EMF News

Green light to lower roaming tariffs in the EU

2012-02-29T05:01:00.001-08:00

On 28 February, the European Parliament voted in favour of a compulsory reduction of cross-border mobile tariffs, to enable best tariffs for consumers while ensuring a sufficient margin between wholesale and retail prices to assure a level of competition that can bring down prices.

The parliamentarians propose to lower costs for roaming calls to 15ct per minute and for internet access to 20ct per Megabyte (or 200€ per Gigabyte) until 2014. While those prices are still higher than what would have been appropriate according to the European telecom regulator BEREC, they are an improvement over older proposals by the European Commission.
The Industry committee also suggests requiring operators to offer retail roaming services separately from 1 March 2014, so that customers can choose an alternative roaming service supplier for foreign calls while retaining their national operator for domestic use and keeping their phone number.

Europeans for Fair Roaming initiative

The European citizens’ Initiative “Europeans for Fair Roaming” welcomes the new proposal of the European Parliament to lower roaming charges in Europe but remains committed that prices could be lower.

Bengt Beier, coordinator of the citizens’ initiative Europeans for Fair Roaming stated: “We welcome the newest decision by the European Parliament, even though they are not as courageous as we hoped. Our demands for fair roaming regulation – no more than 11ct per minute for making calls, free receiving of calls and a maximum price of 100€ per GB for internet were based on serious numbers as has now also been proven by BEREC. There is no reason why consumers should pay up to 200€ per GB for using their internet when abroad. The same service costs only a fraction of that at home.”

More about “Europeans for Fair Roaming” initiative
More information

High-level policy discussion: In a Cloud world – How do IT skills matter for Europe’s competitiveness?

2012-02-24T02:46:00.002-08:00

EMF will participate the 27 February in the High-level policy discussion: In a Cloud world – How do IT skills matter for Europe’s competitiveness? organized by the Danish Technological Institute, Fraunhofer and DG Enterprise & Industry.

The event aims to invigorate the eSkills debate to ensure that Europe remains competitive in the cloud future and it is organised in three sessions:

-Cloud Visions: Why we need to be talking about skills?
-Developing tomorrows eSkills, training tomorrows IT professionals
-Policy approaches for the future: a call for action

The event will also serve to launch the report: "Cloud computing - Cyber security and green IT - e-Skills for ICT practitioners and entrepreneurs", which was commissioned by the DG Enterprise & Industry.

Download the agenda
More information on the report will be soon added to this Blog.

Join the European Seal of e-Excellence award ceremony and get free entrance tickets for the CeBIT

2012-02-20T06:17:00.000-08:00

The award ceremony of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2012 will be held on 6 March 2012 at the Webciety Forum (hall 6) of the CeBIT in Hanover.

The European Seal of e-Excellence rewards ICT and Digital Media companies with an excellent track record in innovation marketing. The European Seal of e-Excellence is widely known for promoting digital companies which have innovative products and services and excellent marketing practices to promote them.

Margaretha Mazura, Secretary General of EMF states: "Europe is full of small, creative companies and interesting offers – the only problem is: not many know about them. 2012 is a special year for the Seal: It is its 10th anniversary. In the short-living times of ICT, this is an achievement we are proud of. The Seal is increasingly gaining recognition and becoming a major focal point for Europe’s most successful digital media companies. Therefore, those who have not yet applied and won a Seal of e-Excellence, I can only say: try and join our community of excellence!”.

The prize have been awarded annually since 2003 by EMF and its Partner Organisations at the CeBIT, and is widely known for distinguishing companies with innovative products & services and outstanding marketing.

See past winners
Get free entrance tickets for the CeBIT

More information

Launch of LT-Innovate

2012-02-10T04:27:00.000-08:00

On Friday 27 January 2012, LT-Innovate - The Forum for Europe’s Language Technology Industry was launched in Brussels.

LT Innovate responds to the need to give voice to the common denominator issues of the emerging landscape of commercial LT players (in translation, speech & analytics) facilitating their interaction with other key stakeholders (researchers, clients, investors and public authorities). It brings an opportunity for smaller European companies to come together as a coherent force to influence the future direction of an industry of high value - and huge potential - for Europe.

More information

AMERICAS - the new initiative to foster ICT cooperation between the EU and Latin America

2012-02-09T07:15:00.000-08:00

EMF is partner in AMERICAS, the third of a series of EU FP7-ICT funded projects to reinforce ICT cooperation between EU and Latin America. The project aims at supporting sustainable ICT policy dialogues and fostering ICT R&D cooperation between the EU and strategic partner countries in Latin America, by enabling new synergies and effective collaboration through policy makers, researchers and key stakeholders networks, including e-infrastructures. The AMERICAS project covers all countries with a bi-lateral S&T Agreement with the EU (Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico) plus Colombia.

Key activities foreseen to reinforce the ICT cooperation between EU and Latin America:
•    One-day Master Class in each Latin America target country (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico and Colombia) to familiarise potential partners with EU funding mechanisms.
•    Two Project Angels summer schools to reinforce the existent Project Angels Network in Latin America.
•    Support of the ICT policy dialogue between the EU and Latin America through an Annual ICT Forum, the first being scheduled for 16 March 2012 in Santiago de Chile.
•    Develop synergies between e-Infrastructures and ICT activities in Latin America

Visit the Americas website

European qualification profiles for jobs in the field of Internet-related services

2012-02-08T02:37:00.000-08:00

The EQF-iServe project funded by the LLP programme of the European Commission, identified and developed five Internet-related services profiles: web marketer, web seller, community manager, Internet hotline operator and usability specialist.

These five profiles include all relevant knowledge, skills and competences, needed for the proposed job profiles and refer them to the eCompetence framework and EQF. This will help to render existing qualifications in this field more transparent and comparable at European level which eventually will lead to easier employability of job seekers, and to overcome the skills shortage that SMEs experience in this area.

Furthermore, EQF-iServe supports training organizations to develop training curricula that correspond to the market needs and that are based on emerging knowledge, skills and competences description standards that guarantee comparability across Europe. In trying to bridge the gap between the educational world and work, it contributes to the goals set in the policy paper "New skills for new jobs".

More information on EQF-iServe
More information on e-Jobs in Europe
Download the profiles:
Web marketer
Web seller
Community manager
Internet hotline operator
Usability specialist

A new project to investigate the skills and competences needed for Ambient Assisted Living jobs

2012-02-07T07:41:00.000-08:00

A recently started project (CompAAL) investigates the skills and competences neededfor Ambient Assisted Living related jobs. The ageing society will need a lot more specialised jobs than exist today. New skills profiles have to be set-up for professionals from various backgrounds, for example architects building AAL compatible homes, staff of ambulatory home care, and most of all IT specialists in order to enable them to design AAL systems and interfaces, to manage interoperability, as well as to create, manage and moderate social networks.

The project is funded by the Lifelong Learning programme of the European Commission. During 24 months CompAAL will generate:

A set of defined professions in the field of ambient-assisted living;
National qualification profiles in the field of professions in ambient-assisted living described by learning outcomes that will lead to
Comprehensive European qualification profiles;
Guidelines for training institutions complying with the principles of the ECVET

More information on CompAAL
More information on e-Jobs in Europe

Language needs of businesses - Round Table 30 Jan 2012

2012-01-20T05:19:00.000-08:00

The CELAN project investigates the language needs of businesses and provides solutions to language strategies. The Round Table is geared at businesses, business representative organisations, language service and technology providers, training institutions, etc. It will discuss where market meets training and what should be done in the future to improve competitiveness and employability through language strategies.

The Round Table is followed by the meeting of the Business Platform for Multilingualism on Tuesday, 31 January morning. For more information, have a look at the programme.

Download the draft programme
See the list of speakers

What´s the future for Internet related Jobs?

2012-01-20T01:55:00.000-08:00

In the following video made in the context of the first Round table of the ProInterNet (PIN) project, I. Marinou, director of the Greek Man Power Employment Organization (OAED) in Patras and I. Kostopoulos, ICT consultant in the Municipality of Patras, discuss about the future of Internet related Jobs. They speakers outline their views on future needs and make suggestions about what can be done to improve the situation in the Internet related job market.

EMF is partner of the ProInterNet (PIN) project funded by the LLP programme of the European Comission. PIN aims to improve transparency, information systems and guidance on skills and qualifications for Internet related professions at European Level. As a result of the project the e-Jobs Observatory has been implemented as the one-stop-shop for e-Jobs, e-skills and e-competences in Europe.

The FP7-ICT Call 9 is now open!

2012-01-18T00:42:00.000-08:00

The new call for proposal has been published today (18/01/2012) with a deadline of 12th of April 2012, at 17:00.00 Brussels local time. The indicative budget is 291 million euros.

Several objectives of the following Challenges are open: Challenge 2: Cognitive systems and robotics, Challenge 4: Technologies for Digital Content and Languages, Challenge 5: ICT for Health, Ageing Well, Inclusion and Governance, Challenge 8: ICT for Learning and Access to Cultural Resources, Future and Emerging Technologies (FET) and International cooperation -partnership building and support to dialogues-.

For more information:
Download the call fiche
Visit the ICT wiki
Visit the Participants portal

What skills do you need for a Green ICT Job?

2012-01-17T03:54:00.000-08:00

EMF is a partner in a new project (Grenn IT node ) that investigates the needed skills and competences for green ICT jobs.

The project started in November 2011 and address the shortage of skilled professionals in the Green IT field. During the 24 months of the project, Green IT node will analyse the market needs, the existing trainings available for the different components and competences, and define a professional standard in the participating European countries.

GreenIT node will develop European specialist profiles that are in compliance with the principles of the European metaframeworks EQF/e-CF and ECVET as well as guidelines for developing/setting-up further vocational training measures for Green ICT jobs. The expected impact will allow for comparable skills sets for these professions of the future which supports the European labour market and tus, the employability of professionals while at the same time contributing to one of the major challenges of Europe 2020.

