— posted by Rafaela Oliveira Lima, Member of the Going Local Team for Portugal

A Agenda Digital para a Europa tem como objectivo tornar cada europeu digital.
A Comissão Europeia, em colaboração com as autoridades nacionais e locais, está a organizar o Going Local 2011 de forma a dar a oportunidade a cada português de fazer ouvir a sua voz.

 Uma equipa da Comissão Europeia liderada por Mário Campolargo, Director de Tecnologias Emergentes e Infra-estruturas, DG INFSO, estará no Porto e em Aveiro no próximo dia 12 de Dezembro, e em Coimbra e Lisboa nos dias 13 e 14 de Dezembro, respectivamente.

Queremos entender qual é a situação actual e o progresso feito desde a publicação da Agenda Digital para a Europa em 2010, mas sobretudo procuramos perceber quais são as prioridades de Portugal, e como pode o país contribuir para a implementação dessas acções.   

Os principais temas a serem tratados serão:

• Governo e Administração Pública on-line
• e-Inclusão, Educação, Competências e Literacia Digital
• Banda Larga
• Inovação
• Infra-estructuras para a Investigação e Conhecimento
• Portugal, a Europa e o Mundo

  Read the full entry

Number of views: 624

— posted by Luis Rodriguez-Rosello, Member of  the Going Local Team for Slovakia

Digitálna agenda prichádza po druhý krát na Slovensko, a to 25. novembra 2011 v rámci iniciatívy Digital Agenda Going Local. Zástupcovia Európskej komisie plánujú diskutovať o dnešnom stave informačnej spoločnosti a informačných a komunikačných technológií so zástupcami štátnych a verejných inštitúcií, ako aj zástupcami širšej odbornej verejnosti.

Kľúčové témy zahrňujú aktuálne témy ako eSlužby – verejné služby ako eVláda, eZdravotníctvo, eZručnosti, eInklúzia, rozvoj širokopásmového prístupu, nástroj Connecting Europe Facility (Prepájame Európu-CEF), ako aj výskum a inovácie. Dôležitou súčasťou akcie je otvorená mini-konferencia  o príležitostiach a perspektívach vo výskume a inovácii, ktorá zahrnie aj témy ako Horizont 2020 a CEF.

Tešíme sa na Vašu účasť a na inšpiratívnu výmenu názorov a informácií tento piatok.

Simultánne tlmočenie je zabezpečené.

‘Pre Dalšie informa’cie: Digital Agenda, Going Local to Slovakia a ICT Research FP7. Twitter: #digitalagenda, #daelocal_sk

Number of views: 1308

— Posted by Maresa Meissl, Member of the Going Local for Austria

Die Europäische Kommision kommt am 21. und 22. November nach Österreich, um im Rahmen der diesjährigen “Digital Agenda Going Local” Initiative mit Vertretern der Wirtschaft, Interessenvertretern, Forschungseinrichtungen und des Bundes heiße IKT-Themen zu diskutieren.

Meine Kollegen und ich freuen sich schon darauf, am 21. November in Wien im wunderschoenen Kassensaal des Amtsgebäudes Hohenstaufengasse den aktuellen Umsetzungsstand der Digitalen Agenda, besonders im Hinblick auf Themen Breitband, eInclusion und Forschung & Innovation, zu diskutieren.

Read the full entry

Number of views: 390

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Posted by Detlef Eckert, DG INFSO, Director Policy Coordination and Strategy

Die Europäische Kommision ist am 9. und 10. November in Deutschland, um im Rahmen der diesjährigen “Digital Agenda Going Local” Initiative mit Vertretern der Wirtschaft, der Länder und des Bundes heiße IKT-Themen zu diskutieren.

Ich freue mich schon darauf, am 9. November am Breitbandtag Niedersachsen die neuesten Vorschläge aus Brüssel zur Anhebung der Breitbandversorgung in Europa vorstellen.

