Welcome to SIIT 2005

T he development, the implementation and the diff-usion of standards depend on many factors such as the type of innovation, the ease of implementation and verification of compliance, the market dynamics and the regulatory environment. This makes standard management a risky activity. On a societal level, the impact of standards, particularly in the areas of information and telecommunication, is felt far beyond the meeting rooms where the specifications are being discussed and written. Yet, when Kai Jakobs convened the first SUT conference in Aachen in September 1999, standards researchers and practitioners did not have a forum to meet and discuss how to move standards setting from a skill-based trade into a science-based endeavor. We see two main reasons for this. First, standards research is an interdisciplinary project that mobilizes expertise from various horizons. The interdisciplinary nature of the activity results in a hybrid creature that does not fit easily within the established academic boundaries. Second, the time it takes from convening a standardization committee to the deployment of a product into a market is typically much longer than the quarterly window through which financial markets evaluate companies. As a result, those that are not involved in standardization may prefer to believe in the spontaneous generation of good standards, in zero time and at no costs. What is the status in 2005, six years after the first SIlT conference? On the positive side, we have a biannual gathering at an international level and, related, the International Journal on IT Standards and Standardization Research (J1TSR). The exchange of ideas in these fora can contribute to the crystallization of shared assumptions as well as the convergence onto common tools and methodologies. This step is essential for the field to mature and to take its place in the academic cursus. On the negative side, the research community is still relatively small and the scientific basis agreed to so far does not readily translate into prescriptive models and decision-making tools for managerial control. In this stage of community and concept building, we still need to raise awareness and encourage more encompassing contributions without expecting quick results. We hope that the current volume of refereed papers is another contribution toward making standard research a legitimate academic discipline. The papers address the following topics on information and telecommunication standards: *Current trends in standardization including regulations and quality assessment. * The economic value of standardization and the effect of standards on economic development. * Experiences from standards implementation in the areas of e-government, data exchange, web security, networked applications (voice over IP and wireless LANs) as well as consumer electronics (DVDs). * Impact of patents on standardization particularly in the area of open standards. * Several aspects of the dynamic of standards (case studies and quantitative studies). In preparing this program, we were greatly assisted by the high quality of the submissions and of the reviews. Each paper was evaluated by at least three reviewers in a double-blind fashion. In appreciation, we have listed the name and affiliation of all reviewers in the Acknowledgement section. We are grateful to the ITU for hosting STIT 2005 and providing excellent logistical support including preparing the conference CD. We very much thank Jaroslav Spirco for preparing the Proceedings in the format requested by the IEEE. Members of the Advisory Committee provided useful guidance throughout the process. Finally, the generous support from BT, Microsoft, and SUN allowed us to offer limited travel grants to those that needed some assistance to attend the conference. We hope that reader will benefit from the papers. As for the attendees, on behalf of the Organizing Conmittee, we wish you a happy stay in Geneva and many stimulating and enjoyable discussions!