Gemeente Den Haag

Retouradres: Postbus 12 600,2500 DJ Den Haag Uw brief van

de gemeenteraad Uw kenmerk

Ons kenmerk rm 13/BSD RIS 093677 Doorklesnummer (070) 353 2710

Aantal bijlagen

Datum Onderweip 5 februari 2002 Jaarvergadering Telecities 10-12 december 2001

Hierbij informeren wij u over de Telecities-conferentie 'Citizens at the heart of democratie renewal: change management in cities', gehouden te Marseille van 10 tot en met 12 december 2001. Den Haag is wederom verkozen in het Steering Committee van Telecities, een netwerk van Europese steden op gebied van stedelijke ICT-projecten en beleid. Sinds het begin van Telecities in 1994 is Den Haag als mede-oprichter vertegenwoordigd in dit bestuur door de wethouder Informatiebeleid. In de periode 1996 - 1998 als voorzitter, vanaf 1999 als lid.

Werkplan voor het jaar 2002 Tijdens de jaarvergadering is het Werk Programma 2002 besproken. Belangrijkste verandering met het jaar 2001 is dat de werkzaamheden van Telecities als geheel maar ook van de werkgroepen beter afgestemd worden op de voorstellen van de Europese Commissie (EC) in het Zesde Kaderprogramma. Dit Zesde Kaderprogramma opereert op verschillende gebieden zoals biotechnologie en kennismaat- schappij. Interessant voor Telecities en Den Haag is het onderdeel 'hiformation Society Technology' (1ST). In het IST-programma is in de komende jaren een budget van 3,6 miljard Euro ter beschikking voor ingediende projectvoorstellen.

Teneinde zulke voorstellen te doen zijn de werkgroepen van Telecities afgestemd op de belangrijkste onderdelen van het IST-programma. Bedoeling van deze koppeling van de onderwerpen van de werkgroepen en de lijnen van de EC is dat het eenvoudiger wordt projectvoorstellen in te dienen en tevens via het netwerken invloed uit te oefenen op project- en beleidsvoorstellen. Zoals het er nu naar uitziet gaan er vijf werkgroepen functioneren met als trefwoorden 're-engineering', 'e-democracy', 'e- security', 'e-education' en 'benchmarking'. Den Haag heeft zich kandidaat gesteld als voorzitter voor twee werkgroepen: 'e-education' en 're-engineering'. Het werkprogramma 2002 van Telecities is bijgevoegd. Activiteiten 2001 Het jaarverslag laat een grote hoeveelheid van activiteiten zien, die allen te maken hebben met projecten op het gebied van e-democracy, smartgovemment en e-education. In toenemende mate is er ook aandacht voor het beleid op dit gebied. De gemeente Den Haag heeft gedurende het verslagjaar de werkgroep 'SmartGovemment' geleid, heeft een actieve rol gespeeld in de werkgroep 'e-democracy'

Inlichtingen blj: M. Buschman

Postadres: Postbus 12 600, 2500 DJ Den Haag Telefoon 070 - telnr 353 2710 Bezoekadres: Spui 70, Den Haag Telefax 070 - 3533030 O o^3 en was mede-voorzitter van de werkgroep 'eEducation and Employability'. In deze werkgroepen en in de werkgroep 'City of tomorrow' heeft de gemeente verschillende presentaties gehouden.

Leden van de werkgroep eEducation and Employability hebben zich in het afgelopen halfjaar gericht op het samenstellen van een beleidsnotitie voor het netwerk van Eurocities en verder. In de komende twee maanden is dat policy paper gereed. Als inleiding is een korte presentatie neergezet met betrek- king tot de uitgangspunten van deze problematiek. Met betrekking tot 'eEducation and Employability' heeft zich een verbreding voorgedaan. De vertegenwoordiging in deze werkgroep van Den Haag, die tot voor kort door de Bestuursdienst/POI werd verzorgd, is voor het jaar 2002 overgegaan naar een medewerker van de Dienst OCW. Onderwijsvernieuwing en ICT hebben alle aandacht in Den Haag getuige de lancering in de tweede helft van februari van de Haagse Onderwijsportal en de prominente rol in de International Association of Educating Cities.

Het overzicht van de Telecities-werkzaamheden is bijgevoegd.

