European Telework Information Day on May 28 in Brussels

Maarten Botterman of DGXIII, has sent through this latest update for the ETW Information Day:

1998 is an important year for European Telework, marking the launch of a European Telework Agenda, which brings together the key events and activities relating to telework at European level, and culminates in the fourth European Telework Week and Awards in November 1998.

This year also marks the start of transition from the fourth to the Fifth European Framework Programme for Research and Development, with New Methods of Work and Electronic Commerce as one of the major themes.

The European Information Day on 28th May is an opportunity to be updated on the European Commission's policy, information and stimulation activities with regard to telework and to preview the European Telework Status Report. It is also the official public launch of Telework Week 1998, at which ambitious plans will be revealed for an even bigger and more comprehensive programme than the record-setting 1997 Telework Week.

If you have any plans to deploy an initiative for European Telework Week (2-9 November 1998), send a short outline well beforehand to info@etw.org. This would allow the Commission's DGXIII to include your event in an overview of early announced events to be handed out to all participants.

Maarten Botterman

European Telework Information Day

Brussels, CCAB (Rue Froissart 36)

28 May 1998 (09:30 - 16:30)

AGENDA

09:30: Registration, coffee

10:00: Opening by Chairman - the European Telework Agenda

Peter JOHNSTON, Head of Programme Preparation and Evaluation, European Commission DG XIII

10:15: The Information Society: Working for Quality of Life

Claudio CARELLI, Chairman of the Information Society Forum (Telecom Italia)

10:40: European Policy Context

The Social Dialogue on Telework

Vibeke SYLVEST, Labour Law, Industrial Relations, Fundamental Rights and Anti-discrimination, European Commission DG V

The 5th Framework Programme: New Ways to Work and Electronic Commerce

Michael ARENTOFT, European Commission DG III ESPRIT

11:10: Status of European Telework

Jeremy MILLARD, Programme Manager, European Telework Development (Teledanmark Consult)

11:30European Telework Awards

Winners of 1997

Hans DE JONG, the Netherlands Ministry of Transport, Public Works and Water Management, Winner of the 1997 Award for Best Contribution to Sustainability

Jos GOFFIN, IBM Belgium, Winner of the 1997 Award for Competitiveness

Fiorenza SCOTTI, Information Society dis-Abilities Challenge (Finsiel SPA), Winner of the 1997 Award Originality

Call for nominations 1998 (Categories, Procedure)

Ian CULPIN, European Co-ordination Office for Telework Week (ETD, Martech International)

12:30 : Lunch buffet, opportunities for networking

14:00: European Telework Week

ETW Core Partners rationale (to be announced)

Results of ETW97, Expectations for ETW98

Maarten BOTTERMAN, European Commission DG XIII ACTS

15:00: Support Mechanisms for ETW98

Call for Initiatives 1998

Ian CULPIN, European Co-ordination Office for Telework Week (ETD, Martech International)

Q&A session

16:30: Close by Chairman

FAX REPLY FORM

To:DG XIII Telework SecretariatFax:+32-2-296.29.81

European Telework Week Information Day - 28th May 1998

Registration of Interest in Attending

Your Contact Details

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Participation/initiation of telework week events (

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Mail Address : Rue de la Loi 200, B-1049 Brussels, - Office address: Avenue de Beaulieu 9 2/17, B-1160 Brussels Telephone - direct line: +32.2.296.66.19, Secr.: +32.2.295.98.52, Fax +32.2.296.29.81

Internet: maarten.botterman@bxl.dg13.cec.be

CELEBRATING AND CONVERGING TELEMATICS RESEARCH
on the ground and reading between the lines in Barcelona

Advancing the Information Society Conference and Exhibition, Barcelona, 4-7 February, 1998

Jeremy Millard, TWEURO Project

Four worthwhile though uneven days in balmy Barcelona is how this conference and exhibition for the Telematics Applications Programme (TAP) ought to be remembered. A springboard for launching the Commissions Fifth Framework Programme (5FP) for Research and Technology Development, with a heavy emphasis on real achievement, success and positive plans for the next four years. Many of the Commissions big guns were wheeled in place and fired off in order to celebrate and consolidate telematics research: Commissioner Martin Bangemann and a clutch of Director Generals from DGXIII (Robert Verrue, Michel Richonnier, George Metakides, and Frans de Bruine). Not content with this, came prominent names from the European Parliament, distinguished Ministers from around Europe, top industrialists, politicians, journalists and researchers. Quite a gathering and fifteen hundred participants in all. This was the greatest show on earth, while it lasted, and impressive it was too. Until somebody in the cyber cafe leaned over and whispered: what about the end users?