Green IT node is funded by Lifelong Learning programme of the European Commission.

More information on the project
More information on eJobs in Europe

Action plan for doubling the volume of e-commerce in Europe by 2015

2012-01-13T01:00:00.000-08:00

The Commission has adopted a Communication presenting 16 targeted initiatives aiming to boost e-commerce from its current levels of 3.4% of total retail sales to 7% by 2015.
The plan places emphasis on strengthening a single harmonized framework for e-commerce and other commercial online services and proposes an action plan to remove five main obstacles to the Digital Single Market:

- the supply of legal, cross-border online services is still inadequate;
- there is not enough information for online service operators or protection for internet users;
- payment and delivery systems are still inadequate;
- there are too many cases of abuse and disputes that are difficult to settle;
- insufficient use is made of high-speed communication networks and hi-tech solutions.

The communication was adopted the 11 of January together with the Green Paper on Card, Internet, and Mobile payments.

More information
Download the communication

Green Paper Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments

2012-01-12T08:09:00.000-08:00

The European Commission has launched a consultation for a secure and transparent integrated payments environment throughout the EU.

The Green Paper assesses the current landscape of card, internet and mobile payments in Europe, identifies the gaps between the current situation and the vision of a fully integrated payments market and the barriers which have created these gaps. The objective of the Green Paper is to launch a broad-scale consultation process with stakeholders to validate or contribute to the Commission’s analysis and to help identify the right way to improve market integration.

The document includes facts and figures showing how the European citizens shopping and paying way is radically changing:

-One in three European citizens used online banking in 2009. Studies indicate that by 2020, two out of three EU citizens may use online banking.

-The number of online shoppers in Europe is forecast to increase from 141 to 190 million between 2009 and 2014 with the average spent by each buyer increasing from EUR 500 to EUR 600/year

-Around 726 million payment (credit and debit) cards were used in the EU in 2009. This represents an average of almost 1.5 cards per citizen. The average spending per card amounted to more than EUR 2 000/year.

The deadline for submitting contributions to the consultation is 11 April 2012.

Download the consultation

European Commission publishes draft ICT PSP Work programme for 2012

2012-01-12T00:12:00.000-08:00

The CIP ICT Committee has recently approved the draft ICT PSP Work Programme 2012. The ICT PSP supports the realisation of European policies and in particular the Digital agenda for Europe and is aligned with its priorities. The programme addresses obstacles hindering further and better use of ICT based products and services and barriers for the development of high growth businesses, notably SMEs, in this field.

In order to optimise the impact of Union support, funding is concentrated on a limited number of themes and objectives. WP 2012 focuses on 5 themes:

– ICT for "smart" cities
– Digital content, open data and creativity
– ICT for health, ageing well and inclusion
– Innovative government and public services
– Trusted eServices and other actions

The 6th ICT PSP Call for Proposal is expected to open from 1 February to 15 May 2012. An information day on Call 6 is foreseen the 3 February 2012. Confirmation of the date, the exact venue and the draft agenda will be published during this week on the ICT PSP website.

Download the draft ICT PSP programme

Please note that the document is still subject to the formal approval by the Commission expected in January 2012.

Multilingualism for jobs mobility, but not only

2011-12-20T01:59:00.000-08:00

On November 17, the Council of the European Union issued conclusions on language competences to enhance mobility. In the document the Council not only addresses multilingualism for jobs mobility but also mentions the importance to foster better use of language competences as a mean of increasing the competitiveness of EU business, and especially that of small and medium-sized enterprises. In this context, the Council welcomes the work of the Business Platform for Multilingualism of which EMF is a member of the Steering Committee, and invites the European Commission to further pursue its support and stakeholder initiatives of this kind.

Download the document

Horizon 2020, the new EU programme for research and innovation

2011-12-01T01:36:00.000-08:00

The European Commission published yesterday its Communication on Horizon 2020, the new R&I Framework Programme.
Amongst the novelties are:

-Major simplification through a simpler programme architecture;
-Integration of research and innovation by providing seamless and coherent funding from idea to market;
-A strong focus on creating business opportunities out of our response to the major concerns common to people in Europe and beyond, i.e. ‘societal challenges’;
-Focus on SME with a special instrument.
-Sustainable development will be an overarching objective of Horizon 2020.

Information and Communications Technologies in Horizon 2020
The overall aim of EU research and innovation in ICT under Horizon 2020 is to bring the benefits of progress in these technologies to European citizens and businesses. In particular, ICT in Horizon 2020 will support the development of ICT in Science, ICT in industrial leadership and ICT in societal challenges.

For more information:
Read the Communication
Visit the website

Launch of the Joint Declaration to strengthen EU-LA cooperation

2011-11-29T01:26:00.000-08:00

The Joint Declaration to strengthen EU-LA cooperation was launched yesterday at the “Fostering EU-Latin America ICT Policy Dialogue” event in Brussels in front of 120+ stakeholders from Latin America and the EU.

The ambitious programme gave an overview of EU-LA initiatives and showcased the steady development of the S&T relations of both regions. EMF presented the network of Project Angels of the Pro-Ideal Plus project. The event closed its first day of work with a discussion on collaboration priorities and instruments that will be part of the Joint Declaration.

Today, in the afternoon, the Joint Declaration will be presented to the Members of the European Parliament in Brussels.

Open publication - Free publishing

The Joint Declaration is based on the results of studies, activities, meetings and discussion brought forward by stakeholders partnered in a number of project initiatives and follows the identification of common challenges, synergies and future opportunities in EU-LAC cooperation in the field of ICT.

The Joint Declaration is an evolving document and all stakeholders active in ICT international cooperation for R&D+i between Europe and Latin America are invited to support and/or give their contributions based on their specific experience and interest.

Support and/or give your contribution to the Declaration

More information

The European Seal of e-Excellence, seeking Innovative Digital Media and ICT Companies

2011-11-25T06:07:00.000-08:00

The European Seal of e-Excellence Seeks Innovative Digital Media and ICT Companies for the 10th Anniversary of the Award

Are you an ICT company at the forefront of technology?
Do you market your products & services internationally?

Applications are online at www.seal-of-excellence.org. Deadline 31 December 2011.

The winners will be announced at CeBIT, the most prestigious ICT fair in Europe on 6 March 2012.

More info: www.seal-of-excellence.org

European e-Skills Conference, 13 December 2011, Brussels

2011-11-23T02:28:00.000-08:00

The European e-Skills 2011 Conference will be a kick-off for the preparation of the European e-Skills Week, which will be held on 26-30 March 2012. As an initiative of the European Commission, DG Enterprise and Industry, the European e-Skills Week Conference will feature the presentation of the roadmap for the European e-Skills Week campaign in 2012, together with presentations from industry leaders, policy makers and key note speakers from universities and an overview of different national activities.

The conference is organised by the European Commission Directorate-General Enterprise and Industry, in partnership with DIGITALEUROPE, EUN Schoolnet and other leading stakeholders.

More information and registrations

Fostering EU-Latin America ICT policy dialogue

2011-11-22T05:53:00.000-08:00

Organized by the FORESTA project funded under the EU’s 7Th Framework Programme to support R&D cooperation between Latin America and Europe in the field of ICT, the conference ‘Fostering EU-Latin America ICT Policy Dialogue’ will take place in Brussels, Belgium, on Monday and Tuesday 28 and 29 November 2011.

The event will be an important forum for European and Latin-American research stakeholders to discuss strategies to intensify cooperation in Information and Communication Technologies. It bring together stakeholders from ICT research, industry and industry federations, decision-makers, European and Latin-American research and innovation funding agencies, as well as SMEs and large companies from each region interested in cooperation with Latin America and with Europe.

‘Fostering EU-Latin America ICT Policy Dialogue’ event will use panels and round tables to elicit the insights of invited experts and inputs from the audience in order to develop strategic recommendations in support of a reinforced EU-LA ICT cooperation. The recommendations will be streamlined into a Joint Declaration that will be presented to representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament and Latin-American governments in the closing session of the event to be held at the European Parliament.

EMF will actively participate at the event presenting Pro-Ideal and Pro-Ideal Plus projects outcomes, including the success story of the Project Angels Coaching course.

More information

Roundtable "Cyberspace: opportunity and challenge for Languages", 22 November, Brussels

2011-11-16T06:05:00.000-08:00

The roundtable "Cyberspace: opportunity and challenge for Languages", will be held in Brussels the 22 November 2011 to disscuss on new opportunities and challenges for Languages in the Cyberspace. The debate will be moderated by Quentin DICKINSON, Director of Radio France for European Affairs in Brussels.

Maragretah Marzura, Secretary General of EMF will participate in the event to share knowledge acquired in the META and CELAN EU projects.

If you are interested please register at: bxl-europe@skynet.be

“Europeans for Fair Roaming”, a new initiative for lower roaming charges across the EU

2011-11-09T04:32:00.000-08:00

The roaming charges currently levied by mobile operators within the EU are detrimental to European integration and the competitiveness of the European market - it essentially means that virtual borders remain for communication inside the EU where real borders have become invisible.

“Europeans for Fair Roaming” call for a faster reduction in prices, free receiving of calls when roaming and the extension of consumer protection mechanisms to other countries outside the EU. The initiative considers that price caps for data roaming are still much higher than they should be to allow consumers to use their phones abroad. The proposed price caps (500-900 EUR / gigabyte) are still unduly high considering that the cost for operators to provide one gigabyte of data today is in the region of 1 EUR.

“Europeans for Fair Roaming” already expanded to a network of more than 1500 individuals, 10 MEPs from different political groups and 11 organisations (including big organisations such as JEF and ZDNet) representing/reaching about 125.000 people.

You may find out more and join the initiative here

LLP Infoday 2012, 28 October, Brussels

2011-10-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

Organised by the European Commission (Direction General Education and Culture) and the Education, Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency, The Infoday 2012 wants to give useful information on the priorities of the 2012 call and what's new to the programme. The event will also provide practical advice on the preparation and submission of proposals, and on the management of grants.

