The ITU Telecommunications Standardisation Advisory Group (TSAG) met last 3-7 December in Geneva.
One of the meeting's main goals was to start preparations for the World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly (WTSA) scheduled for 21-30 October 2008 in Johannesburg, South Africa, including analysis of reorganisation of the Study Groups (SGs) of the Telecommunication Standardisation Sector (ITU-T).
Regarding the efforts of working party 1 (WP 1), on working methods, the following are worth stressing:
- Creation of the Correspondence Group on revision of Recommendation A.7, which will consider the working methods of the Focus Groups;
- Continuation of the Correspondence Group on revision of the WTSA-04 Resolutions and Recommendations of Series A of ITU-T, whose activity will centre on the revision of Recommendation 1 and Resolution 1;
- Modification of point 2.2 of Recommendation A.13.
As for the work of WP 2, on sector strategy and work and management programmes, the following decisions are noteworthy:
- Given that it was not possible to reach consensus on reorganising the SGs, discussion on this issue will continue in the Correspondence Group on reorganisation;
- Creation of the Joint Co-ordination Activity on Accessibility and Human Factors (JCA-A&HF);
- Creation of the JCA on Identity Management (JCA-IdM) and the Global Standards Initiative for IdM (IdM-GSI);
- Creation of the Questions 12/16 (advanced multimedia system for NGN and future packet based networks) and 13/16 (multimedia application platforms and end systems for IPTV).
On the issues under study in WP3, concerning electronic working methods and publications policy, worth mentioning is the approval of rerouting to the Study Groups the liaison statement on the availability of new electronic conferencing tools and another, in response to the liaison statement from SG 15, containing developments on improvement proposals vis-à-vis electronic working methods.
Regarding the work of WP 4 (external co-operation, monitoring and technology accompaniment), note:
- Approval of the advice from the Director of the Telecommunications Standardisation Department (TSB) on measures to strengthen ITU-T?s role in cutting greenhouse gas emissions, with a view to attenuating climate changes, as per the recommendations from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change;
- Approval of the proposed recommendation A.SCC ''Guidelines and Co-ordination Requirements for the Organisation of ITU-T Seminars and Workshops'' ;
- Approval of the working plan and revision of the terms of reference of the Seminars Co-ordination Committee (SCC);
- Approval of the amendments to Recommendations A.4 and A.6.
With respect to the group's work on reducing the standardisation gap, worth mentioning is the development of a set of more elaborate indicators to measure the standardisation gap, including national indicators.
As for the work of the ad hoc group on finance, noteworthy was the decision to continue its activity until July 2008, basically with the goal of defining the ITU-T areas where more or less resources should be assigned, and to advise the TSB Director on the relatively insignificant impact of an eventual reduction in the number of meeting days, the importance of limiting interpreting in plenary sessions and also the importance of measures to boost the number of sector members.
On the day before the TSAG meeting, a European group co-ordination meeting was also held, which centred on harmonising the European position on various reorganisation proposals presented at this TSAG meeting. To that end, the importance of putting forward candidates for the SG chairs and deputy chairs was also stressed. Another major issue covered at the meeting was the preparation for WTSA-08; the first meeting of the preparatory project team will take place this coming February.
Plans call for the next TSAG meeting to be held on 2-11 July 2008 in Geneva.
