On April 12th 2022, the IN-SIGHT.it project held its kick-off event at the offices of its institional partners, the Dutch Institute for Norm Development, NEN. They day consisted of an interactive workshop that highlighted the interdisciplinary nature of the project. The day was started by a keynote by Dr. Olia Kanevskaia of Utrecht University on the Futureproofing of Standardization and Standards Development Bodies. Dr. Kanevskaia highlighted the increased interest in standardization, including its role in aligning technology with the public interest and fundamental values, as highlighted in the European Union’s (EU) standardization strategy. She offered several ways in which standardization processes, that are currently mostly aligned with the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) Agreement could be improved to better reflect the public interest.

The presentation was followed by the chair of the largest and most central standards body for standardization on the Internet, the Internet Engineering Task Force. The presentation outlined the working of private standard setting, and exemplified its impact by showing the standardization of the new transport protocol QUIC, and the large impact it has on internet traffic. This provided an interesting contrast between public standard setting, as it happens in national, regional and international standards bodies, and private standard setting, as it happens for the internet and the web.

The final two presentations were done by two members of the research team, Niels ten Oever and Paul Groth. Both showed preliminary findings of the research in its first twenty months. Ten Oever showcased an analysis of the role of standardization in the EU’s draft AI law and its shortcomings vis-a-vis the public interest, and an analysis of how lawful intercept, or surveillance for government agencies, is being standardized in 5G. Groth showed the role potential of analyzing standards documents and discussions in their development process, with artificial intelligence.

Particpation in the workshop was very diverse, there were representatives from industry, policy, and civil society, which spoke to the interdisciplinary nature of standards themselves as well as the project team.