EMF will activelly take part in this event, looking for new projects opportunities in Session 3.2: Key activity 3 Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) and promoting the two running LLP projects on e-Jobs e-Skills and e-Competences in which it participates: www.ejobs-observatory.eu and www.eqf-iserve.eu

More information

Report on ICT Professionalism and Training Programmes for ICT Managers in Europe

2011-10-19T02:29:00.000-07:00

In the context of the e-Skills and ICT Professionalism project, CEPIS and the Innovation Value Institute (IVI) have published a synthesis report on "State of play regarding ICT Professionalism and Training Programmes for ICT Managers in Europe”. The objective of the research initiative is to support the development of:

-a European Framework for ICT Professionalism with the goal of enhancing ICT professionalism and mobility across Europe,
-a European Training Programme for ICT managers to promote new competences with a view to better address the challenges of ICT driven innovation and the future Internet.

The European Commission Directorate General Enterprise and Industry launched the project "e-Skills and ICT Professionalism" with the aim of supporting the development of a European Framework for ICT Professionalism, and a European Training Programme for ICT Managers, with the goal of improving ICT professionalism and mobility across Europe. This synthesis report marks the halfway point of pioneering research which is due to be completed in January 2012 and also signifies the end of Phase I of the project.

Download the report

Report on Entreprise 2.0

2011-10-13T01:37:00.000-07:00

The report synthetices the final results for the study on “Enterprise 2.0 in Europe”, created by Tech4i2, IDC and Headshift for the European Commission.
The document is adressed to 4 main issues:

-WHAT? What is E20, what is new, and what is it good for, concretely?
-WHY? Why does it matter? Does it help reaching EU goals of
sustainable growth?
-HOW? What are the key requirements for a successful
implementation?
-SO WHAT? What are the policy implications? What are the key
challenges, and what policy actions should be taken?

The report addresses the questions above outlined, but as a structured self-consistent and readable report rather than as a list of points. Therefore, the structure of the chapter does not simply reproduce the questions in the same order, but organically addresses them in the course of the narrative.

Download the report

Call 9 information day: Digital Preservation and Access to Cultural Resources, 15 November, Luxembourg

2011-10-12T01:34:00.000-07:00

European Commission is organising an Information Day to better support the preparation of proposals for the 9 FP7 Call concerning ICT-2011.4.3 Digital Preservation and 8.2 Access to Cultural Resources. The event will inform about the scope of the call, assist preparing project proposals and facilitate sharing experiences. The information day will give participants the chance to network, to find partners for their projects and get feedback on proposal ideas from officials of the European Commission.

The event will take place on 15 November at the Jean Monnet Conference Centre, Luxembourg.

More information and registrations

A directive for better protection of consumer rights, particularly when shopping online

2011-10-12T01:18:00.000-07:00

The Council of the European Union adopted a new directive the 10th of October to increase the consumer protection in distance (including on-line) and off-premises purchases across the European Union.

The new directive fully harmonises the list of information to be given to consumers and the right of withdrawal for distance and off-premises purchases. Subject to certain exceptions, the consumer will have the right to withdraw from a distance or off-premises contract within a period of fourteen days without giving any reason and without any costs.

Top 10 benefits for consumers in the new Directive:
1) The proposal will eliminate hidden charges and costs on the Internet
2) Increased price transparency
3) Banning pre-ticked boxes on websites
4) 14 Days to change your mind on a purchase
5) Better refund rights
6) Introduction of an EU-wide model withdrawal form
7) Eliminating surcharges for the use of credit cards and hotlines
8) Clearer information on who pays for returning goods
9) Better consumer protection in relation to digital products
10) Common rules for businesses will make it easier for them to trade all over Europe.

More information

Public consultations on access to telecoms networks

2011-10-07T01:50:00.000-07:00

The European Commission launched the 3rd of October two public consultations related to access for alternative operators to the fixed telephone and broadband networks of established operators.

Neelie Kroes, European Commission Vice President for the Digital Agenda said "We need regulatory consistency in all Member States to ensure a level playing field for telecoms across the whole EU, in which competition and investment can thrive. This will reassure markets that putting money into fibre networks is a safe and profitable investment."

The consultations:

-Public consultation on costing methodologies for key wholesale access prices in electronic communications

-Public consultation on the application, monitoring and enforcement of non-discrimination obligations in electronic communications

Both consultations are open until 28 November 2011.

More information

Forum on Mexico - EU ICT Cooperation & Policy Dialogue

2011-09-23T00:47:00.000-07:00

On 10 October 2011, a Forum on the cooperation in the ICT sector between the EU and Mexcio will be held in Mexico City. Organised by the partners of the PRO-IDEAL PLUS project, supported by the European Commission, ICT stakeholders from research, industry, academia as well as policy makers will discuss the S&T policy dialogue between the two regions and the opportunities to enhance cooperation. For more information, have a look at the FORUM PROGRAMME.

For registration, please contact mgonza [at] itesm.mx.

The Digital Agenda goes local again!

2011-09-13T03:08:00.000-07:00

The "Going Local" Initiative of the Digital Agenda - the European Commission's flagship initiative for ICT - was held in Autum 2010 to target the main stakeholders in each Member State in order to raise awareness about the Digital Agenda for Europe and generate support for its actions. To follow with this initiative, a new round of the "going local" initiative will start in Autum 2010.

This time events will be more adapted to the specific priorities in the Member States.

The initiative has the following objectives:

Reporting on progress of the Digital Agenda;
Identifying challenges for the future;
Stimulate actions and commitments.

More Information

Study on the Role and Impact of Professional and Scientific Societies in ICT Research, Education and Innovation

2011-09-13T03:00:00.000-07:00

This new report summarises the results of the SMART study, carried out under a mandate from the European Commission to investigate the current situation and the dynamics of the ICT societies in Europe and to recommend strategies that may help overcome ICT society fragmentation, increasingly seen as a major bottleneck to their future development.

The study gathers and analyses information about ICT societies, performs an assessment of the actual contribution of societies to ICT research, education and innovation, analyses the impact of "participative" technologies and services, such as web 2.0, on the future of scientific societies, particularly in enabling new ways of producing & sharing knowledge and consensus building.

It furthermore analyses how the world-wide competing societies head-quartered in Europe are perceived by researchers, industrial stakeholders and policy-makers.

One of the key conclusions of this study is that the current set-up of ICT societies in the EU does not optimally address the key challenges of globalisation and multi-disciplinary.

The document also provides several recommendations, ideas for further research and activity and a list of European ICT societies.

Download the study

Call 8 information day: Technology-enhanced Learning, 5 October, Luxembourg

2011-09-13T00:34:00.000-07:00

European Commission unit on 'Cultural heritage and technology-enhanced learning', is organising an Information Day to better support the preparation of proposals for the 8th FP7 Call concerning objective ICT-2011.8.1: "Technology-enhanced Learning". The event will inform about the scope of the call, assist preparing project proposals and facilitate sharing experiences. The information day will give participants the chance to network, to find partners for their projects and get feedback on proposal ideas from officials of the European Commission.

The event will take place on 5 October at the Jean Monnet Conference Centre, Luxembourg.

More information and registrations

Results and videos of the META-FORUM on Language Technologies on-line!

2011-09-06T07:53:00.000-07:00

The international conference on powerful technologies for the multilingual European Information Society (META-FORUM 2011) took place in Budapest the 27-28 June 2011, organized by META-NET, a Network of Excellence consisting of 47 research centres in 31 coun tries and funded by the European Commission.

The event featured both interactive and informative sessions focusing on multilingualism, the challenges and opportunities presented by the multilingual information society and how innovative Language Technologies are key in developing solutions to these challenges.

The meeting was META-NET is forging the ?Multilingual Europe Technology Alliance? uniting technology researchers, providers and users for a large European research and innovation effort.

International experts discussed future applications for Language Technologies, research needs and market requirements.

For more information watch the videos

The Lifelong Learning Programme´s call for Proposals 2012 is now open!

2011-09-06T02:00:00.000-07:00

The new call for proposals makes available 1,140.00 M€ of funding and aims at fostering interchange, cooperation and mobility between education and training systems within the European Union so that they become a world quality reference. Besides Comenius, Erasmus, Leonardo da Vinci, Grundtvig and Jean Monnet, the programme offers support to activities for policy co-operation in the fields of languages, information and communication technologies and dissemination and exploitation of results.

The following general priorities have been identified for this call for proposals:

1. Develop strategies for lifelong learning and mobility
2. Encourage cooperation between the worlds of education, training and work
3. Support initial and continuous training of teachers, trainers and education and training institutions' managers
4. Promote the acquisition of key competences throughout the education and training system
5. Promote social inclusion and gender equality in education and training, including the integration of migrants and Roma

More information

The Digital Agenda Summit, 3 October 2011, Brussels

2011-09-06T01:56:00.000-07:00

ETNO and the Financial Times are organizing a Summit to foster dialogue between all actors of the Internet eco-system to debate how to allow innovative services to be launched, how the current commercial model may need to evolve and how new revenues can be generated to justify infrastructure investments. The event will also look at the role policy makers can take in supporting these initiatives to achieve a viable, sustainable Internet for the benefit of all.

The Summit will provide further input from industry on how to achieve the Digital Agenda targets and stimulate the debate amongst industry players on how to boost private investment in high speed broadband networks and encourage new business models and services to emerge.

Chief Executive Officers of leading digital economy players, including major telecoms operators and ICT equipment manufacturers, will gather at this event together with Commissioner Kroes as keynote speaker.

More information

Report on "Orientations for EU ICT R&D and Innovation beyond 2013" has been published

2011-09-02T02:01:00.000-07:00

The Information Society Technology Advisory Group (ISTAG) has published a report reaffirming the importance of pursuing and strengthening EU investment in ICT research and innovation.

