Testing and Test Control Notation version 3: TTCN-3 language extensions: Configuration and deployment support

Testing and Test Control Notation version 3: TTCN-3 language extensions: Support of interfaces with continuous signals

Testing and Test Control Notation version 3: TTCN-3 core language

Dispute management guidelines

Guidelines for international short message service (SMS) interconnection

ITU-T D.170 - Supplement on guidelines for contents of an international interconnection agreement

Checklist for bilateral complex agreements

Guidelines for day sales outstanding (DSO) management

Credit management guidelines

Interface for power management in network function virtualization environments - Green abstraction Layer version 2

E-waste management framework for countries

Extended producer responsibility - Guidelines for sustainable e-waste management

Guideline on implementing the e-waste reduction target of the Connect 2020 Agenda

Innovative energy storage technology for stationary use - Part 2: Battery

Innovative energy storage technology for stationary use - Part 3: Supercapacitor technology

Data centre infrastructure management system based on big data and artificial intelligence technology

Functional requirements and framework of green data centre energy-saving management system

Methodology for assessing the aggregated positive sector-level impacts of ICT in other sectors

Passive node elements with automated ID tag detection

Preliminary agenda of Q2/13 November 2013 meeting
Source: Rapporteur
Study Questions: Q2/13

Draft Q4/13 Meeting Agenda
Source: Rapporteur
Study Questions: Q4/13

Updates to the Network Forensic and Vulnerability Organizations web page
Source: Rapporteur Q4/17
Study Questions: Q4/17

Updates to the Network Forensic and Vulnerability Organizations web page
Source: Rapporteur Q4/17 (Cybersecurity)
Study Questions: Q4/17

Updates to NFVO web page
Source: Rapporteur Q4/17
Study Questions: Q4/17

Agenda for Q10/17
Source: Rapporteur & Associate Rapporteur(s)
Study Questions: Q10/17

Managed P2P communications: Multimedia streaming overlay management protocol

Managed P2P communications: Multimedia streaming peer protocol

Information technology - Generic applications of ASN.1: Cryptographic message syntax

ITU-T X.1051 - Supplement on information security management users' guide for Recommendation ITU-T X.1051

Guidelines on hybrid authentication and key management mechanisms in the client-server model

Managed P2P communications: Content distribution signalling requirements

Managed P2P communications: Content distribution peer protocol

ITU-T X.1242 - Supplement on guidelines on countermeasures against short message service phishing and smishing attacks

Signalling architecture and requirements for IP-based short message service over ITU-T defined NGN

Stage 3 description for number identification supplementary services using Signalling System No. 7 : Stage 3 description for number identification supplementary services using Signalling System no.7 - Connected line identification restriction

Stage 3 description for number identification supplementary services using Signalling System No. 7 : Stage 3 description for number identification supplementary services using Signalling System No.7 - Connected line identification presentation

Stage 3 description for number identification supplementary services using Signalling System No. 7 : Stage 3 description for number identification supplementary services using Signalling System No.7 - Calling line identification restriction

Stage 3 description for number identification supplementary services using Signalling System No. 7 : Stage 3 description for number identification supplementary services using Signalling System No.7 - Calling line identification presentation

Protocol for managing capability exposure APIs in IMT-2020 networks

Supplement on Guidelines for developing a sustainable e-waste management system
Source: Editor
Study Questions: Q13/5

Draft Supplement on Guidelines for developing a sustainable e-waste management system
Source: Editor
Study Questions: Q13/5

Supplement on Guidelines for developing a sustainable e-waste management system
Source: Egypt, Uganda

Protocol-neutral management information model for the Ethernet transport capable network element

Management requirement and information model for synchronization

Physical layer management for G.fast transceivers

Common equipment management function requirements

Physical layer management for digital subscriber line transceivers

LS/i on draft new Report on production, emission and exchange of closed captions for worldwide language character sets (Latin and non-Latin) [from ITU-R WP6B]
Source: ITU-R WP6B
Study Questions: Q26/16

Something bad is happening in Oz.

