ITU’s 6th International Conference «Living in a converged world - impossible without standards?» organized by the ITU Telecommunication Standardization Sector (ITU-T) with the support of the K-2014 Steering and Host Committees took place on June 3-5, 2014 at the Bonch-Bruevich Saint - Petersburg State University of Telecommunications (Russian Federation).

ITU’s 6th International Conference brought together a wide range of views from universities, industry and research institutions. The aim of Kaleidoscope conferences is to identify emerging developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and, in particular, areas in need of international standards to support the development of successful products and services.

Given the belief that future technologies should be designed to enhance quality of life, Kaleidoscope 2014 highlighted the need for future standards for ICT services and applications to take into account aspects of socio-economic, cultural, ethical, legal and sustainable-development policy. The event also pinpointed aspects to increase the inclusivity of the Information Society; addressing the demands of people with disabilities, and the need for standards to be accessible to people of different countries and languages.

Recognizing the steadily growing role of ICT in other social and economic sectors and the resulting challenges for global standards makers, ITU has begun forming partnerships with organizations not traditionally part of the ICT ecosystem in the interests of developing global standards tailored to new ICT-enabled services in other industry sectors.

Kaleidoscope 2014 explored this new paradigm, looking at how the standards can bring these different worlds together and evolve in line with ensuing industrial and technological convergence. 

Accepted and presented papers were published in the Conference Proceedings and will submitted for inclusion in IEEE Xplore. The best papers will be evaluated for potential publication in IEEE Communications Magazine. Selected papers will be considered for publication in the International Journal of Technology Marketing or the International Journal of IT Standards & Standardization Research. A prize fund totaling $10,000 was awarded to the three best papers. Young Author Recognition certificates were also issued.  

Representative of the «Information and Telecommunications Technologies» Branch of RAEN Dr. Valery Tikhvinskiy (Chairman of ITT RAEN) took part in the work of the 6th International Conference. Meeting report of the Branch of RAEN in Russian language (author - V. Tikhvinskiy) and the article on the theme of «Spectrum occupation and perspectives millimeter band utilization for 5G networks» (G. Bochechka, V. Tikhvinskiy) are available upon request on ITU-T website and RAEN website.