According to the document, ICT has become a key transformative force in social innovation processes enabling and facilitating socio-economic and human development. ICT infrastructure is also a critical resource in today's globalised economy whose reliable and dependable operation is absolutely essential. ISTAG also considers essential to develop a more comprehensive view of the whole value chain of ICT and ICT-enabled services, bridging the gap between pre-competitive research, product development and service deployment.

The document contains 10 key recommendations and it is open to comments and feed backs until the 30 September 2011.

Download the report
Feedbacks can be sent to the ISTAG Secretariat (INFSO-ISTAG@ec.europa.eu)

Call 8 information day: Intelligent Information Management, 26 September, Luxembourg

2011-08-09T01:54:00.000-07:00

The Information Society and Media Directorate General, within the European Commission, is organising an Information Day to better support the preparation of proposals for the 8th FP7 Call concerning objective ICT-2011.4.4 "Intelligent Information Management". The event will inform about the scope of the call, assist preparing project proposals and facilitate sharing experiences. The information day will give participants the chance to network, to find partners for their projects and get feedback on proposal ideas from officials of the European Commission.

The event will take place on 26 September in Luxembourg, Jean Monnet Conference Centre, Luxembourg.

More information and registrations

Plans to modernise intellectual property laws in the UK

2011-08-04T07:28:00.000-07:00

The UK government accepted yesterday (3 August 2011) a new plan to support economic growth by modernising UK intellectual property laws.

The government announced that they will create a central digital exchange to buy and sell copyright licenses as part of a modernization of copyright laws, which partly date from 300 years ago. More details can be found here.

Ministers have accepted the recommendations made by Professor Ian Hargreaves in his report ‘Digital Opportunity: A review of intellectual property and growth’, which estimates a potential benefit to the UK economy of up to £7.9 billion.

More Information

Applications for the European Union Women Innovators prize are now open!

2011-08-01T02:23:00.000-07:00

The European Commission is organizing the first EU prize for Women Innovators to reward three women entrepreneurs for their "innovative work in any field or business". The prize will bolster the awareness of why innovation is important, and why an increasing number of women entrepreneurs are needed in both research and industry.

To be eligible, women entrepreneurs must:
- be resident of an EU Member State or a country associated to the Research Framework Programme
- be founder or co-founder of an existing and active company (registered before 1 January 2009 and containing an annual turnover of at least EUR 0.10 million in 2009 or 2010.)
- be a recipient of EU funding from either the EU Research Framework Programme or Competitiveness and Innovation Framework Programme (either as an individual or business founded/co-founded by the contestant)

There will be three prizes of €100 000, €50 000, and €25 000, respectively.

Applications are open until the 20 September 2011 (17:00 CET)

More information

Call 8 information day: ICT for Sustainable Growth, 12 September, Brussels

2011-07-28T06:02:00.000-07:00

6.1-Smart Energy Grids,
6.3-ICT for efficient water resources management,
6.5-ICT for energy-positive neighbourhoods

The event will take place on 12 September in Brussels, Rue Froissart 36, Centre Albert Borschette, Room A/0.

More information

The FP7-ICT Call 8 is now open!

2011-07-22T05:34:00.000-07:00

The new call for proposal was published on 20 July 2011 with a deadline of 17th of January 2012, at 17:00.00 Brussels local time. The indicative budget is 787 million euros.

Several objectives of the following Challenges are open: Challenge 1: Pervasive and Trusted Network and Service Infrastructures, Challenge 3: Alternative Paths to Components and Systems, Challenge 4: Technologies for Digital Content and Languages, Challenge 5: ICT for Health, Ageing Well, Inclusion and Governance, Challenge 6: ICT for a Low Carbon Economy, Challenge 8: ICT for Learning and Acc to Cultural Resources, FET and Horizontal actions.

There are already some Info days for this call scheduled in Brussels:

22 September 2011: Trust & Security (Objective ICT-2011.1.4). More

27 September 2011: Cloud Computing, Internet of Services and Advanced Software Engineering (Objective ICT-2011.1.2). More

12 October 2011: FET Proactive Information Day. More

For more information:
Visit the ICT wiki
Visit the Participants portal

Fe:male, an initiative for women entrepreneurs

2011-07-20T00:27:00.000-07:00

The Fe:male project, funded by the European Commission, supports women who plan to set up their own business.

Across Europe, women are half as likely to set up a business as men. One of the main reasons is that there are many barriers that block women from setting up a business, such as being unemployed, having a disability, being over fifty, or coming from an ethnic minority.

Fe:male will support women who face all these difficulties to foster female entrepreneurship spirit through an exchange of experiences and best practice in adult education. You can subscribe to their Newsletter to receive continuous information.

More information

Green Paper on the online distribution of audiovisual works

2011-07-14T02:11:00.000-07:00

The European Commission has launched a new consultation on how best to seize the opportunities for the audiovisual industry online. The consultation will serve as the basis for a debate on how the regulatory framework needs to be adapted to allow European industry to develop new business models, how creators will find new distribution channels and how European consumers could have better access to the content.

The Green Paper focuses in particular on the copyright licensing framework, and discusses a number of regulatory approaches to licensing. In addition, it looks at the remuneration of authors and performers for the online use of their works; and deals with certain special uses of audiovisual works.

The consultation is open from now until 18 November 2011 and all citizens and organisations are invited to participate.

Go to the consultation

Consumers want Internet, phone and TV in one package

2011-07-13T00:49:00.000-07:00

A new Eurobarometer survey "E-Communications Household Survey", shows that four out of ten European households are buying "bundled" Internet, phone and TV services from a single provider and that one in four respondents considered that their Internet download/upload speeds do not match the conditions of the contract they signed. However, six out of ten households say they have never considered switching to another service provider as they have to face too many obstacles such as the risk of a temporary loss of service, the risk of having to pay for more than one provider during the switching process and the lack of clarity about the steps required for switching.

The survey measures the attitude of European households and individuals towards fixed and mobile telephony, Internet access, TV broadcast services, bundled offers, privacy, quality of services, affordability and switching.

Download the survey

Languages mean business - a new website for languages & business initiatives

2011-07-11T08:08:00.000-07:00

The European Commission have launched the "Languages mean business" platform to offer information on the benefits of languages when doing business and give tips and tools for better language management.

The site contains several sections with interesting information such as results from studies on the use of languages in European SMEs, success stories of small businesses that really made it thanks to a thorough language strategy, tips for success, a support service and much more.

Visit the website

Debate on the definition of SMEs

2011-07-11T05:34:00.000-07:00

The European Commission announced last week, in a review of the SmallBusiness Act (SBA) held in the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), its intention to open a consultation on the definition of SMEs in the course of 2012.

At present SMEs are defined by the following 3 parameters:

-Micro-entities are companies with up to 10 employees;
-small companies employ up to 50 workers, whilst;
-medium-sized enterprises contain up to 250 employees.

However the definition of a company for specific tax or regulatory purposes may change as a range of other criteria are also taken into account under different rule

The announcement received diverse reactions from stakeholders, some of which ask what the purpose of such a consultation will be.

More information

Innovation Union Competitiveness Report 2011

2011-07-04T08:41:00.000-07:00

The Innovation Union Competitiveness Report 2011 provides an in-depth statistical and economic analysis about the strengths and weaknesses of national research and innovation systems. The document also provides solid facts on which to base national policy choices.

The Key findings from this report point out that:

- Europe needs to accelerate investment in research and innovation.
- In times of economic crisis, accumulated investment in research and innovation has a counter-cyclical effect.
- Investments in innovation have to be "smarter".
- The development of highly-skilled people needs to be matched with the needs of business.
- Integration and internationalisation of research increases returns on investments.
- Weak framework conditions prevent knowledge being transformed into marketable products and services.
- Europe has strong potential in technological inventions tackling societal challenges.
- EU needs more innovative and fast-growing SMEs.

Download the full report
More information

Prices for voice, SMS and data roaming to be cut down to level of national tariffs by 2014

2011-07-04T08:03:00.000-07:00

A new EU roaming regulation is expected to be announced this Wednesday 6 July to resume the fight against high mobile phone prices.

The European Commission will propose to cap voice, SMS and data roaming at levels similar to national tariffs by 2014, as well as end the price gap between national and cross-border mobile services.

The proposed rules will introduce innovative ways to structurally reform the supply of mobile services, proposes to slash the wholesale prices that operators pay to use each other's networks, implement measures to enable new "virtual" operators to enter the market, and much more.

Before being applied, the regulation will have to pass the scrutiny of the European Parliament and the EU Council of Ministers.

More information
Download the legal text of the EU roaming proposal

Three new partners for the European Seal of e-Excellence 2012

2011-06-24T07:44:00.000-07:00

IT UKRAINE (Ukrainian IT association), IVSZ (Hungarian Association of IT Companies) and the Czech ICT Alliance joined recently the European Seal of e-Excellence partnership network.

The European Seal of e-Excellence rewards ICT and Digital Media companies with an excellent track record in innovation marketing. It has been awarded annually since 2003 by EMF and its Partner Organisations (more than 40), and it is widely known for distinguishing companies with innovative products & services and outstanding marketing. Averaging 35 winners per year, the European Seal of e-Excellence has become a coveted recognition for outstanding performance. The award is unique as it focuses on innovative marketing practices and not on the good or services themselves.

If you are interested in becoming partner or Sponsor please contact us.

14 new e-Job descriptions to improve training offers in EU

2011-06-24T03:15:00.000-07:00

The e-Jobs Observatory platform now includes a new section on e-Jobs Profiles to provide information about ongoing work on e-jobs descriptions. The sections contains descriptive information about each job profile as well as the option to comment it. You can find here below the names of the first 14 new e-Job descrptions:

Digital animator /2D-3D specialist
Digital Media Designer
e-Learning Designer
Internet e-Comerce specialist
Internet Hotline Operator
Online Community Manager
Usability specialist
Webmaster
Web and multimedia master
Web content manager
Web content / multimedia developer
Web designer
Web Marketer
Web Seller

Visit the website

EMF at the 1rst Digital Agenda Assembly

2011-06-20T03:29:00.000-07:00

EMF actively participated in the 1rst Digital Agenda Assembly that took place in Brussels on 16-17 June. The Assembly was a mixture of workshops, designed to identify solutions to specific challenges and plenary sessions designed to synthesise the discussions and identify the way forward. EMF promoted the ideas expressed in its Position Paper on a Digital Agenda for Europe and discussed the main points of the Digital Agenda with other stakeholders.

