-------- Forwarded Message -------- Subject: [AISWorld] Final Reminder: CfA STS Conference Graz Date: Wed, 12 Jan 2022 07:11:31 +0100 From: Kai Jakobs kai.jakobs@cs.rwth-aachen.de Reply-To: kai.jakobs@cs.rwth-aachen.de Organization: RWTH Aachen University To: AISWorld aisworld@lists.aisnet.org

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.