Tweedaagse conferentie te Marseille Tijdens de algemene plenaire bijeenkomst hebben verschillende wetenschappelijke, ambtelijke en politieke inleiders het vraagstuk van de zich ontwikkelende kennismaatschappij toegepast op het conferentieonderwerp: de democratisering. De conferenties van Telecities geven een ieder de moge- lijkheid informatie uit te wisselen, de laatste stand van zaken met betrekking tot projecten te bespre- ken en in de wandelgangen nieuwe voorstellen te ontwikkelen.

In de goed bezochte zaal (ongeveer 125 mensen) zijn verschillende interessante inleidingen gehouden. Slechts twee voorbeelden. Een wetenschappelijke verhandeling over het belang van 'Knowledge Management in Public Administrations' werd gegeven door Danièlle Chauvel. Zij is directeur van het onderzoeksinstituut van de 'Groupe Ecole Supérieure de Commerce'. In dit kader bezien wij de mogelijkheid de expertise van dit instituut in te zetten voor door Den Haag te ontwikkelen voorstellen voor Europese projecten, zoals het e-democracy voorstel Mycity en een eGovernment voorstel.

Over het zesde KaderProgramma voor Research van de Europese Commissie gaf Gerald Santucci, werkzaam bij het DG Information Society van de EC, een uitgebreid exposé. Hij gaf de actielijnen aan voor projecten. Het gaat voor de steden als Den Haag om de volgende uitdagingen, die vanuit het perspectief van 2015 geschreven zijn. Alle steden hebben hun services op internet. Alle werkzaamheden zijn via re-engineering volledig geïntegreerd en helder voor de burger. Om dat te bereiken zijn de volgende actielij- nen in het zesde kaderprogramma aanwezig: Online aanbieden van services Aanpassen van diensten aan wensen burgers Management van het inteme re-organisatieproces Mogelijkheden van eLearning voor de staf Management Informatie Systemen als basis voor beheer van kwaliteit

Alle steden hebben e-Democracy ingevoerd met veel nieuwe vormen van burgerparticipatie en versterking van gemeenschappen terwijl veiligheid uitgebreid aanwezig is. Mogelijke actielijnen zijn: Participatie en consultatie van (groepen) burgers voor beleid Versterking van de locale sociale economische gemeenschap Verzekeren van stemmen via internet en van identificatie Volledige doorzichtigheid van alle administratieve processen Volledige integriteit en vertrouwelijkheid van gevoelige gegevens

Alle Europese burgers zijn in staat om van de voordelen van de kennismaatschappij te genieten. Mogelijke acties zijn: eLearning voor jonge mensen, die de arbeidsmarkt betreden eLearning voor scholieren en studenten De digitale tweedeling is ook voor minderheden verdwenen

Afsluitend Het werkplan 2002 van Telecities en het zesde Kaderprogramma voor Onderzoek en Ontwikkeling bieden concrete aangrijpingspunt om de Haagse strategie voor de informatiesamenleving blijvend te verbinden aan de toenemende realiteit van de Europese Unie. In het voorjaar van 2002 zullen wij deze mogelijkheden in nader uitgewerkt beleidsplan over Den Haag, ICT en Europa aan u voorieggen.

Burgemeester en wethouders van Den Haag, de secretaris, de burgemeester,

D.M.F. Jongen W.J. Deeönan olbiM connect

WORKPROGRAMME 2002

TeleCities AGM 10th of December 2001 Marseille TABLE OF CONTENTS

TELECITIES WORK PROGRAMME 3

Executive Summary ^

POLICY DEVELOPMENT AND LOBBYING WITH EU COMMISSION 3

INFORMATION PROVISION 5

NETWORKING AND INTEGRATION 5

EXCHANGE OF EXPERIENCE, TRANSFER OF KNOW-HOW S TeleCities Conferences ^ TeleCities Working Groups 6

PROJECT DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT 7 Support to Members for Project Development 7 Present a Project Proposal as Coordinator 7 Be Partner in Other EU-flinded Projects 1 List of Projects in Which TCO is Currently Involved 7

OTHER ACTIVITIES 8 Co-operation with Eurocities 8 Co-operation With Other Networks and Initiatives 9 Public - Private Partnership / New Industrial Members 9 National Branches 9 Promotion of and Participation in Events 9 Statutory Meetings 9