More information
Download the results of the workshops
Download EMF´s Position Paper on a Digital Agenda for Europe

New survey on data protection and electronic identity

2011-06-20T03:16:00.000-07:00

The main conclusions of a new Eurobarometer survey on attitudes towards data protection and electronic identity show that three out of four Europeans accept that revealing personal data is part of everyday life, but they are also worried about how companies – including search engines and social networks – use their information.

The report reveals that 62% of people in the European Union give the minimum required information so as to protect their identity, while 75% want to be able to delete personal information online whenever they want to – the so-called right to be forgotten.However people disclose personal data, including biographical information (almost 90%), social information (almost 50%) and sensitive information (almost 10%) on the sites.

The survey results come as the Commission prepares to reform EU data protection rules (see IP/10/1462) and SPEECH/11/183).

More information

Addressing evolving needs for cross-border eGovernment services, 11 October 2011, Brussels

2011-06-15T06:40:00.000-07:00

The workshop organizeb by European Dynamics will focus on the evolving needs of the European Union towards a more efficient delivery of ICT-facilitated public services for citizens and businesses across the EU. The target is to widen the scope of use of the electronic means that public administrations have at their disposal outside the local, regional or national level. A further aim is to facilitate mobility of businesses and citizens i.e. for entrepreneurs to set up and run a business anywhere in Europe and allowing individuals to study, work, reside, receive health care and retire anywhere in the European Union.

The workshop aims to discuss the following key questions:

- Which cross-border services are already in place and which ones are still missing?
- Which of these can be considered as key supporting the eGovernment Action Plan 2010-2015?
- Is there a need for cross-border services and why?
- When and by whom should these services be used?

More information and registrations

Conclusion of consultations on EU Innovation Green Paper

2011-06-10T08:36:00.000-07:00

The European Commission released on 9 February a Green Paper on future options and priorities with regard to research and innovation funding. Four months later it now releases an Analysis of the public consultation process that took place since February.

On 10 June 2011 the outcome of the consultation was discussed at a major conference in Brussels.

Download the Analysis
More information

New EU agreement on punishing cyber criminals

2011-06-10T01:32:00.000-07:00

The EU's justice ministers (with the exception of Denmark) will sign off today (10 June) a draft directive to define cyber crimes and minimum sentences for the worst offenders.

EU Security experts however criticise the EU's efforts to set out sentencing terms for cyber crimes arguing that policy experts would be better off focusing on understanding cyber crime and getting more resources to fight it. Richard Clayton, a professor at the University of Cambridge said that there are quite enough laws to convict cyber criminals but there are not enough policemen and organisations that can work across border to catch them.

Crimes outlined in the proposed legislation include illegal access to IT systems, interference with these systems, stealing or deleting data and the interception of non-public data transfers. For less serious offences such us access to information, criminals could face a minimum two-year sentence.

More information

Registrations are now open for Meta Forum 2011 - Solutions for Multilingual Europe

2011-06-09T02:29:00.000-07:00

27-28 June 2011
Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, Hungary

Following the resounding success of the first META-FORUM last November, META-FORUM 2011 will build and expand upon the themes and topics raised at the last forum. META-FORUM 2011 will feature both interactive and informative sessions focusing on multilingualism, the challenges and opportunities presented by the multilingual information society and how innovative Language Technologies are key in developing solutions to these challenges.

Among the speakers will be Roberto Cencioni, Zoran Stančič, Conrad Toft (European Commission), Branimir Boguraev (IBM Research), Thomas Hofmann (Google), Hans Uszkoreit (DFKI, Language Technology Lab).

Legal analysis of a Single Market for the Information Society

2011-06-06T03:35:00.000-07:00

A study published by DG Information Society and Media highlights the need to modernise and harmonise further the legislative framework applicable to information society services in the Digital Single Market.

The document underlines that a series of gaps and inconsistencies appeared due to the rapid technological evolution and points out that urgent EU action is necessary to allow the next generation of Europeans to turn their creativity into new services, growth and jobs.

The study aims to review the legal rules for the information society, both on the EU-level and the national level, in order to investigate the gaps and inconsistencies, determine their practical impact and assess their future readiness. The study also proposes recommendations on how these rules should be changed in order to encourage cross-border trade, promote new technologies and promote on-line business.

More information

European Commission Publishes New IPR Strategy

2011-05-25T02:02:00.000-07:00

The European Commission launched yesterday a new strategy to modernise intellectual property rights (IPR) in the Single Market. The document covers various actions on trademarks, patents, copyright and enforcement. It also sets out a more effective enforcement strategy for intellectual property.

Among the first deliverables of this strategy are today's proposals for

- an easier licensing system for so-called "orphan works ",
- a new regulation to reinforce customs actions in fighting trade of IPR infringing goods, and
- a new proposal to reinforce the European Observatory on Counterfeiting and Piracy.

Other topics will be introduced in the second half of the year or next year.

More information

New telecoms rules for the benefit of citizens and businesses

2011-05-23T07:30:00.000-07:00

As from 25May 2011, Europeans will enjoy new rights and services regarding telephony and Internet. The new telecom rules will include:

-Higher levels of consumer protection and more choice such as the ability to switch fixed or mobile phone operator without changing phone number within one working day

-Improved online privacy and safety providing better protection against personal data breaches and "spam" as well as better information and consent requirements for storing or accessing information in users' devices

-More consistent regulation across the EU

Reinforcing the Single Market for telecoms services is a key objective of the Digital Agenda for Europe.

More information

“Soft skills” essential for employers but missing among young people

2011-05-23T05:33:00.000-07:00

The results of the a survey entitled "Closing the Gap Between Business and Education” show that business leaders find young people to lack 'soft skills' such as confidence, teamwork, self-motivation, networking and presentation skills. 63 % of respondents said that their countries’ educational systems were not preparing young people with the right skills to enter the workforce and 70 % of respondents said their countries were doing a poor job developing financial and entrepreneurial skills among young people.

The survey was carried out by FreshMindsResearch for JA-YE Europe, which is Europe's largest provider of entrepreneurship education programmes bringing together businesses, schools and young people.

Download the report
More Information

EU copyright policy endorsing Internet censorship?

2011-05-23T02:04:00.000-07:00

A new EU Intellectual Property Rights Strategy will be released tomorrow (24 May 2011). The draft is severely criticised by Internet circles.

Many opponents fear that the Strategy will endorse a growing trend to hold Internet service providers (ISPs)liable for piracy, forcing them to punish the users without the involvement of a judge or jury.

Digital rights campaigners argue that the EU is about to weaken citizens' fundamental rights and give way to an already growing trend of censorship across the EU.

At regional level, Spain, Ireland and the UK have recently decided to tackle piracy with access restrictions, but the laws have been widely contested in the countries' courts.

More Information

Consultation on how best to leverage the cloud computing in Europe

2011-05-17T02:20:00.000-07:00

The Commission is inviting all interested parties, in particular cloud developers and cloud users, to explain their experience, needs, expectations and insights into the use and provision of cloud computing. The survey seeks feedback on the following issues:

- data protection and liability questions, in particular in cross-border situations;
- other legal and technical barriers that can slow down the development of cloud computing in Europe;
- standardisation and interoperability solutions;
- uptake of cloud services, in particular by SMEs;
- ways to promote research and innovation in cloud computing.

The online public consultation will run until the August 31st and the results will feed into a European cloud computing strategy that the Commission will present in 2012.

Access to the public consultation

Half of the EU Internet surfers use foreing languages on-line

2011-05-16T00:59:00.000-07:00

According to a pan-EU Eurobarometer survey 55% of Internet surfers use at least occasionally another language than their own when they are on-line. However, 90% of the surfers prefer to access websites in their own language and 44% of them feel they are missing interesting information because web pages are not in a language that they understand.

The survey confirms that English is the most commonly used language when it comes to reading and watching content on the Internet in a different language than one's own: almost half of Internet users in the EU (48%) would use English at least "occasionally" while Spanish, German and French would be used by 4% to 6% of users.

To face this situation the European Commission manages 30 different research projects working at the interface of language and digital content and one of the objectives of the Digital Agenda for Europe is to ensure more accessibility to web content for everyone.

EMF follows closely the development on Languages and opportunities in EU and participate in META (the Multilingual Europe Technology Alliance) and the CELAN project (Promotion of Language Strategies for Competitiveness and Employability) .

Download the Survey
Visit the CELAN project site
Visit the META website

Brazil to be partner country for CeBIT 2012

2011-05-12T05:14:00.000-07:00

It has been announced that Brazil will be the partner country of the CeBIT 2012.
CeBIT is the world's largest and most international ICT fair. It is held each year on the world's largest fairground in Hanover, Germany, and is a barometer of the state of the art in information technology. More than 4,200 companies from over 70 countries participated in CeBIT 2011.
Wolfram von Fritsch, CeBIT director said 2012 will show that Brazil and CeBIT are a "dream team" and looks forward to the samba summit at CeBIT.

European Seal of e-Excellence award at CeBIT 2012

The European Seal of e-Excellence rewards ICT and Digital Media companies with an excellent track record in innovation marketing. Awarded annually since 2003 by EMF and its Partner Organisations at the CeBIT, the Seal is widely known for distinguishing companies with innovative products & services and outstanding marketing.

Applications for 2012 are already open on the Seal website:www.seal-of-excellence.org

More information

eLearning Africa 2011, 25-27 May, Tanzania

2011-05-10T01:22:00.000-07:00

The sixth edition of the eLearning Africa conference will take place in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)the 25, 26 and 27 May 2011. The event is the key networking venue for practitioners and professionals from Africa and all over the world to develop eLearning Capacities in Africa.

