Jakobs, Kai | Germany

Kai has been a member of technical staff at RWTH Aachen University’s Computer Science Department since 1985. He holds a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Edinburgh (1998) and one in Management Studies from Erasmus University Rotterdam (2023); he is also a Certified Standards Professional. His research interests and activities focus on various aspects of ICT standards and the underlying standardisation process, with 200+ publications in this field. Kai recently retired from the Board of the European Academy for Standardisation (EURAS) after some 20 years.
 

Project at IAS-STS: Participatory ICT Standardisation

The presentation focuses on some of Kai’s more recent research activities. These include aspects such as: who or what actually shapes standards, the role that people play in the standardisation process, why the standardisation of societally relevant technologies such as smart systems (or AI) warrants special attention, and how insights from responsible innovation can inform standardisation processes. It may also include a perspective on why the much-needed (at the time) and widely supported X.400 e-mail standard ultimately failed.

Selected Publications

Jakobs, K. (2025). Stakeholders in Smart City Standardisation. In: Kornyshova, E.; Deneckere, R.; Brinkkemper., S. (eds.): Smart Life and Smart Life Engineering: Current State and Future Vision. pp.131 – 151. Springer Nature.

Folmer, E.; Jakobs, K. (2020). Standards Development for Smart Systems – A Potential Way Forward. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, vol. 68, no.1, pp. 75 - 86.

Jakobs, K. (2013). Why Then Did the X.400 E-mail Standard Fail? Reasons and Lessons to be Learned. Journal of Information Technology, vol. 28, no. 1, pp. 63 - 73.