Abstract
Technology design, development and evaluation has long been driven by functional performance optimization and estimated market opportunities. Today, societal challenges and sustainable development goals are calling for a paradigm shift towards aligning technology development with a values-based consideration and re-prioritization of different ecological, social and economic outcomes. Values have been identified as key drivers of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) research. They are taken into account in the development of 6G networks, e.g. in the context of EU research funding frameworks, but a clear conceptual framework for values-driven development is still missing. This paper deals with the concept of Key Value Indicators (KVIs) as a method for analyzing the values-related outcomes stemming from ICT developments. Leveraging established definitions, frameworks and value identification methods, the paper proposes a structured KVI framework tailored to the ICT research and development (R&D) sector. The proposed framework comprises five steps, starting from the use case-related identification of values to the assessment of value outcomes. ICT-enabled smart cities are analyzed as an example use case to illustrate how this framework can be applied. The KVI framework is aimed to be a useful tool for the ICT research sector (to be used - primarily but not exclusively - by ICT research projects and programs) to address social challenges in technology design and development phases and to identify and estimate value outcomes from technology use. In addition, the proposed framework aims to assist policy makers to establish value-related targets and set requirements and conditions for ICT developments.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 102778 |
| Number of pages | 22 |
| Journal | Telecommunications Policy |
| Volume | 48 |
| Issue number | 6 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Jul 2024 |
| MoE publication type | A1 Journal article-refereed |
Funding
Recently many European research projects for 6G have promised to consolidate societal and technical requirements of 6G in the form of KVIs and KPIs. For instance, the European Union's Horizon Europe research and innovation program Smart Network and Services Joint Undertaking (SNS JU) was launched to support Research and Innovation (R&I) as a widely validated approach that should be developed to transform key SDG requirements into technological solutions and performance objectives (Smart Networks and Services Joint). They are encouraged to establish a commonly used list of KPIs and KVIs for 6G as federating SNS targets for European R&I actions in the field. Some SNS JU projects (e.g., TARGET-X (SNS JU Project TARGET-X), IMAGINE-B5G (SNS JU Project IMAGINE-B5G), 6G-SANDBOX (SNS JU Project 6G-SANDBOX)) are aiming to identify and validate KVIs verified as relevant to the use cases supported, through demonstration of their importance to end-to-end (E2E) large-scale trials and pilots. The 6G Flagship project of the SNS JU program - Hexa-X-II (SNS JU Project HEXA-X-II) - has also identified the importance of incorporating key values with 6G research. As a continuation of the concept initiated in Hexa-X (5G PPP Project HEXA-X), Hexa-X-II envisions an E2E system blueprint for 6G platform with the goals of achieving sustainability, inclusiveness, and trustworthiness. According to the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) as highlighted in (HEXA-X-II Deliverable D1a), the inclusion of sustainability of social (i.e., including inclusiveness and trustworthiness), economic, and environmental is a key element of the 6G value proposition. 6G values may also influence drivers, use cases, requirements as well as technology solutions.
