The long-term vision of academia helps ITU to prepare for the future. At Kaleidoscope 2017, we saw that our future will be built on the smart use of data. 2017 will produce more data than the entire history of humanity. In our knowledge-driven modern economies, this data is quickly becoming our most valuable natural resource. Data will fuel innovation in all industry sectors and public-sector bodies. ITU’s standardization sector aims to provide the technical foundations of this innovation.

I would like to express my appreciation to ITU for selecting Nanjing University of Posts and Telecommunications as the host of Kaleidoscope 2017, a conference which addressed a topic of critical importance to our future as society.