Users were on everybodys lips, so they were by no means forgotten, but where were they? This is the nub of the problem: who are the users and how to involve them? All in all, however, Barcelona was a necessary push forward for a programme that has had its fair share of difficulties and disappointments. No matter that an official lid was kept on the latter; there is a time and place for everything and, to give due credit, the rhetoric of the 5FP really seems to be addressing many of these. The buzz on the conference floor, and in the spacious pavilions and walkways, gave the fully rounded picture. All, let it be said, in a sleek and impressive setting, and with a organisation which, although not without hiccups, in the end delivered the goods.

Messages

One of the main messages of Barcelona was convergence. And, Commissioner Bangemann has recently issued a Green Paper on this very subject. Convergence of hardware, software and applications, though standards remain a problem; corporate convergence through mergers and alliances across hitherto distinct industries; convergence of content through voice, graphics, text and sound; convergence of the interests of users and suppliers, and of different types of user, for example through the recurring notion of design for all; convergence of the requirements of different actors, whether from the public, private or voluntary sectors; above all convergence of issues onto the Information Society theme, to be strongly carried forward in the 5FP. Another message was, despite this convergence, the need to take account of marginal groups (including the unemployed, who must be mentioned in any serious report on Commission conferences) and of gender and generational issues. Users again. Above all, the problem of how to exploit the good research, of which there is ample, for the benefit of users. And lets not forget the market imperative.

How to get these messages out from the few to the many, and especially to users, is one of the problems faced by technology research programmes, and even wider programme participation in the future is part of the answer. A more specific problem is the opening up of conferences like Barcelona to a much wider audience, and we actually saw part of the answer -- webcasting. This was demonstrated for the first time at an event like this, and fulfils the requirements of cheap, narrow-band and widely dispersed technology, using the ordinary internet, in providing very acceptable video and audio real time transmission. Ironically, but perhaps predictably, the webcast was not part of the formal plan, but down to the doggedness of a few risk-taking individuals, and let it be said the goodwill of Commission staff on the ground. Progress sometimes takes place unofficially, unnoticed and out of the limelight. And, thats the way it should be.

Users - again

Empowering and incorporating users has always been the touchstone of the TAP, as compared to ACTS or ESPRIT, but evidence of real achievement here is patchy. Strong on theory and experiment, light on usable results, at least as far as ordinary users are concerned who need cheap, simple but powerful applications. However, this remains a challenge rather than a criticism which the 5FP should now be better placed to carry forward.

The notion of universal design for all, and conceptualising telematics applications around the realities of everyday life, was prominent and certainly seems to lead in the right direction. In one of the more thoughtful and stimulating inputs witnessed by the author, James Cornford of Newcastle University, UK, expounded on the need for so-called integrated applications. These are applications centred on the surprising revelation that users have multi-purposes and undertake multi-functions. For example, a transport user (covered by the transport sector of the TAP) is using transport for some particular reason, whether journey to work, to the hospital, to the sports centre, etc. Thus, particular types of services trigger others which are related to each other. So that, a decision to purchase a holiday triggers the need to plan and book transport, accommodation, cancel the milk and the newspapers, alert the security services, get a medical check-up, do necessary shopping, etc. All this should involve the need for the user to provide information only once, and enable different service providers to interact transparently with each other for the benefit of the user, often though not exclusively focused on very specific geographical localities. Intelligent applications these would indeed be!

Assessment

As reported by the Assent project, the official assessment verdict painted a relatively rosy picture of innovation and increased techno-economic knowledge, enhanced industrial competitiveness, clear socio-economic and user benefits, and strengthened management capabilities. Overall satisfaction, but clear room for improvement, especially in relation to the needs of disadvantaged groups, the problems of standards and the need for more weight on market demand. The biggest practical problem faced by all research projects was mentioned but only in passing: the terrific administrative overhead, poor reporting procedures and the crying need for the Commission to control and fund research mainly on the basis of results and not, as present, with most emphasis on the measurement of resources consumed. Move into the mainstream world, Commission!

