The International Bar Association and Trade in Legal Services: Meta Law-Making in International Economic Law?

This article presents the International Bar Association as a highly-influential but often overlooked non-state actor through the lens of its involvement in the standardization of Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRA)s for legal services. Not only do most MRAs contemplate the active involvement of professional bodies such as law societies and bar associations in their construction and monitoring, the IBA’s guidelines for MRAs inform the content of these agreements, facilitating the practice of international law by a more highly mobile profession. This in turn underpins the capacity of the community of international lawyers to exercise their technical expertise to influence other non-state actors, exemplifying what may be described as the IBA’s “meta-lawmaking” on the global stage. As there has been poor uptake of MRAs by developing countries, initiatives of the IBA could help establish mutual recognition for legal services in the developing world

Can mobile eco-systems for technical innovations be standardized? The case of mobile wallets and contactless communication

This paper puts focus on the application of Near Field Communication technology (NFC) to mobile payments. Uncertainties about global policies open for a variety of local business policies. Taking into account different representations of actor interaction as described by different eco-systems by different policy forums the main research question to be discussed in the paper is: Can policies or standards describing actor roles and responsibilities for technical innovations like mobile payments remove obstacles for introduction of the innovation? Different types of industry forums are not only involved in strictly technical matters but also discuss and describe visions about how a new technique might be applied in business life. They suggest different business architectures, (not only a technical architecture), where roles of different type of actors and relations between actors are outlined based on ideas about so called eco-systems. Against this background the paper first discusses how NFC enabled mobile payments currently attracts a lot of attention and identifies four possible development paths making it happen. The paper discusses and compares how global policy networks describe the technical and business architectures for mobile payments. The paper uses a business practice analytical framework and an industrial network framework to identify major problems in connecting global and local policies. Some comments on further research finalize the paper. --Near Field Communication,mobile payments,global policy,business architecture,policy forum,industrial networks,practice

Third Revolution Digital Technology in Disaster Early Warning

Networking societies with electronic based technologies can change social morphology, where key social structures and activities are organized around electronically processed information networks. The application of information and communications technologies (ICT) has been shown to have a positive impact across the emergency or disaster lifecycle. For example, utility of mobile, internet and social network technology, commercial and amateur radio networks, television and video networks and open access technologies for processing data and distributing information can be highlighted. Early warning is the key function during an emergency. Early warning system is an interrelated set of hazard warning, risk assessment, communication and preparedness activities that enable individuals, communities, businesses and others to take timely action to reduce their risks. Third revolution digital technology with semantic features such as standard protocols can facilitate standard data exchange therefore proactive decision making. As a result, people belong to any given hierarchy can access the information simultaneously and make decisions on their own challenging the traditional power relations. Within this context, this paper attempts to explore the use of third revolution digital technology for improving early warning

Diffusion of broadband mobile services in Korea

노트 : e-Biz World Conference 200

High-Tech Urban Agriculture in Amsterdam : An Actor Network Analysis

The agriculture and horticulture sector in the Netherlands is one of the most productive in the world. Although the sector is one of the most advanced and intense agricultural production systems worldwide, it faces challenges, such as climate change and environmental and social unsustainability of industrial production. To overcome these challenges, alternative food production initiatives have emerged, especially in large cities such as Amsterdam. Some initiatives involve producing food in the urban environment, supported by new technologies and practices, so-called high-tech urban agriculture (HTUA). These initiatives make cultivation of plants inside and on top of buildings possible and increase green spaces in urban areas. The emerging agricultural technologies are creating new business environments that are shape d by technology developers (e.g., suppliers of horticultural light emitting diodes (LED) and control environment systems) and developers of alternative food production practices (e.g., HTUA start-ups). However, research shows that the uptake of these technological innovations in urban planning processes is problematic. Therefore, this research analyzes the barriers that local government planners and HTUA developers are facing in the embedding of HTUA in urban planning processes, using the city of Amsterdam as a case study. This study draws on actor-network theory (ANT) to analyze the interactions between planners, technologies, technology developers and developers of alternative food production practices. Several concepts of ANT are integrated into a multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions (MLP) to create a new theoretical framework that can explain how interactions between technologies and planning actors transform the incumbent social\u2013technical regime. The configuration of interactions between social and material entities in technology development and adoption processes in Amsterdam is analyzed through the lens of this theoretical framework. The data in this study were gathered by tracing actors and their connections by using ethnographic research methods. In the course of the integration of new technologies into urban planning practices, gaps between technologies, technology developers, and planning actors have been identified. The results of this study show a lacking connection between planning actors and technology developers, although planning actors do interact with developers of alternative food production practices. These interactions are influenced by agency of artefacts such as visualizations of the future projects. The paper concludes that for the utilization of emerging technologies for sustainability transition of cities, the existing gap between technology developers and planning actors needs to be bridged through the integration of technology development visions in urban agendas and planning processe