TELECITIES WORK PROGRAMME 2002 2/9 TeleCities Woric Programme Executive Summary This report presents the main strategic directions and activities, which TeleCities intends to undertake over the next year. According to the objectives of the current TeleCities president, the City of Vienna, > to enforce eGovernment in order to work on a people-oriented level and promote the Digital Include Society by specifically addressing all groups of the population, > to strengthen TeleCities as the ICT representative of the Cities and their aims and needs towards the EU institutions, > to intensify the co-operation of the EU Cities by linking ICT-advanced members with cities yet striving for intense ICT development, there are four main priority areas identified for the network's activity in 2002:

> Policy development and lobbying with the European Commission/DG INFSO by establishing fimi co- operation and consultation process, also on the 6 Information provision to the members > Exchange of experience, transfer of know-how. Enforced co-operation and networking with South European and CEE cities will be pursued to reduce the North-West/South-East gradient in ICT development of Europe > Development and management of projects relevant to the members and the network.

In order to make the best use of the network's efforts and input, it is of prime importance to target the activities of TeleCities - be it Conferences, Projects, Work Groups, Policy Papers - to the goals agreed upon by the members. Any activity of the network, the Steering Committee and TCO respectively must strive to have a direct or indirect positive impact on the goals ofthe network and its members.

Policy Deueiopment and Lobbying with the European institutions The European Commission/DG INFSO has invited TeleCities for a continuing consultation and co-operation process to be started with the beginning of 2002. In order to play an active role within such a process, TeleCities needs to take a stronger strategic direction of its activities in order: > to strengthen the position of TeleCities as the main interiocutor network with the European Commission on ICT related urban policy issues > to gain more weight in influencing the 6'" FP and its goals as a way of rendering indirectly more effective services to the member cities and to exercise policy influence on the 6'" FP consultation process towards strategic goals for the members and the network itself, > to set the needs and interests of European cities more firmly on the agenda of European policy, as is befitting to that kind of public authority that is closest to the citizens, > to enforce eGovernment as a main ICT activity of the TeleCities member cities and a priority of the Commission, > to include the member cities of the applicant countries and to work actively on promoting Digital Inclusion, > to enforce the position of TeleCities in the co-operation with other networks like Elanet and Eris@ out of a position of proactivity and leadership instead of that of a just conscientious "Follower".

A first priority is to highlight the role of cities in the developments brought about by the Information Society in Europe. Here our goal is to place the city related aspects of these developments higher on the EU agenda as well as on the agenda of the national and the local political level. We aim to draw the attention of the policy makers to the impact that the Information Society has on cities and the people living and working there and to urge them to support local public administrations to ensure a good quality of life in the new social, economic and cultural environment, and to foster e-Citizenship for all. At the European level our goal is to influence aspects of EU policy development. This is pursued through maintaining a regular dialogue with the European Institutions and producing policy contributions. As for the national governments' policy, TeleCities needs to develop regular contacts with the relevant ministries ofthe European countries represented by its membership. Through the promotion of the network and its initiatives

TELECITIES WORK PROGRAMME 2002 3/9 at national level, TeleCities aims to influence national governments' ICT policy development in order to allow a more city-oriented approach. However, the key policy development activity ofthe network is carried out at the local level, where TeleCities aims to facilitate the promotion of an Information Society for all. The goal here is to help local decision-makers to develop integrated policies that use ICT to foster new modes of governance and improve the delivery of local public services reflecting the needs of citizens and communities. The identification and transfer of good practice behween cities is promoted to this end.

As for the policy development priority, the following main activities are proposed for the next year:

6" Framework Programme for Research and Teclinological Development

Regarding the 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development which will represent the European framework for research and technological development till 2006, the Commission has already started a consultation process with all relevant stakeholders including TeleCities which is now under development; the approval for the final programme is expected in 2002. TeleCities will continue to be active in providing input to this process: to this end a TeleCities position should be submitted to the European Commission at every formal step of the consultation process. A strong lobbying activity towards the European Pariiament is also to be envisaged. A first TeleCities position will be drawn on the basis of the work done by the worthing groups during 2001: The PACE Work Groups and the Work Groups "Tele-democracy", "Smart Government", "E-education", "Stmctural changes in the City of Tomorrow" will produce their policy statements during the WG meetings in Marseille. An integrated paper coming out of this exercise will represent the basis for the work in 2002. In this respect, a Major European Challenge has been identified by the Steering Committee of TeleCities to be tackled throughout the 6'^ FP and being relevant for the network - a challenge where cities are the key players, simultaneously representing the citizens as major stakeholders. This would represent the basis for TeleCities to define future 6* FP action programs and therefore possible future funded projects. The Major Challenge would be:

By 2010, eCitizenship and associated new forms of urban governance will be ensured for all, in all (then) EU countries, at all levels

Such challenge is based on the assumption that full citizenship means also to grant individuals the rights to access public services in the most effecfive way, to actively participate in local public decision-making processes which affect their quality of life, to equally profit from the benefits of Information Society.