Bangemann's broadside

Commissioner Martin Bangemann took the podium and delivered a clarion call. He stressed the achievements of European RTD, offered a stout defence of the European approach to the Information Society, and dwelt upon Europe's strengths. He was at pains to point out that Europe is not lagging behind either the USA or Japan and that, although there are identifiable weaknesses which need to be addressed in the Fifth Framework Programme, the European approach is successful, robust and able to provide a worthwhile model for other parts of the world. We are building an Information Society, not a mere Information Super-highway! Great achievements have been made in the last five years in terms of deregulation, regulation to meet the needs of universal service, and applications development.

Commissioner Bangemann went on to defend Europe's approach with reference to the three pillars of the Information Society: infrastructure, hardware and software, and contended that it is only in the latter area that Europe is weak. Europes undoubted cultural and linguistic strengths must be harnessed to promote Europes software industry; we must abandon the notion that high-brow is the best form of culture, and also allow our heritage to go down-market and become electronic. Perhaps a fourth pillar which Commissioner Bangemann forgot to mention was people: weve had putting people first and now were to have a user-friendly Information Society in the 5FP.

Onwards and upwards for a fifth time

If nothing else, Barcelona was tub-thumping for the up-and-coming Fifth Framework Programme (5FP). New ideas, new objectives, new directions and, lets agree, a lot of common sense. Convergence of the 18 research programmes of the Fourth Framework Programme into just four so-called thematic programmes, with the creation of a User-Friendly Information Society among them. Further, a series of key actions which potentially cut across hitherto vertical research areas to ensure on-going flexibility in the disposition of research funds to meet needs as they change, as well as to reflect the ways users actually see things. Research into Information Society Technologies (ISTs) is to be the name of the game (another acronym which well all soon know by heart!), served by 4 key actions:

i) systems and services for the citizen

ii) new methods of work and electronic commerce

iii) multimedia content and tools

iv) essential technologies and infrastructures

A lot to look forward to, then, but also a lot to remember from Barcelona. What will we be discussing in four years time at the end of the European Unions 5FP? Users and the internet, very likely; the market, probably; the knowledge society, possibly; those damned Yankees again, perhaps; but my best guess is the weather in Warsaw where the conference will be held.

CAFE MONDIAL - Learning and working online

CAFE MONDIAL is a project funded by the European Commission 4th Framework Programme Telematics applications, Sector Urban and Rural Areas. It aims at providing teleservices to European citizens via Internet and FirstClass networks. After two years of Research & Development and Validation CAFE MONDIAL partners are now providing a wide range of courses in the fields of Health Care, Animal Health, Business Studies, Languages, It and Multimedia.

For further information contact:

Jolande Leinenbach, Project Manager

Youandi-Communication Network GmbH

Merziger Strasse 1

66679 Losheim am See

Germany

Tel. +49 6872 91024

Fax +49 6872 3041

Working Paper on the Information Society

The European Commission has published a working paper on the Information Society aspects of the Fifth Framework Programme and has invited suggestions for detailed Action Lines.

together with:

- a copy of the form for making suggestions

- examples of some suggestions already made

- an opportunity to discuss your suggestions before submitting them to the

Commission

Lifelong learning - how Finland is leading the initiative

Freenet Finland is the "official" national platform for lifelong learning in Finland. This decision is part of the target of the Ministry of Education for Finland to be the European laboratory of lifelong learning unil 1999. Freenet will also become the network platform of ELLI (European Lifelong Learning Initiative). The office of ELLI is being moved from Brussels to Finland.

Both new information and working areas will be built according to the global visions and concepts of community networking.

Community networking = learning = lifelong learning = active living together. Real learning takes place in communities, passion for learning, has best opportunities to succeed in communities. New networks of communities will strengthen this path to the future.

An English draft of the first Finnish Parlamentarian Committee of Lifelong Learning report, called "Joy of Learning", is available at:

http://www.freenet.hut.fi/eok/lu4/summary.html

One excerpt of the report of the role of non-governmental organizations as learning environments:

"The promotion of learning within the framework of non-governmental organizations, associations and communities should be adopted as one of the focal points of the policy for the promotion of learning over the next few years."

Freenet would like to build the new environment as a world-wide concept from the beginning. That's why they are asking for all involved in the TAP programme for help, advice, ideas, examples of learning communities around the world, studies of those, success stories, good learning practices, info on future plans in this area, interest for collaboration etc. This is THE opportunity for community people,together, world wide.

Heikki Korpinen
Freenet Finland
Helsinki University of Technology
02150 Espoo, Finland

Tel: +358-9-4514007, Fax: +358-9-4514068

korpinen@freenet.hut.fi

http://www.freenet.hut.fi/english.html