Title
Workshop on Internet Technology Adoption and Transition (ITAT)
Date
December 4-6(*)
Place
Cambridge, UK
Who Should Attend
Economists, management scientists, and other researchers
interested in technology diffusion, computer scientists and
engineers who are interested in improving likelihood of
deployment success, and operators who can provide insights
into their needs and challenges with regard to new technology.
Prerequisite: A 3 - 10 page statement of interest
Submission Deadline: August 15, 2013
Submission URL: https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=itat-2013
Acceptance Date: September 4, 2013 (or earlier)
The Internet is a complex ecosystem that encompasses all aspects of
society. At its heart is a protocol stack with an hourglass shape,
and IP at its center. Recent research points to possible explanations
for the success of such a design and for the significant challenges
that arise when trying to evolve or change its middle section. The
difficulty in transitioning from IPv4 to IPv6 seems to illustrate this
point. We have a number of other key examples of technology transition
to consider, including the next generation of web technologies,
including HTTP version 2 and real time communications on the web
(WebRTC). The eventual success of many if not all of these protocols
will largely depend on our understanding of not only what features and
design principles contribute lasting value, but also on how early
deployment strategies can succeed in unlocking that value to foster
protocol adoption. The latter is particularly important in that most
if not all Internet protocols exhibit significant externalities that
create strong barriers to adoption, especially in the presence of a
well-established incumbent. Taking into account RFC 5218, which
discusses what makes a protocol successful, this workshop seeks to
explore how the complex interactions of protocol design and
deployment affect their success. One workshop goals is, therefore, to
encourage discussions that lead to an understanding of what makes
protocols designs successful, not only in fulfilling the initial
design goals for the protocol, but more importantly in their ability
to evolve with changing protocol goals and technology.
Another equally important workshop goal is to develop protocol
deployment strategies that enable new features to rapidly gain a
foothold and ultimately realize broad adoption. Such strategies must
be informed by both operational and economic factors.
Suggested topics include
* Economic / evolutionary models that can provide a view toward
identification of the factors leading to a protocol's success in
the field
* Studies that evaluate existing deployments of protocols that have
succeeded or failed
* Operators' experiences about economics of deployment of new
features (both successful or otherwise)
* Intersection of policy and economics with respect to technology
diffusion
* Studies of standards organizations and their processes and the
effects on technology diffusion
* Strategies to foster rapid and cost-effective adoption
Participation will be limited. Interested parties should submit a
brief (3-10 page) position paper addressing some aspect of these
problems via the EasyChair conference management system at the
following URL:
https://www.easychair.org/conferences/?conf=itat-2013
Submissions are due no later than August 15, 2013. The IAB will
inform those accepted no later than September 4th. The workshop
itself will be between 2 and 2.5 days. Further information on this
will follow.