Last week, fans of Wicked, the musical-soon-to-be-movie, headed to retailers including Target, Walmart, and Macy’s to pick up Mattel’s limited-edition Wicked Barbie dolls ahead of the film’s release on November 22. At first, it seemed like any other Mattel collaboration—until a few fans started searching the URL printed on the back of the box, which led not to the Wicked movie website, as intended, but to a parody porn site of the same name. 

Mattel has apologized for the mix-up and promised to “remedy” the error, but that hasn’t stopped fans from speculating about how such an egregious typo could’ve made its way to the box in the first place. One popular theory, which has garnered more than 62,000 likes on X, is that the mistake had something to do with AI.

In an email to Fast Company, Mattel’s Barbie & Dolls director of global brand communications wrote, “I can confirm AI was not used on packaging for Mattel Wicked collection dolls.”

Though AI has been the culprit of plenty of misguided marketing snafus, the tweet demonstrates a misunderstanding of how Mattel is actually using AI tools in its packaging development process—and shows that, even as AI gains popularity with creative teams as a production tool, human error is alive and well.

The official Mattel Wicked dolls link to a porn site on the box ???????? pic.twitter.com/iW4mNVAlPE

— just2good (Sarah Genao) (@just2goodYT) November 9, 2024

Can we blame a chatbot for this?

In June, Fast Company covered Mattel’s announcement that it planned to use Adobe Firefly, a generative AI software, as part of its packaging development process. At the time, Mattel’s chief design officer Chris Down clarified that the tech would be used to help visualize fantastical new concepts and speed up time-consuming processes, like fine-tuning a background in Photoshop. The company’s guidelines around generative AI tools specified that Firefly could not be used to generate subject matter itself, like the actual doll (or, in this case, the accompanying text). 

Nevertheless, an X user shared Fast Company’s original headline alongside the news of the Wicked typo with the caption “Smash cut to four months later.” One commenter under the post wrote, “how did I know this mistake happened bc they’re using AI.” Another added, “The future is so, so dumb.”

Mattel has previously been open about how it’s used AI for doll packaging. In early October, the first Mattel packaging featuring input from Adobe Firefly hit shelves. The company explained to AdAge at the time that its new Holiday Barbie and Sue Bird Barbie packages incorporated backgrounds generated by Firefly, which had then been touched up by human designers. It’s important to note that, for a brand as wide-reaching as Mattel, AI is not being used in the design process without guardrails around both IP and image quality. Any visuals provided by Firefly are vetted and edited by multiple human designers before they ever reach the actual box.

At this stage, it’s highly unlikely that Mattel would trust an AI software to write the final copy for their packaging. It appears that the Wicked Barbie typo was a plain old instance of human error—if a somewhat inconceivable one. As of this writing, Mattel hasn’t responded to Fast Company‘s request for comment on how the mistake may have been made during the design process.

The fallout

In a statement on the Wicked packaging misprint, Mattel shared, “We deeply regret this unfortunate error and are taking immediate action to remedy this. Parents are advised that the misprinted, incorrect website is not appropriate for children. Consumers who already have the product are advised to discard the product packaging or obscure the link and may contact Mattel Customer Service for further information.” 

While it’s unclear exactly what steps Mattel plans to take to “remedy” the issue, retailers including Target, Walmart, Amazon, Best Buy, Barnes & Noble, and Macy’s had already pulled the dolls from shelves as of midday Monday. 

Meanwhile, there are a few parties benefitting from the unfortunate situation. Variety reports that the mistakenly shared porn site has seen a 12-year surge in traffic after the incident, and several eBay users have taken this opportunity to massively mark up their Wicked dolls in original packaging. One pack of seven different dolls, advertised as “IN MISPRINT ERROR BOX,” is currently going for $3,500. 

Mattel is sure to take a financial and reputational hit from this incident. Still, the news pick-up, social media speculation, and pricey eBay reselling demonstrate how a simple mistake can turn a run-of-the-mill product drop into something fans will remember—for better or worse.

I am a huge baseball fan, so World Series time is one of my favorite times of the year, especially when my Yankees are playing. (Yes—I’m a Yankees fan. Winners can handle the hate.) I went to my first game at Shea Stadium to see the Yankees play the Senators and played stickball in Lefferts Park imagining I would pitch for the Yankees someday.