Public intervention in private rule-making: the role of the European Commission in industry standardization

The thesis investigates the role of public actors in private rule-making processes at the example of the European Commission’s interventions in private industry standardization in the mobile telecoms, high-definition television, digital broadcasting and intermodal transport industries. It demonstrates that, far from having replaced public rule-making or representing a form of ‘better’ regulation, the private development of technical standards is constrained by the same collective action and decision-making problems that constrain conventional policy-making processes. Without the facilitating interventions of public actors, private standard setters often struggle to overcome these constraints. The ability of public actors to facilitate the private development of technical standards, however, depends on a number of conditions. First they need to rely on entrepreneurial rather than conventional policy instruments based on hierarchical authority and the power of hard law. Hierarchical interventions—in addition to the well-known information problems—only tend to have the unintended effect of exposing technical standardization processes to political contestation, exacerbating the inherent decision-making problems. Entrepreneurial interventions, by contrast, may facilitate the private development of technical standards without exposing the standardization process to political contestation. While such interventions may raise serious legitimacy concerns, they also depend on a number of conditions, such as early intervention, the presence of industry crisis, and the availability of positive feedback mechanisms that drive compliance with the developed standards. With its focus on technical standardization, this thesis seeks to contribute to wider debates on self– and co–regulation and the transforming role of government in the governance of advanced market economies more broadly

Standards Setting Processes in ICT: The Negotiations Approach

ICT, negotiation, standards

Understanding Information Technology and its Relationship to Organizational and Societal Change

In recent years, IT scholars have adopted from historians of technology a social constructivist approach to study IT and organizational change. Actor-network theory has also shown to be a promising tool to analyze the complexity of the intricate relationships between technical and nontechnical aspects of change, and thus to serve as a framework for studies on IT and organizational change. In this paper we want to extend this argument by stating that the interdependence and influence of IT in the case of complex, networked, infrastructural technologies is not limited to that of organizational change, but has a broader scope that encompasses society as a whole. Thus, we want to explore how information technology is transforming our lives, and how to account for this transformation. We base our argument on an evaluation of the criticism voiced of social constructivist approaches to technology studies, and on our observations gleaned from studies of the development of cellular technologies in Europe

ClouNS - A Cloud-native Application Reference Model for Enterprise Architects

The capability to operate cloud-native applications can generate enormous business growth and value. But enterprise architects should be aware that cloud-native applications are vulnerable to vendor lock-in. We investigated cloud-native application design principles, public cloud service providers, and industrial cloud standards. All results indicate that most cloud service categories seem to foster vendor lock-in situations which might be especially problematic for enterprise architectures. This might sound disillusioning at first. However, we present a reference model for cloud-native applications that relies only on a small subset of well standardized IaaS services. The reference model can be used for codifying cloud technologies. It can guide technology identification, classification, adoption, research and development processes for cloud-native application and for vendor lock-in aware enterprise architecture engineering methodologies