This year the conference will adress to the following issues:

-eLearning Africa countdown
-Exploring gaming, eBooks and 'interactive phone instruction' in Africa
-"Africa's potential is its people" - interview with Dr Frannie LÃ©autier
-CTA promotes agriculture to the young
-Antelope Safaris to sponsor EAST Challenge
-How eLearning Africa helped a school in the Copperbelt
-Beyond deployment: how to actually integrate ICTs in African classrooms
-IBM brings its Smarter Planet Agenda to Africa
-MobileMonday: mobile apps capture the market in Africa
-'Aide et Action' backs African participation at eLearning Africa 2011
-Is the OER movement flawed? A statement from Neil Butcher
-South-South collaboration in learning: the Latin American experience
-NATO training chief at special 'crisis response' training session
-ELIG invites African eLearning companies into the European Group
-'Tanzania Beyond Tomorrow' ready soon

More information

Accuro, Anboto Europe, Clic and Cash, LetterGen , Quicksite and TOPEX Silver winners of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011

2011-05-09T02:58:00.000-07:00

ACCURO, is a Belgium company who delivers on the automotive industry's need for high quality competitive product information. The company was awarded with the European Seal of e-Excellence Silver award fot the OptiCAR Workbench application.

A nboto Europe provide "Web Customer Service" and "eCommerce" technologies based in semantics and Natural Language Processing to increase sales and reduce costs of our customers. Anboto´s main products are: Virtual sales Agents and Intelligent Chats.

Clic and Cash is a Switz company that offers fast and easy E-business solutions for everyone.

LetterG en specializes in document automation workflows, interactive documents, and production document generation solutions. LetterGen is a state of the art document generation system based on open standards and is capable of interactive real-time or high volume batch generation of correspondence and business forms.

Quicksite is a CMS platform to manage and distribute content on Internet. Quicksite´s software solution is used to create communication websites, business applications, mobile communication and spread information on social networks. The cmpany was already awarded with the European Seal of e-Excellence on 2005 and 2008.

TOPEX is a Romanian company which produces, integrates and distributes telecom equipments.TOPEX's expertise includes: Next Generation Network solutions (Softswitch, Media Gateways for TDM, VoIP), Signaling Gateways, Broadband Wi-Fi Mobile Routers, Fixed-Mobile Terminals.

More information and applications for 2012

Pushing a standardised rail IT booking system for EU

2011-05-06T00:24:00.000-07:00

The European Commision launched yesterday a new regulation on the technical specification for interoperability relating to the subsystem 'telematics applications for passenger services' of the trans-European rail system. The document underlines that ticket details and reserations will be standardised, allowing information exchanges between rail companies and ticket vendors. Besides, the regulation requires operators to make timetabling open to the public and forces rail partners to share fare information.
A second regulation will be presented next year to standardise rail operators computer systems and practices to facilitate data transfer among them.

Download the document
More information

Improving training offers for Web Marketers, Web Sellers, Usability Specialists, Online Community Managers and Internet Hotline Operators across EU

2011-05-05T02:32:00.000-07:00

The e-Jobs Observatory platform now includes a section on e-Jobs Profiles to provide information about ongoing work on e-jobs descriptions. The first five profiles have been generated by the EQF i-Serve project, and are based on the e-Competences Framework of CEN.
The e-Jobs Observatory aims at creating a central point of reference for all activities related to research, training, qualifications, standards, norms, certificates and employment in the field of e-Jobs in Europe.
The page is work in progress and more e-jobs profiles will be added in the near future.
You are invited to comment on the profiles.

More Information

Applications for the European Seal of e-Excellence 2012 are now open!

2011-05-02T05:48:00.000-07:00

Applications for the European Seal of e-Excellence 2012 are open since yesterday until the 31rd of December 2011. The European Seal of e-Excellence rewards ICT and Digital Media companies with an excellent track record in innovation marketing. The prize have been awarded annually since 2003 by EMF and its Partner Organisations at the CeBIT, and is widely known for distinguishing companies with innovative products & services and outstanding marketing.

More information and applications

META-FORUM 2011, Solutions for Multilingual Europe, 27-28June 2011, Budapest

2011-05-02T05:31:00.000-07:00

META-FORUM 2011 will feature both interactive and informative sessions focusing on multilingualism, the challenges and opportunities presented by the multilingual information society and how innovative Language Technologies are key in developing solutions to these challenges. The event is an activity organized by the META project and the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

META - Multilingual Europe Technology Alliance, brings together researchers, commercial technology providers, private and corporate language technology users, language professionals and other information society stakeholders. META will prepare an ambitious, joint international effort towards furthering Language Technology as a means towards realising the vision of a Europe united as one single digital market and information space.

Due to the limited number of admissible participants (up to a maximum of 300) online registration is required.

Registration and more information

eRevMax, Norse Solutions, RichCast, Soft Economy and TR Associates Gold winners of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011

2011-04-29T03:38:00.000-07:00

eRevMax provides the hospitality industry with online rate shopping, channel management, customer review management and digital marketing tools to maximize online reservations and revenue.
RateTiger, the leading division of eRevMax, enables hoteliers to save time and money by making real time price comparison and updates of room rates and availability to multiple online channels simple and easy. Direct GDS connectivity and over 600 channel partners allows RateTiger to offer a vast distribution network to hotels.

Norse Solutions is the largest supplier of software and services for the efficient administration of share-based compensation plans in the North-European region. Norse Solutions has the longest experience related to IFRS-2 in the world today, and our Top Down architecture puts our software above and beyond our competitors.

RichCast enriches communications through innovative webcasting solutions that provide autonomy, flexibility and cost-effectiveness.
The company offer unique and portable tools that combine robotic cameras with an easy-to-use interface for the recording and live or on-demand publishing of videobanners, videomagazines and videoblogs as well as webcasts of seminars and congresses.
The main areas of use are e-learning, corporate communications (investor relations, HR, marketing) and event communication.

Soft Economy Umbriasoft.net is a quality website of tourist promotion that meets the needs of the hotels and all the other accommodations in the Umbria region. We provide the following services to hotels: a better visibility in the online tourism market; a customized full presentation of the hotel in the homepage, last minute offers, holiday packages; improvement of their ranking in search engines through Google Adwords advertising campaigns.

TR Associates is an Innovation minded company, that brings open innovation to the marketplace in the different areas of the applications (urban and rural development , ageing society, education, Intelligent transport, e-Business, green technologies).

ECO-Innovation, call for proposals are now open!

2011-04-28T03:34:00.000-07:00

The calls support Eco-innovative projects in different sectors which aim at the prevention or reduction of environmental impacts or which contribute to the optimal use of resources.
The call is open to all legal persons that are based in eligible countries but the priority will be given to Small- and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). Clusters of applicants and projects which demonstrate a European added value and have a high potential for market replication are strongly encouraged.

Although priority will be given to SMEs* and private beneficiaries, the calls for proposals are open to all legal persons located in one of the following countries:

27 EU member states
Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein
Albania, Croatia, former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Israel, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey
Other non-EU countries provided they have the appropriate agreement in force.

More information

Linking ICT SMEs to Investors - ICT Venture Gate, 19 May, Budapest

2011-04-27T02:34:00.000-07:00

The ICT VentureGate Brokerage Event will take place in Budapest, the 19th May, 2011. The event is organized between two other major European Commission events in Budapest targeting the ICT sector: the Future Internet Week (16-19 May 2011) and the ICT Proposers Day (19 – 20 May).

ICT Venture Gate is an EU-funded project to bringing SMEs and Investors together. The project wants to connect and better equip ICT SMEs (Information and Communication Technology-focussed Small and Medium-sized Enterprises) who have been in previous EU-funded projects, to Venture Capital and Business Angel investors.

Download the preliminary agenda
More information

Balazs-Diak, Hedz Hungary and Nemzeti Tankonyvkiado, 3 Hungarian Companies winners of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011

2011-04-27T02:14:00.000-07:00

Balazs-Diak, an education material producer and trader company, Hedz Hungary a proprietary software solutions company and Nemzeti Tankonyvkiado, an e-learning services and e-learning solutions company won the Gold and Silver award of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011.

Balazs-Diak is an education material producer and trader company. The company have developed an interactive software for teachers called i-Doctum. Available subjects are Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Mathematics. The curriculums are independent from course books and can be excellently applied into all country’s curriculums.

Hedz Hungary, develops proprietary software solutions that can transform ordinary mobile telephones into valuable tailor-made corporate tools, sophisticated e-banking terminals or virtual credit cards for mobile operator independent m-commerce applications.

Nemzeti Tankonyvkiado(NTK) is a traditional textbook publisher that aims to respond to customer demands and to offer high-quality products and services. NTK provides textbooks for K1-K12 (primary, secondary) and higher education and develops digital contents, e-learning services and e-learning solutions, such as softwares and learning management systems.

More information about other European Seal of e-Excellence winners will be weekly provided in this blog.

Internet of Things high level conference,16 May 2011, Budapest

2011-04-19T02:17:00.000-07:00

On May 16, 2011 the European Commission and the Hungarian Innovation Office are jointly organizing a high level Internet of Things conference in Budapest, as part of the program of the Hungarian EU Presidency. The conference is joining a series of other events of the Future Internet Week between 16-20 May, 2011.

The conference will cover topics which presently are high on the agenda of policy makers, technology providers and potential users. The will include presentations about the aims and objectives of the EU in respect of the technology, the new research roadmap, privacy and data protection issues, as well as panel discussions about the societal challenges of IoT, major application areas, and governance aspects.

Representatives of the Commission and the Hungarian government, as well as renown speakers of industry and academia from around the World will introduce the newest results and challenges of the new technology.

More information

What skills do you need for an Internet-related job?

