Message from Seizo Onoe, Director,

Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU

Dear colleagues,

As this busy year comes to a close, it is time to take a look back and celebrate our achievements. With your support and dedication, we have made great strides in advancing digital transformation, supporting smart cities and communities, and enabling future metaverse standardization.

In this edition of the Digest, we bring to you our Year in Review report, latest updates on the work of the ITU Focus Group on metaverse, as well as updates on our latest Digital Transformation webinars and publications.

Next year will be pivotal for the global standardization agenda as we prepare for the World Telecommunication Standardization Assembly in New Delhi, India, 15-24 October 2024, and preceding Global Standards Symposium on 14 October 2024.

Open standards are widely recognised as being central to accelerating the use of digital technologies to achieve the UN Sustainable Development Goals. I look forward to continuing this important work with you in the new year, as we get closer to the key milestone of 2030.

I hope you enjoy this digest. If you have any comments or suggestions for its improvement, please send an email to digitaltransformation@itu.int.

Sincerely,

Seizo Onoe,
Director, Telecommunication Standardization Bureau, ITU.

2023 Year in Review: Advancing digital transformation

The ITU made significant progress in 2023 in the fields of digital transformation, smart sustainable cities, and the metaverse. The 'Year in Review' report and webpage provide a comprehensive overview of key achievements and activities completed throughout the year, with the support of ITU’s smart cities and the metaverse team.

One of the highlights has been the ITU Focus Group on metaverse, which within the space of less than one year, managed to hold ITU record-breaking meetings in terms of the number of participants and approved deliverables. The enthusiasm demonstrated by Focus Group experts from around the world underscored the importance of shaping the metaverse to benefit everyone, everywhere.

ITU’s commitment to enabling cities and communities to become smarter and more sustainable was evident not only in its support for the United for Smart Sustainable Cities (U4SSC) initiative but also in the significant achievements of ITU-T Study Group 20. This included the establishment of the Study Group 20 Regional Group for Asia Pacific increasing participation of stakeholders from this vibrant region.

During 2023, the ITU continued its advocacy and support for its members to harness the opportunities offered by digital transformation. Through its webinar series, toolkit, and resource hub, the ITU collaborated with governments, industry, academia, civil society sector partners, as well as the broader UN system. This collaboration ensured global reach and a comprehensive understanding of the power of digital technologies to contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. To learn more, visit the 2023 Year in Review website or read the report.

ITU Focus Group on metaverse wraps up work for 2023

The final meeting of the ITU Focus Group on metaverse in 2023 took place on 4-7 December, in Geneva, Switzerland. It was a significant meeting, attracting 277 participants in person and online to finalize key areas of work.

The Focus Group, building on the momentum of previous three meetings, has been instrumental in shaping the metaverse pre-standardization landscape. One of the key outcomes of the December meeting in Geneva was the adoption of the definition of the metaverse as “An integrative ecosystem of virtual worlds offering immersive experiences to users, that modify pre-existing and create new value from economic, environmental, social and cultural perspectives.”

Furthermore, the Focus Group approved 13 new innovative deliverables, taking the total to 22 which will be presented at the 2024 TSAG meeting on 22-26 January 2024. These deliverables are expected to play a crucial role in future metaverse standardization efforts. The success of the Focus Group in creating a collaborative environment for the exchange of ideas and the development of innovative solutions is evident in these achievements.

The upcoming TSAG meeting will now determine the next steps on the path of metaverse standardization. The role of the Focus Group on metaverse will also be considered, providing an opportunity to assess its contributions and outline a way forward.

Anyang smart city successfully implements U4SSC KPIs

In 2023, the city of Anyang, Republic of Korea, successfully implemented the U4SSC Key Performance Indicators, based on the ITU standard Y.4903. This achievement marked a significant milestone on Anyang's smart, sustainable city journey.

Highlighting Anyang's progress, in November 2023 the ITU published Anyang's U4SSC City Snapshot and Verification Report. The U4SSC KPIs provide a comprehensive and globally recognized framework for assessing a city's smartness and sustainability credentials. The application of these KPIs in Anyang demonstrates their value and the city's efforts to contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

The successful implementation of U4SSC KPIs in Anyang is an example for other cities to drive smart sustainable urban development. The KPIs have proven instrumental in helping over 200 cities around the world make informed decisions and policies in areas such as the economy and environment. The city's progress demonstrates that the KPIs practical tools that can drive meaningful change and promote a vision of people centred smart cities around the world.

Latest Digital Transformation webinars

The latest webinars in ITU's series of digital transformation webinars focused on a range of digital transformation topics.

