The Changing Competitive Environment: Standards and the Digital Economy/IoT – Implications for Policy and Teaching

Date: September 8-9, 2016
Location:  Gutman Conference Center, Harvard University, Harvard Graduate School of Education, Appian Way and Brattle Street, Cambridge, MA 02138  

This 1.5-day Workshop will examine the Digital Economy as it impacts industry, explore related standards successes and roadblocks, and examine how standards and standardization are integrated into the academic curriculum.

The relentless pace of the ongoing Digital Evolution -- aka Digital Economy, Industry 4.0, and particularly, the Internet of Things (IoT), including Cloud Computing, smart systems, open standards, and cybersecurity -- is fundamentally challenging business and personal operations and strategic, technology, and innovation decisions as well as government policy. The impact is expected to be pervasive and disruptive, affecting all sectors, including services and products, and driving jobs, innovation, and global competitiveness.

Underlying and enabling the digital economy are still-emerging technical standards. As a consequence, Standards have moved from technical concerns to a position of strategic importance.

Success in the Digital Economy will require both an understanding of standards and standardization processes and participating in the evolution of standards driving the Digital Evolution.

However, standards and their development and management are rarely included in the growing number of digital economy courses. This one-and-a-half day Workshop will engage faculty, industry, and government participants in a discussion on how standards can be effectively integrated into the curriculum and appropriate pedagogy.