2011-04-18T05:58:00.000-07:00

EMF is a partner in the EQF iServe project that investigates the needed skills and competences for emerging Internet-related jobs. By identifying these skills and competences, the project aims to counter the growing skills shortage and to enhance employability of workers Europe-wide. The resulting jobs profiles will be linked to the e-competence framework (eCF) and European Qualifications Framework (EQF) for Europe-wide transparency and comparability. EQF iServe is funded by Lifelong Learning programme of the European Commission.

More information on the project
More information on eJobs in Europe

CELAN - Language strategies for competitiveness and employability

2011-04-18T05:38:00.001-07:00

Since January 2011, the CELAN project - The Network for the Promotion of Language Strategies for Competitiveness and Employability - complements the portfolio of EMF's LLP projects that have at their aim to improve the competitiveness of European enterprises, to define new skills for new jobs, to enhance employability, and to match training offer with market needs. Help us shape the future in YOUR direction and fill in the CELAN questionnaire on linguistic needs - it takes only a few minutes!

Wordbee and Lingosaur awarded with the Special mention Seal on Language Technologies 2011

2011-04-18T01:36:00.000-07:00

Wordbee, the online computer assisted translation (CAT) and management platform from Luxemburg won the Gold seal of the European Seal of e-Excellence award 2011 whereas Lingosaur, an online translation agency from Finland was awarded with the Silver seal 2011.

The cloud-based software of Wordbee, a Translation Environment Tool (TEnT), called Wordbee Translator, provides a centralized, shared environment and workspace for translators, reviewers, project managers, and other project stakeholders. The TEnT provides project management and tracking capabilities, linguistic technology tools like glossary management, translation memory and machine translation, and customizable workflows.
Wordbee proposes a web platform (SaaS) that enables companies to bring all documents and people into one collaborative workspace.

Lingosaur Online Translation Agency operates purely in the Internet. The technology enable the service?s quality and promptness but at its core is a community of translators. Therefore, it is not a translating machine but a service based on human work.
Via Lingosaurs web page, customers can send their texts to be translated, set the source and target languages, and choose between two quality levels.

More information about other European Seal of e-Excellence winners will be weekly provided in this blog.

The European Commission will present tomorrow proposals to foster a neutral and competitive Internet

2011-04-18T01:27:00.000-07:00

In a draft proposal seen by EurActiv, the European Commission does its homework on possible infringements of net neutrality but prefers to adopt a wait-and-see approach before coming up with concrete measures to prevent network operators and Internet providers from forging monopolies.

Large industry is in favor of this proposal for its prudence, while consumer groups and activists lament the lack of substance.

As more European media consumption – such as radio, TV, telephony and video conferencing – migrates to the web, regulators are concerned about operators' attempts to block or slow down services which compete with their own or don't yield much profit, effectively creating fast lanes and slow lanes for different services.

The EU paper admits that problems have been detected such as blocking of Internet telephony and anticompetitive traffic management, but also claims these have so far been dealt with by a national regulator or negative media coverage.

Source EurActiv
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Registrations for the 1rst Digital Agenda Assembly are now open!

2011-04-15T04:01:00.000-07:00

The first Digital Agenda Assembly will take place in Brussels on 16-17 June 2011. The event will address key topics relating to information and communications technologies and their impacts on society and economy. The annual Digital Assembly will bring together Member States, EU institutions, citizens' representatives and industry and it will support the Digital Agenda for Europe by assessing progress, identifying challenges and stimulating contributions.

The main objectives of the Assembly are to:

•Assess progress to date on delivery towards the Digital Agenda's goals and actions and seek ways to improve delivery;
•Identify challenges ahead for the implementation of the Digital Agenda and for the information society in general;
•Mobilise stakeholders' actions to make further progress and address challenges.

Registrations and more information

Ameise Editora and B.U.T, two more Platinum winners of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011

2011-04-15T03:02:00.000-07:00

Ameise Editora, a portuguese on-line newspapers publisher and B.U.T a Belgium company for interactive media, print and video services won the Platinum award of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011.

The award was given to Ameise editora for his Digital magazine "Jornal STRADA e-magazine". This specialized on-line publication, dedicated to the sector of heavy vehicles and transport, is unique in sector, in terms of look, layout and presentation of news and articles.

B.U.T is a company for interactive media, print and video services specialised in business-to-business and industrial communication. The company has been for over 25 years serving large multinational corporations.
B.U.T focus on the ‘what’ first, then the ‘how’. Content comes first, the choice of medium to convey it second. Whatever suits your message and audience best - whether in interactive media, web, video, or print - they make it, to measure.

More information about other European Seal of e-Excellence winners will be weekly provided in this blog.

The Global Information Technology Report 2010–2011 published

2011-04-15T01:36:00.000-07:00

The World Economic Forum has just released the Global Information Technology Report 2010-2011. The document features the latest results of the Networked Readiness Index, offering an overview of the current state of ICT readiness in the world. The Networked Readiness Index (NRI) measures the propensity for countries to exploit the opportunities offered by information and communications technology. This year’s coverage includes a record number of 138 economies from both the developing and developed world, accounting for over 98 percent of global GDP. The report includes a number of essays and case studies on transformations 2.0 and best practices in networked readiness as well as a comprehensive data section—including detailed profiles for each economy covered and data tables with global rankings for the NRI’s 71 indicators.

The Global Information Technology Report 2010–2011 marks the 10th anniversary of the series under the general theme of transformations 2.0. Over the last decade, the Report has become the most comprehensive and respected international assessment of the preparedness of economies to leverage the networked economy, providing a unique platform for public-private dialogue on best policies and for determining what actions will further national ICT readiness and innovation potential.

More information
Download the report

Green ICT survey for ICT Managers

2011-04-13T07:03:00.000-07:00

Memebes of the Council of European Professional Informatics Societies have formed the Green ICT Task Force and created a new survey on Green ICT to examine the awareness and behaviour of ICT managers regarding energy consumption and energy efficiency of ICT equipment & policies within organisations.

The survey is linked to The European Commission’s EU2020 strategy which has targeted three key areas for sustainable growth:

1. 20% increase in energy efficiency
2. 20% reduction of greenhouse gas emissions
3. increase the share of renewables by 20%.

The survey’s final results will be compiled into a valuable pan-European snapshot of how ICT Managers in different countries implement energy efficient methods in their organisations. This will be useful business information that many ICT managers may find important, to see how their organisation's ICT usage & green ICT practices compare to organisations in other countries.

Download the CEPIS Green ICT survey for ICT Managers

The OECD publishes 2 reports on Privacy and Digital Identity Management

2011-04-13T01:40:00.000-07:00

Two reports published by the OECD's Committee for Information, Computer and Communications Policy, analyse respectively the privacy landscape and the national strategies and policies for digital identity management in the OECD countries.

“The Evolving Privacy Landscape: 30 Years After the OECD Privacy Guidelines”

The report begins by recalling the development and influence of the Guidelines. It then describes a number of current trends in the processing of personal data and the privacy risks in this evolving environment. It identifies some of the challenges that today’s environment brings for protecting privacy under existing approaches, and highlights a number of current initiatives and innovative approaches to privacy.

Particular attention is focused on the impact of the Internet and other technologies, consistent with the issues and priorities highlighted in the 2008 Seoul Ministerial on the Future of the Internet Economy.

Download the full report

“National Strategies and Policies for Digital Identity Management in OECD Countries”

The report is based on responses to the Questionnaire on National Strategies and Policies for Digital Identity Management (IdM) in OECD Countries. The report includes a detailed analysis, a list of references, country summaries (Annex I) and a contribution by the Internet Technical Advisory Committee (ITAC) (Annex II).

Download the full report

CINETIS, a Swiss multimedia company specialized in film scanning solutions, Platinum winner of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011

2011-04-11T06:54:00.000-07:00

The Swiss company Cinetis won for the second time the European Seal of e-Excellence award. The company was awarded for the first time in 2006, and has received its second award this year.

Cinetis presents a unique mix of software developers and film scanning/editing specialists. The company commercializes its digitization service under the Bolex Digital brand name.

Since 1924, Bolex is famous among amateur and professional film makers for the quality of its products. Bolex Digital is the Swiss leader of Super8, 8mm, 9.5mm and 16mm film digitization. Bolex Digital offers high quality film digitization services and the best available digital restoration technologies at an affordable price.

More information about other European Seal of e-Excellence winners will be weekly provided in this blog.

".eu" has become the 9th biggest top-level domain (TLD) on the Internet

2011-04-08T01:18:00.000-07:00

Registrations for a ".eu" domain have grown every year since its introduction and now reach almost 3.5 million. The domain first opened on 7 December 2005 to holders of prior rights and since early April 2006. From then to now, the ".eu" has become the 5th most popular country code top-level domain worldwide and ranks in 4th place in Europe.

Having a ".eu" domain is especially beneficial to small and medium-sized companies as it raises their profile on European markets by providing them with a pan-European identity on the Internet.

Live tracking of ".eu" statistics
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2 Bulgarian Companies winners of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011

2011-04-07T07:12:00.000-07:00

“ICB - InterConsult Bulgaria”, a leading Bulgarian software and consulting company and “Musala Soft”, a software engineering services company, won the Gold and silver award of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011.

“ICB - InterConsult Bulgaria”, puts the stress on its business-process-based portal solutions and expects to find new clients and partners. The company has been specially awarded for its product Engi Tools.
Engi Tools, based on artifitial intelligence, is an integrated software system which automatically generates product and engineering documentation. Its accuracy is over 95% for all the 50 supported types of documents. According to Konsberg, the main user of Engi tools, the product generates more than 10,000 pages for about 20,000 projects annually. It improves productivity 30 times and shortens the entire process from 60 days to less than 2 days.

