An Introduction To IADS

The Integrated Applications for Digital Sites (IADS) concept is born of the need to overcome the technical and usability obstacles for the widespread adoption of the services, private and public, that will define the Information Age.

Over the last ten years telematics applications research has proceeded on a sector by sector basis and in so doing has achieved an impressive array of results – reference the Success Stories booklet produced following the 1998 Barcelona telematics conference in which more than one hundred projects exhibited in a series of thematic villages.

The time is now ripe to build on this past success and move towards an integrated approach to applications research and it is precisely this approach that was favoured with the launching of 12 new "Integrated Applications for Digital Sites" projects in 1998.

Twelve projects have been launched and each will lead to the marketing of new system and service platforms at the beginning of the next decade. Beyond that, the EU’s objective is to have created, within the next ten to fifteen years, the ideal digital zone: a region, city or rural area where most services can be accessed on-line in a cost-effective and user friendly manner. This ideal may be seen as the precursor of a fully matured European Information Society.

Participants in the 12 IADS projects, each of which is scheduled to run for 2 to 3 years, include 43 digital cities and towns and 21 digital regions.

Please click here to see project details, including overviews, participants, budget outlines, project specifications as well business and technology objectives.