time associated exhibition of new technologies
- 1^st substantial restructuring of the Sector
- 1^st time term limits on chairmanships applied:
  - Virtually complete new team of chairmen and vice-chairmen including 22 from developing countries
- Unprecedented media coverage
  - Local and international: including 3 TV interviews, 3 radio interviews, and numerous printed articles and web coverage
Some of the WTSA successes
- Strengthened Role as pre-eminent global ICT standards body.
- Bridging the standardization gap essential to Connect the World.
- Streamlined and efficient structure
  - Avoiding duplication and focusing on key objectives
- Excellent team of new chairmen and vice-chairmen from 33 countries
- Key Resolutions on:
  - Human exposure to electromagnetic fields - Resolution 72 - Measurement concerns related to human exposure to electromagnetic fields
  - Encouraging the deployment of IPv6 Resolution 64 - IP address allocation and encouraging the deployment of IPv6
  - Computer Incident Response Teams Resolution 58 - Encourage the creation of national Computer Incident Response Teams, particularly for developing countries
  - ICTs and climate change Resolution 73 - Information and communications technologies and climate change
  - Accessibility to ICTs for persons with disabilities Resolution 70 - Telecommunication/ICT accessibility for persons with disabilities
  - Conformance and interoperability testing, a possible future ITU Mark Resolution 76 - Studies related to conformance and interoperability testing, assistance to developing countries, and a possible future ITU mark programme
  - Encouraging academic participation Resolution 71 - Admission of academia, universities and their associated research establishments to participate in the work of ITU-T
  - Sector members from developing countries Resolution 74 - Admission of Sector Members from developing countries in the work of ITU-T
  - Nomadic telecommunication services and applications Resolution 63 - Studies regarding nomadic telecommunication services and applications
Primetime Emmy award for Recommendation ITU-T H.264 (MPEG-4) received in Hollywood 23 August 2008 on behalf of ITU, ISO and IEC.
Implementation of paperless policy in ITU-T's secretariat (TSB)
Increasing number of paperless meetings
Increased focus on impact of ICTs on climate change and accessibility to ICTs for persons with disabilities
Increased number of workshops - record number of 30 workshops in 2008.
Closer collaboration with IETF with high level management meetings and the first ever joint ITU-T/IETF group
Closer collaboration with IEEE on workshops and Kaleidoscope
Adoption of common patent policy and guidelines with ISO and IEC.
Improvement of the ITU-T website resulting in significant increase in hits - 30 per cent between April 2007 and April 2009
In 2007, a 29 per cent increase in approved ITU-T Recommendations over the previous year, in 2008 a further 23 per cent increase making a new record of 236.