“Musala Soft”, is a leading Bulgarian software engineering services company, specialized in nearshoring, delivery of complex and large-scale software projects, IT consulting and solution implementation.
Musala Soft has developed methodology to execute projects under complicated setups including geographical dispersion, remote access, organizational obstructions and tight deadlines. Our commitment to understand clients' needs and deliver high quality and innovation, has attracted customers as DHL, EnBW, HP, IBM, OMV, SAP, as well as small and medium-sized enterprises in Bulgaria, Western Europe and USA.

More information about other European Seal of e-Excellence winners will be weekly provided in this blog.

VASCO, the world leader in strong authentication and e-signature solutions winner of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011

2011-03-30T03:05:00.000-07:00

The Belgium company VASCO data security won for the second time the European Seal of e-Excellence award. The company was awarded for the first time in 2008, and has received its second award this year.

VASCO is a global market leader in software solutions and services for user authentication, electronic and digital signatures, specializing in online accounts, identities and transactions. As a global software company, VASCO serves a customer base of over 10,000 companies in over 100 countries, including more than 1,500 international financial institutions. In addition to the financial sector, VASCO's technologies secure sensitive information and transactions for the enterprise security, e-commerce and e-government industries.

More information about other European Seal of e-Excellence winners will be weekly provided in this blog.

Europe and the United States trying to reach agreement on the protection of privacy on the Internet

2011-03-29T01:50:00.000-07:00

For years the United States and Europe have diverged in their approach to policing the web. However, the two sides are converging in their web privacy positions, partly through intensive meetings in recent months between regulators from Washington and Brussels.A series of meetings between U.S. and European regulators have helped to bridge the different views on how to regulate the protection of privacy on the Internet, but significant differences still remain, such as the insistence of Europe for the recognition of the "right to be forgotten".

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Detailed information about the Winners of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011 is now available on-line

2011-03-29T00:49:00.000-07:00

An on-line brochure with detailed information about each ofthe Winners of the Seal of e-Excellence 2011 is now available on the Award website. The PDF document contains information about the winners' company website, country of origin, key activities and a detailed company/product profile.

Download the brochure
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Active participation of EMF in an ICT Forum and Interactive Workshop in La Habana, Cuba

2011-03-25T03:57:00.000-07:00

EMF representants activelly participated in the ICT Forum and Interactive Workshop held in La Habana the 15 and 16 March 2011. The 2 days event was organised by the PRO-IDEAL PLUS FP7 project in which EMF is partner, and SOFTEL, the Cuban leader in the computer industry.

The ICT Forum day brought together a broad range of key players in the ICT and Research and Development sector from both, Cuba and Europe. The next day potential ICT project partners had the opportunity to take part in a participative workshop "Safari"-style to learn about ICT programme issues.

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EMF reinforces links with the ICT sector in the Indian Ocean (Mauritius & Madagascar)

2011-03-23T09:01:00.000-07:00

Following a first meeting in February 2011 in Port Louis / Mauritius, representatives of EMF and key ICT intermediary organisations of Mauritius and Madagascar met again in Brussels on 22-23 March. Both meetings were sponsored by the Pro-Invest Programme of the EU. Their aim was to discuss means to improve the collaboration between ICT organisations of the Indian Ocean and Europe.

The 2 days meeting in Brussels gathered representatives of EMF, The Mauritius Chamber of Commerce (MCCI) and Mauritius and Madagascar? ICT associations (OTAM and GOTICOM). It examined items such as membership and information exchange, joint project development, support for business expansion and commercial & research partnerships, the participation of the Indian Ocean region in the European Seal of e-Excellence.

For more information please contact us.

5 German Companies winners of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011

2011-03-21T07:34:00.000-07:00

“Digital publishing”, an on-line language training company and “Adobe Systems Gmbh”, a cross media solutions company won the Gold award of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011.

“Digital publishing” provides the software tools and blended solutions that make online language learning really work. The company help large organizations around the world to address the business communication needs of a global workplace.

"Adobe Scene7" a product developed by “Adobe Systems Gmbh” is the industry-leading hosted cross media platform for managing, enhancing and delivering dynamic, rich content to any channel - web, print, email, and mobile. With Scene7, companies can grow revenues, enhance customer experience and cut production costs via an easy-to-use, Web-based system requiring minimal IT support.

The other 3 German companies ("apprupt", "plista" and "QUISMA") received the Silver Seal for their innovative products & services and outstanding marketing.

"apprupt" is the first premium performance network for mobile applications. Through its Premium Network and its Affiliate Network, apprupt enables app developers and advertisers to market their apps effectively to specific target groups.

"Plista" develops innovative solutions for publishing houses and other online publishers which enable them to tie their readers closer to them and at the same time offer more attractive marketing possibilities to advertisers. Moreover, plista helps to convert local advertisers to online advertising customers, by providing resourceful and easy to use tools like the 1-Click-Ad-Creator.

"QUISMA" is an autonomous network for performance marketing with the GroupM. We offer full service to our clients, containing search engine marketing, affiliate marketing, search engine optimisation, performance display advertising,conversion optimisation and marketing intelligence.

More information about other European Seal of e-Excellence winners will be weekly provided in this blog.

egyszervolt.hu (“once upon a time”), a Hungarian child content provider Platinum winner of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011

2011-03-16T02:41:00.000-07:00

The Hungarian company egyszervolt.hu (“once upon a time”) won for the first time the Platinum winner of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011.

egyszervolt.hu is an internet content provider who considers its work a mission to provide the family visiting the portal with content that is valuable, positive, aids education, but is entertaining at the same time.

The interested users can find supplements to free-time activities and content of a high standard on the thematic and target-oriented pages of the portal.

More information about other European Seal of e-Excellence winners will be weekly provided in this blog.

'sluggish' Growth in cross-border e-commerce across the European Union

2011-03-15T01:36:00.000-07:00

The latest European Commission consumer survey reveals that E-commerce growth 'sluggish' across the European Union and indicates that much remains to be done if the bloc is to meet targets for 2020.

36% of EU consumers shopped online from national sellers in 2010 compared to 34% in 2009, found the 5th edition of the Consumer Conditions Scoreboard. However cross-border e-commerce grew only slowly, rising one percentage point to 9% last year compared to 8% in 2009.

The EU has set itself the target of raising the proportion of EU consumers who shop online across borders to 20% by 2020, as pointed in the "Digital Agenda".

More information
Download the 5th edition of the Consumer Conditions Scoreboard

5 winners for the European Seal of e-Excellence special mention award “Latin America”

2011-03-11T02:17:00.000-08:00

Neuromarketing (Mexico), G&L Group (Argentina), Hexacta (Argentina), SmartSoft (Costa Rica) and Soluciones Tecnológicas (Mexico) have been awarded the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011, Special Mention "Latin America".

For the very first time the Seal of e-Excellence award opened its doors to Latin American companies this yearwith the support of the following partners in the region: ANII (Uruguay), SOFTEX (Brazil), CESSI (Argentina), CAMTIC (Costa Rica), CANIETI (Mexico), Plataforma Tecnológica Mexicana (Mexico), Ruta-N Portal de Innovación (Colombia) and Software y Servicios Chile (Chile).

More information about other European Seal of e-Excellence winners will be weekly provided in this blog.

ICT Proposers' Day 2011, 19-20 May, Budapest

2011-03-10T08:26:00.000-08:00

The biannual event organised by the Information Society and Media Directorate-General of the European Commission will be dedicated to networking and partnership building for ICT Calls 8 and 9 of the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Commission (FP7).
The ICT Proposers' Day will contain thematic sessions on the Work Programme 2011-12 with presentations of proposal ideas, meeting points animated by Commission officials and information stands.

Under the auspices of the Hungarian EU Presidency, the event will take place in Budapest from 19th to 20th May.

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VIDAVO, a "phealth" company Platinum winner of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011

2011-03-08T06:56:00.000-08:00

VIDAVO, the Greek company specializing inpersonalized health (phealth) products, won the platinum award of the European Seal of e-Excellence 2011.

The company offers a unique combination of innovative solutions assisting citizens on-the-move and medical professionals to better manage health and wellness. It was established in 2002 by a group of experienced scientists with the aim of developing "novel integrated telematics solutions" targeting the healthcare sector.

Vidavo offers:
- Innovative customized solutions, addressing the individual needs of healthcare professionals,
- Novel integrated e-health services,
- Hand-held and easy to use technology products to citizens, encouraging them to undertake an active role in monitoring their health status,
- A bridge to the gap between research results and commercial exploitation.

More information about other European Seal of e-Excellence winners will be weekly provided in this blog.

ICT Policy Support Work Programme Launched

2011-03-07T02:09:00.000-08:00

The 5th call for Proposals of the ICT Policy Support Programme (ICT PSP) is already open until the 1st June 2011 containing a Budget of 115.5 million Euro.

Particular emphasis will be put on areas of public interest given their weight in the European economy and the unique solutions that ICT can bring to the societal challenges that lie ahead such as health and ageing, inclusion, energy efficiency, sustainable mobility, culture preservation and learning as well as efficient public administrations. The programme will also provide EU funding to support the realisation of the Digital agenda for Europe.

The ICT Policy Support Work Programme Information Days will take place in the following locations and dates: Paris and Prague on 4th March, Dublin on 7th March, Zagreb on 14th – 18th March, Sofia and Muelheim an der Ruhr on 15th March, Oslo on 21st March, and Madrid on 24th March.

Download the Full ICT PSP Work Programme 2011
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Platinum Seal of e-Excellence for 2 “Spanish” companies

2011-03-03T05:36:00.000-08:00

The Spanish companies IMASTE and Bitext Innovation have won the Platinum Award of the European Seal of e-Excellence for their innovative products and services as well as for their excellence in marketing.

IMASTE is the leading virtual events, fairs and trade shows vendor in Europe. The company has successful projects in various European and South American countries and delivered more than 100 successful virtual events for global clients across the globe.

Bitext is a pioneer company in the development and application of linguistic technologies tools offering development of new products and integration of its products into third-party applications. The company has been awarded with the Special Mention Seal for Language Technologies.

More information about other European Seal of e-Excellence winners will be weekly provided in this blog.