[AISWorld] Final Reminder: CfA STS Conference Graz

[Kai Jakobs]

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.

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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 at comsys.rwth-aachen.de
<http://www.comsys.rwth-aachen.de/team/kai-jakobs/>

EURAS - The European Academy for Standardisation.
<http://www.euras.org>