Episode #39: The Interplay Between Human Rights and Technology  the webinar discussed the interplay between human rights and technology with leading experts in the field of human rights in cyberspace. The webinar examined several Human Rights Council and UN General Assembly resolutions that address human rights and digital technology issues. Furthermore, it discussed the development of the "UN Secretary-General’s Guidance on Human Rights Due Diligence for Digital Technology Use" which was underway at the time. The discussion addressed essential questions, including how to safeguard privacy, data protection, the impact of emerging technologies on our rights, and the crucial role of technical standardization.

Episode #38: Localizing the Sustainable Development Goals: Invest NYC SDG Initiative  looked at the urgent need for global stakeholders, including governments and the private sector, to find additional guidance to use emerging technologies in achieving the 169 targets and 247 indicators of the SDGs within the remaining decade. It introduced the multi-year initiative called Invest NYC SDG, launched by the Center for Sustainable Business at New York University. The webinar also presented the recently published document 'Global Change Begins at Home: Advancing the UN SDGs in NYC', as part of the multi-stakeholder Invest NYC SDG initiative.

Episode #37: Digital transformation in the pharma Industry discussed the paradigm shift witnessed by the Pharma industry post COVID-19, as the world shifts from traditional pharmaceutical value chain operations to digital transformation to meet its medical needs. In recent years, new digital technologies have transformed the pharma industry landscape by enhancing pharmaceutical product development, operational business processes and forecasting demand and supply models, along with supporting diagnostics, and telemedicine channels.

Episode #36: World cities day: digital transformation for a better urban life explored how digital transformation can help improve the adaptability and scalability of cities to facilitate the delivery of amenities while enhancing efficiency of operations and strengthening the backbone of cybersecurity architecture across all urban verticals – all in alignment with the SDGs.

Episode #35: How to successfully develop People-Centred citiverse? looked at the citiverse as a concept for a network of interconnected virtual worlds that are synchronized with their physical counterparts. Smart city initiatives have often focused on technology for its own sake, rather than on how technology can be used to improve the lives of people. This has led to some smart city projects being expensive, inefficient, and even harmful. This webinar explored how a people-centered citiverse has the potential to make cities more livable, sustainable, and equitable for all residents.

Episode #34: What is a citiverse? And how can it contribute to sustainable city development? discussed the potential role of citiverses – considering different social and economic aspects – to identify areas of collaboration between relevant International Organizations and Local and Regional Governments (LRGs). It provided an insight into the necessity of an inclusive multistakeholder approach to actively listen to the needs of LRGs and share views, insights, and guidance on the very principles to follow when shaping a citiverse. It elaborated its potential contribution to LRGs’ delivering sustainable services, thus achieving 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

To subscribe for upcoming webinars and to view recordings of past events visit the Digital Transformation webinar series webpage.

Latest Reports and Publications

2023 year in review report

The ITU made significant progress in 2023 in the fields of digital transformation, smart sustainable cities, and the metaverse. The 'Year in Review' report provides a comprehensive overview of key achievements and activities completed throughout the year. To learn more see here.

City Snapshot and Verification Report – Anyang, Korea (Republic of)
The city snapshot provides a visual overview on a city’s performance to benchmark in the Key Performance Indicators for Smart Sustainable Cities. The visual representation highlights a city’s performance in each dimension and subdimension of the KPIs for SSC based on the inherited benchmark value of each indicator. ​As part of the reporting of city experiences in piloting the U4SSC KPIs for Smart Sustainable Cities, the verification report contains the verification results from assessing the validity of the data submitted by the participating city.

Enabling digital transformation in smart sustainable cities – Master plan
This report aims to provide urban stakeholders, including municipalities, with a general overview of the stages and standards needed to drive digital transformation in smart sustainable cities. It provides a guide for the implementation of the smart sustainable city concept based on the intensive use of emerging digital technologies. It also refers the reader to relevant standards and publications addressing the specific technical aspects involved in the design and overall operation of SSC and digital transformation strategies. To read or download a copy, click here.

Guide for Smart and Sustainable City leaders: Envisioning Sustainable Digital Transformation
This report identifies a broad set of relevant elements constituting digital transformation, while underscoring the organizational capabilities and guidance for the development of smart and sustainable cities through an eight-step cycle – revolving around smart city vision setting, the implementation of international standards, and the monitoring of smart city progress. This report is based on the Supplement 32 to ITU-T Y.4000 series – Smart sustainable cities – A guide for city leaders. To read or download a copy, click here. 

To access these and other ITU publications on a range of digital transformation topics such as smart cities and the metaverse visit our publications webpage.

Contact us
Email: digitaltransformation@itu.int
International Telecommunication Union
Place des Nations, 1211 Geneva 20, Switzerland