I came up as a fan towards the tail end of the first generation of integrated baseball. Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier in the late forties. By the 1950s, the Negro League, which had until that point been the main place for Black men to play professional baseball, was essentially defunct.

This year was the 100^th anniversary of the Negro League. It began in 1924 and grew in popularity from there. Despite the talent of the players in those teams, the all-white Major League did everything they could to keep Black men out of baseball. They resisted it for years until Jackie Robinson came along.

Why? Racism, sure. But also, because they were afraid.

They were afraid of putting Black men and white men on the same playing field—literally. They were worried—in some cases, rightfully so—that Black men would outperform white men at the game. Instead of opening the ballparks to everyone, creating a true meritocracy and better baseball for all, they artificially kept a part of the population out of the game.

The problem with limiting inclusion

I see a similar trend playing out in our economy now: We are artificially keeping a whole class of people out, limiting the true potential of what we can achieve.

Almost 400 laws have been introduced in the past few years to stop or restrict the use of social impact considerations in private sector decision-making. These include laws that would ban diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives to support the most marginalized among us to start and grow businesses. This push has been exemplified by the legal effort to stop a privately funded program from the Fearless Fund, which aimed to help Black women founders and their companies. The Fearless Fund recently settled to avoid creating a legal precedent against these kinds of programs in the future.

I will not put on my attorney hat and get into the merits of these laws or lawsuits. That’s for another time. But clearly, a group of people felt threatened by the support of Black women entrepreneurs, enough to spend time and resources to take legal action.

They are doing this, even though Black women, women of color, and people of color in general, have the most barriers to success as entrepreneurs and small business owners. Black and Latiné business owners are usually constrained by undercapitalization and often lack access to traditional advisor and investor networks. As a result, people of color are less likely to be approved for small business loans, and when they are approved, receive lower amounts at higher interest rates compared to their white counterparts.

Investment returns are the same, yet . . .

The picture on the equity side of the equation is not any brighter. While white men receive at least 77% of the venture capital funding, Black men receive less than 1% of it. However, data have also shown that investment firms managed by people of color perform no different from firms managed by white people, for most asset classes.

For four major asset classes—mutual funds, hedge funds, real estate, and private equity—with a combined $69.1 trillion in assets globally, less than 1.3% are managed by people of color and white women. And of this asset bucket, only 1% percent are managed by Black people. This results in a lack of diversity in which founders are funded with venture capital and private equity. Like segregated baseball, it also begs the question about what innovation, creativity, and productivity are all of us missing out on because of this pattern of exclusion.

Legal advocates and their supporters are doing everything they can to stop anyone trying to upset this norm, just like they kept baseball segregated for as long as they could. Beyond a single case, they have effectively cowed potential investors from expanding economic opportunity for fear of becoming a target of groundless litigation. While Major League Baseball colluded to exclude Black men from competing with white men, white MLB players were also barred from competing in the Negro Leagues and feared reprisals.

Now, similar forces seek to bar Black women’s access to competition with white men by threatening reprisals to private investors and philanthropists. So far, their strategy seems to be successful. Unlike Dodgers owner Branch Rickey who invested in Jackie Robinson to win and ultimately improve baseball, white investors seem to be standing back, avoiding being called out as champions for economic equity and inclusion. (Their support for Robinson is probably the only reason I wasn’t too brokenhearted when the Dodgers beat my Yankees for the series title.) Perhaps investors do not want to find out if Black women entrepreneurs are actually better than the average white male entrepreneur.

We can all win in an inclusive economy

Our nation does not need to impede everyone capable and courageous enough to start a business, keeping up yesterday’s systemic barriers to economic opportunity. Such barriers need to be broken so we can all enjoy the fruits of an economy that recognizes talent and drive.

In the same way, we celebrate Jackie Robinson today and MLB has adjusted its records to include men like my grandfather, New York Cuban all-star pitcher Patricio Scantlebury, we will celebrate those with the courage to demand and strive for excellence and inclusion. They may not win before courts skilled in today’s ahistorical sophistry, but they will win in the court of public opinion. Our history will remember them and those who invested in them as champions for the equitable and inclusive economy we all deserve.

Joe Scantlebury, JD, is CEO of Living Cities.