— Posted by Gerard de Graaf, Director “Audiovisual, Media, Internet” at DG INFSO

We would like to learn your views about accessing audiovisual content nowadays: Which innovations do you see emerging? Do you think there are enough legal possibilities to access content online? How can protection of consumers be ensured? What is the impact of convergence on media pluralism? How can we make most out of the opportunities to transfer content from one device to another? …

Content creation and consumption anytime, anywhere and on any device? Nowadays this is not an abstract vision anymore but a reality we see happening around us. Convergence brings along many opportunities for businesses and many new experiences for consumers. Devices and applications offer us new ways of enjoying content and sharing this experience with others. TV on the Internet or Internet on your TV screen – differences continue to blur and might totally fade away one day. Read the full entry

Number of views: 533

— Posted by Fabio Colasanti, session moderator and President, International Institute of Communications.

 On 27-28 February 2012 the Danish Presidency of the European Union is hosting a High Level Conference on the Digital Single Market in Copenhagen. One of the conference sessions, the one that I am moderating, will focus on how to improve that all important trust in the almost endless possibilities of the Internet – at the benefit of citizens and the public sector, consumers and business alike.

Everybody reading this blog will probably be used to buying products and services on-line, such as books and DVD’s ; airlines tickets; hotels, rental cars, and so on. Most of “us”, with an interest in Information and Communication Technologies, would consider this a normal occurrence and would miss it greatly if it ceased to exist. Read the full entry

Number of views: 3279

 — Posted by Gerd Heinen, DG MARKT, Retail financial services and consumer policy unit

Carrying a virtual train ticket or repaying a friend with your mobile phone, buying your groceries online, paying with your debit card abroad – the way European citizens shop and pay is radically changing.  A secure and transparent integrated payments environment throughout the EU could create more efficient, modern and safer means of payments – for the benefits of consumers, merchants and payment providers. Therefore, an integrated market for electronic payments is an important building block of the Commission’s Digital Agenda, and the Digital Single Market in particular.

 Today, the Commission had adopted a Green Paper ‘Towards an integrated European market for card, internet and mobile payments’ which assesses the current landscape of card, internet and mobile payments in Europe. Read the full entry

Number of views: 1546

— Posted by Patricia Lamotte, DG MARKT, Unité des services en ligne

Le shopping de Noël est à présent terminé et la période des soldes vient à peine de commencer. Chaque année, lors de cette période intense pour le commerce, on remarque que de plus en plus d’Européens effectuent leurs achats en ligne.

Pourtant trop d’obstacles gênent encore les consommateurs et les entreprises désireux de profiter pleinement des opportunités offertes par l’internet. A titre d’exemples, les consommateurs n’ont pas toujours confiance en la sécurité de leurs transactions ou peuvent être frustrés que les moyens de paiement soient limités. Il est fréquent en effet que les cartes de paiement étrangères ne soient pas acceptées.  Par ailleurs, les offres manquent souvent de transparence et les paiements comme les livraisons sont souvent trop chers. Pour couronner le tout, on trouve encore trop de contenus et produits illégaux ou contrefaits et les consommateurs sont inquiets du respect de leurs droits, notamment lorsqu’un problème survient.

C’est pourquoi la Commission européenne a adopté aujourd’hui la “Communication sur le commerce électronique et les services en ligne” qui vise à doubler la part du commerce électronique dans les ventes de détail (aujourd’hui 3,4%) et de la filière Internet dans le PIB européen (aujourd’hui moins de 3%) d’ici à 2015. 

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Number of views: 579

— 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 Marina Nedelcheva, DG INFSO: Internet, Network and Information security unit, Workshop organiser at the Digital Agenda Assembly 

ICT networks and services, and in particular the Internet, are a key driver for our economy and society. They bring immense economic opportunities and at the same time provide a vital public good. Given our growing dependence on the smooth functioning of these networks and services, ensuring their security and availability is of utmost importance for our society.

Enhancing the level of cybersecurity is everyone’s responsibility and this poses certain governance challenges. States are ultimately responsible for defining policies for the protection of vital information infrastructures, such as the Internet, however, their implementation depends on the involvement of the private sector, which owns and manages a large number of these infrastructures. The level of security is also affected by the actions of individual end-users.

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Number of views: 1554

— Posted by Jacques Babot, DG INFSO, Policy expert in IPv6, Workshop organiser at the Digital Agenda Assembly

The internet is expanding and billions of IP addresses will be necessary to connect every conceivable device (fridges, cars, dishwashers, etc.) to the internet in the future. For this reason Ipv6 was created more then ten years ago. But as the IPv4 address pool is running out, we are observing that the adoption of IPv6 is too slow. Read the full entry

Number of views: 1533

— 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