Challenges for a data-driven society was the ninth in a series of peer-reviewed academic conferences organized by ITU to bring together a wide range of views from universities, industry and research institutions. The aim of the Kaleidoscope conferences was to identify emerging developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) and, in particular, areas in need of international standards to aid the healthy development of the Information Society.

The exponential growth and availability of data, along with enhanced collecting, processing and analytics capabilities, have opened up new frontiers in sustainable development. But globally accepted standards are needed to avoid the development of incompatible data silos and to establish a universal, shared and integrated data ecosystem that allows the deployment of the accumulated data in a highly secure environment, for the benefit of all.

Kaleidoscope 2017 called for original academic papers that offered innovative and bold approaches relevant to technology, business and policy aspects of data management and analysis and encouraged the development of applications and services building on data technologies to improve society.

Accepted and presented papers are published in the Conference Proceedings and will be submitted for inclusion in IEEE Xplore. The best papers will also be evaluated for potential publication in IEEE Communications Standards Magazine. In addition, extended versions of selected papers will be considered for publication in the International Journal of Technology Marketing, the International Journal of Standardization Research, or the Journal of ICT Standardization.

A prize fund totaling CHF 6,000 was shared among the authors of the three best papers, as judged by the Steering and Technical Programme Committees. In addition, young authors of up to 30 years of age presenting accepted papers received Young Author Recognition certificates.