Plans to modernise intellectual property laws in the UK

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.

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Innovation Union Competitiveness Report 2011

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

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

EMF at the 1rst Digital Agenda Assembly

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

eLearning Africa 2011, 25-27 May, Tanzania

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 Léautier
-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

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

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).

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

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.