Power battles in ICT standards-setting process : lessons from mobile payments

Standards play an important role in ICT innovation to ensure the interoperability and interconnectivity. However, standardisation is a complex process that involves actors with different interests. Various studies, which are mainly economics, have tried to develop the standards-setting process models. One of the models proposes that standardisation can be distinguished into two main stages, i.e., the pre-standardisation stage and the standardisation stage (Smits, 1993). The distinction is based on the different players involved in each stage. The pre-standardisation stage is the period when the players involved are mostly the firms who have developed a new technological specification or requirement, which they want to become the standard. In this period, they draft proposals or recommendations for submission to a formal standards body. If accepted, the proposal or recommendation becomes a working item within the Technical Committee or Working Group of the standards body. This marks the beginning of the standardisation stage. The outcome of the pre-standardisation stage may, on the other hand, be made publicly available and become the market standard. If this is happens, there is no standardisation stage, and the process becomes de facto standardisation. The early stage of standardisation is considered to be the most important period in the standards-setting process for a number of reasons, the main one being that the dynamics and the interactions among actors during the early period may influence the process and the outcome. Various activities take place in this period, such as information gathering, lobbying, and informal meetings. These initial actions reveal the interactions among involved actors that have a substantial impact on the entire standards-setting process. Power is a factor that shapes the dynamics of these interactions. However, little research has been undertaken to explore this dynamics. This study, thus represents an effort to redress this, by exploring the mechanism of standardisation and the interactions that take place among the parties involved. To be precise, this study explores the power battles among the negotiating parties during the standards-setting process. The main research question of this study can be formulated as: How do the power battles shape the process of standards-setting in ICT industry? Qualitative case study research has been chosen as the research methodology. The qualitative case study consists of case selection and data collection, which includes interviews and documentation from technical report, white papers, news, to company profiles. Prior to the case study activities, literature survey on standardisation and negotiation, which is a part of desk research, has been conducted and serves as the knowledge source and the theoretical framework of this study. In addition, literature survey can also be used as a secondary source of data. Negotiation theory has been used to deliberate the concept of power. For the empirical part, the aspect of the ICT industry that has been chosen is Mobile Payments. The development of Mobile Payments, defined as an activity that occurs between two parties utilising a combination platform Power Battles 222 in ICT Standards-Setting Process between financial and mobile communications, is still in the conceptual and trial period, which means that as yet no standards have been defined. This provides an ideal context in which to track the process of standardisation and all it involves. Moreover, different sectors are involved in this emerging technology, which means a variety of power based negotiations are likely to occur. Therefore, five Mobile Payments developing organisations are revealed as the arena and discussed as the case studies. They are the Mobile Payment Forum, Mobey Forum, Simpay, PayCircle, and ECBS. Mobile Payments can be seen as a result of an innovation in a service industry. By definition, Mobile Payments is an incremental innovation, that is, a new technology that offers improved performance in payment method offered by payment institutions through mobile devices and networks. Mobile Payments is an improved service and a new method of payment, which involves services from the financial and mobile communications industries. Mobile Payments involves the telecommunications and the financial industries. Both industries have several existing standards, supported by powerful parties, and both industries are themselves powerful parties. As a result, standards development for Mobile Payments is being shaped by two powerful parties from different industries. Standards-setting for Mobile Payments thus is an inter-industry battleground, hence the current absence of standards for Mobile Payments. Various actors have made attempts to set standards for Mobile Payments. Mobile Payments is in the beginning and early period of the standards-setting process, in which only related firms are involved. Negotiation and informal meetings between parties occur during this stage, and an agreement among actors about certain solutions would be generated to proceed to the next level. For de facto standardisation, the agreement would be standards launched on the market. In the case of de jure standardisation, the agreement takes the form of a proposal, which must be examined and accepted as the working project by the formal standards body. The two major industry groups involved in Mobile Payments initiated various organisations. Financial industry initiatives resulted in the Mobile Payment