Am 10. November werde ich vormittags Kollegen aus den verschiedenen Ressorts treffen, mit denen wir im Rahmen der Digitalen Agenda zusammenarbeiten. Nachmittags findet eine Going Local Veranstaltung im Bundesministerium für Wirtschaft und Technologie statt, auf der wir neue Herausforderungen und Chancen der europäischen Breitbandpolitik im Zuge der neuen Vorschläge zur Connecting Europe Facility sowie neue Entwicklungen im Green IT diskutieren werden. Ich bin schon gespannt und hoffe auf einen interessanten Gedankenaustausch.

Number of views: 482

— Posted by Kristiina Pietikainen, Policy Officer DG INFSO

Almost  a hundred people –members of the parliament, industry, regions, municipalities and cooperatives lead by Minister of Communications, Krista Kiuru, – gathered together on 11^th October in Helsinki to review the ambitious Finnish BB-strategy.

The half a day seminar focused on lessons learned and experienced gathered so far from the ongoing  Broadband projects. The points raised were accurate and constructive and deserve serious consideration not only when updating the Finnish strategy but also in the framework of  the European BB policy. There is a strong spirit pushing the broadband forward in Finland. But no doubt there are also problems.

Neither in Finland nor elsewhere has the enthusiasm of the operators to participate to the rural Broadband projects been very great. Therefore minister Kiuru in her opening speech emphasised strongly the responsibility of the operators to actively contribute to the rural broadband deployment. She stated that the current attitude of the operators is simply not acceptable and pointed out that the state has already actively supported the operator’s businesses; for instance, by allocating them valuable spectrum. So it is now time to give some favours back. Read the full entry

Number of views: 802

Posted by Detlef Eckert,  European Commission, Director at DG Information Society and Media, Digital Agenda ambassador for Poland

According to official Polish statistics, the Polish society is quite polarised when it comes to using the internet – while 93% of Polish citizens between 18 and 24 years old take advantage of the potential of the internet, most of the elderly people do not use it at all.

After the first Going Local event to Poland this year, my feeling is that things are going to change for the better, as far as the e-inclusion and other aspects of the Digital Agenda are concerned.

During a 2-day visit to Warsaw, I had the opportunity to speak to a wide range of stakeholders who perceive the Digital Agenda as one of the key factors for the socio-economic development of Poland:

1. At the meeting with Minister Michal Boni, chief of strategic advisors to the Polish Prime Minister, I learnt about the plans to reform Polish educational system. The objective is to offer more e-skills to pupils and students and therefore, prepare them better to the demands of the labour market of the XXI century… (read more) Read the full entry

Number of views: 464

— Posted by Guido Acchioni, DG INFSO, Policy officer, Workshop organiser at Digital Agenda Assembly

The Digital Agenda for Europe has set up ambitious targets on the deployment and use of high speed broadband infrastructure and services. It is obvious that these are ambitious objectives which will require a substantial amount of investment and efforts both from private and public domains.

The Commission’s estimate indicates that between € 38bn and € 58bn would be needed to achieve the 30 Mbps coverage for all by 2020 and between € 181bn and € 268bn to provide sufficient coverage so that 50% of households are on 100 Mbps services. The size of the investment represents a real challenge. This is because the benefits for society as a whole appear to be much greater than the private incentives to invest in faster networks.  Read the full entry

Number of views: 1431

— Posted by Robert Madelin, DG INFSO Director-General

I had a good discussion at the IIC Telecommunications & Media Forum, yesterday, the 13th of April. I was sharing with the participants my views of the Digital Single Market, one of the founding pillars of the Digital Agenda for Europe. My main points were that this is the key to European competitiveness especially during this historical economic downturn. Even in these times, the digital economy is growing faster than any other sector, and this should be the space where business innovators should find the ideal ground to develop their ideas and to create new wealth.

When Europeans think of the obstacles to the Digital Single Market they often think of the most obvious frustrations suffered by themselves as consumers, when they are denied to purchase goods in another Member States because their credit card is not accepted, or when they try to watch IP-TV abroad. Video on Demand (VOD) on the internet is simply not available in certain Member States and the offer is restricted in most of the others. Because of the lack of a Single Market in digital music, certain providers just decide not to offer their services in certain countries and thus de-facto to discriminate consumers because of their country of residence. This is something I and my colleagues are confronted to daily, through citizens messages and complaints. Read the full entry

Number of views: 2673