Forum, the Mobey Forum and the European Committee for Banking Standards (ECBS). Initiatives from the telecommunications industry resulted in the establishment of what eventually became known as Simpay. In addition to these initiatives from the two major industries, the IT industry group representing manufacturers and vendors – launched PayCircle. Although competing to each other, these groups are inter-related. A number of firms join more than one group, playing a different role in each. For instance, in one group, a firm might be a Board member whilst it might only be an Associate member of another. Grindley (1995) calls these types of alliances cross-membership. It represents a strategic movement, designed to monitor the activities of others in the various fora. In Mobile Payments standardisation, four power types can be identified. These types of power are exercised by the different categories of actors in negotiating standards-setting process; they are legitimate power, expert power, referent power, and informational power. Legitimate power is possessed by the founder of consortia, and reflected from the leadership privilege in decision-making. Expert power is characterised by the expertise in particular area and technological know-how mostly possessed by the manufacturers. The expert power provides them to propose the preferred architecture of Mobile Payments. Referent power is acquired through reputation and influential individual, which is performed well by service oriented organisations. Related Summary 223 information, for instance on the current development on Mobile Payments, provides knowledge to the information possessor, and leads to the informational power. In this case, the typical possessors of informational power are network operators and credit-card companies. The existence of different Mobile Payments developing groups introduces competition at consortium level. The competition between groups affects the power battles among them. Each organisation has different power types, which produce different power dominance. The differences lie in the different membership composition. Mobile Payment Forum is a business and policy oriented consortium, which is reflected in the variety of its membership composition. Mobey Forum is a technically oriented consortium, whose concern is to implement mobile technologies for financial services. Simpay is a commercial and profit oriented group, and is registered as a UK-based company. PayCircle is a technically oriented consortium as exemplified by its membership. And ECBS is a policy-oriented organisation, which is evident from its membership composition and structure. Moreover, ECBS acts as regulator in the banking sector. The power battles among these organisations reveal certain characteristics. Although all Mobile Payments organisations possess expert power, this varies in type depending on the expertise of their members. For instance, although Mobey Forum and PayCirlce are both technically oriented, they have different approaches and different expertise. Although the Mobile Payment Forum and ECBS are both policy-oriented organisations, ECBS has more legitimate power than Mobile Payment Forum because the Mobile Payment Forum is a business-oriented group, which implements its legitimate power within the organisation, while ECBS has legitimate power over external organisations. The result of these power battles is the multiple types of Mobile Payments being developed by the various organisations. The first type is a bank-account-based system, which is also known as wallet-based Mobile Payments. Mobey Forum is the developer of this system, which reflects the expert power of its founders. This payment system is also supported by PayCircle and ECBS, which indicates referent power among these three organisations. The second type is a telco-billing-based system, which is being developed by Simpay. Simpay’s persistence in pursuing this system demonstrates its expert power; its founders are the leading mobile network operators. In addition, this development shows the legitimate power of Simpay’s founder. When developing this system, Simpay demonstrates its informational power in approaching banks to become members. Simpay’s informational power is based on its understanding of the importance of payment systems to banks. However, the commission rate in Simpay’s proposed architecture is too high, which makes it difficult for them to accept the architectures being proposed by the banks. Simpay’s proposed architecture is similarly not supported by other organisations. The third type is credit-card-based, and is being developed by the Mobile Payment Forum. This type of development by the Mobile Payment Forum demonstrates the legitimate power of its founders. Moreover, it also exemplifies the expert power of the founders, which are the leading credit-card institutions. The fact that the Mobile Power Battles 224 in ICT Standards-Setting Process Payment Forum is the most heterogeneous Mobile Payments developing organisation, demonstrates that it has referent power. From the three different types of Mobile Payments being developed, it is obvious that there is a conflict of interests among the involved parties. Each of them would like to gain the maximum outcome by becoming the technological leader through dominant design in the market. As a result, different technologies compete and create the power battles among them. Therefore, one may conclude that the power battles in standardssetting process cause technology variation and lead to the uncertainty of the standards for the technology in question