This Major Challenge could develop into three depending challenges, all with the 2010 perspective:

1) All cities will have implemented their services online integrated into re-engineered processes and using the multichannel model, in order to Improve the quality of the services delivered to citizens, professionals and businesses. Possible action strands to influence the 6* FP programme funding lines: > Online delivery of services > Customisation of services > Management of internal re-organization processes > eLearning possibilities for staff > Management Information Systems as a basis for controlling the quality of the services

2) All Cities will have implemented eDemocracy with all the new forms of citizens' participation and community empowerment: Possible action strands to influence the 6* FP programme funding lines: > Participation and consultation of citizens' groups to government > Strengthen the local social economy community > Secure eVoting

3) All European citizens will have the right to eSecurity > Secure identification > Measurement plans of security and plans of affection on municipalities > Ensure complete transparency in all administrative processes > Ensure complete integrity and confidentiality when dealing with sensitive data

TELECITIES WORK PROGRAMME 2002 ^' 9 4) All European citizens will be digitally literate and able to benefit from the gains of the Information society. Possible action strands to influence the 6* FP programme fijnding lines: > eLearning for youngsters entering the labour market > eLearning for school students > Digital Inclusion for socio/economic/cultural-excluded groups > Physical access also for persons with special needs

TeleCities could work along those strands through the work of its 2002 working groups in order to influence the process towards the 6*^ FP, with the aim of proposing four different integrated projects within It.

The costs for such activity are provided in the budget 2002 and they relate to the setting up and running of four WG's, to the participation of TeleCities to relevant events.

Information Provision

A second priority of TeleCifies is to provide regular information to its members of EU policy development relevant to Informafion Society, Research and Technological development, Trans-European Networks, EU programmes from other DG's and other funding opportunifies. This will be mainly achieved through:

> The weekly e-Newsbrief sent to members on a regular basis This weekly tool is a collection of all information and relevant news of each week. It provides information on EU policies, programmes, calls, events in the field of Information Society and other relevant areas for TeleCities. Initiafives and events from the members can be included as well in the brief, if communicated by the members.

> The TeleCities Web site The TeleCities database-driven web site is mainly conceived as a tool to provide members with effective information on a wide range of issues. The web site is composed of four sections, namely "What's New", "Activifies", "Events", and "Membership". The first secfion provides information on EU policies, call and events, as well as an overview of the last five documents uploaded on our website, and finally a document search facility. Differently from the first section, the "Activities" and "Events" section offer information on internal issues, such as TeleCities Wori

> The TeleCities events TeleCities events are used as an opportunity for cifies to receive information about EU policies, funding and events, as representatives form the European Commission and other European institutions will be regularty invited to speak, participate in and contribute to the debates.

The same tools will be used to ensure a broad and structured disseminafion of TeleCities and members' projects. This will be done in particular by creafing room for projects' descripfion on the web site, creating specific links to projects' web sites, promoting projects during events by means of stands, presentations and disseminafion products, developing show cases on the web site.

Related costs are to be found in the budget. Exchange of Experience, Transfer of Know-How, Networicing and integration

The organisation of events, from large conferences to project-related technical workshops, four times a year, as well as the activities of the TeleCifies working groups, will support these objectives. As for the networking, the main objecfive is to help cities learning from each other through the exchange of informafion and experience, and facilitate the transfer of knowledge.

TELECITIES WORK PROGRAMME 2002 5/9 Another important focus will lie on the inclusion of cifies from CEE and South European countries, and on strengthening the bonds between them and the EU cifies. This may be done by accepfing a city on its own as a member ofthe TeleCifies network or by co-operafing more closely with regional or nafional networks of CEE cities. In addlfion, the promofion of a TeleCities Working Group on "Collecfing Best pracfices and benchmarking European cifies e-strategies" will represent an important tool towards the collection of pracfices and e-strategies at every member's level as well as towards the practical transfer of experience and know-how between cifies. Finally, the TeleCifies Web site will develop an area with individual cities' profiles and represent a precious tool for the promotion and disseminafion of European cifies' good pracfices and the network itself

In 2002, the exchange of experience and transfer of know-how will be carried out through the following acfions:

TeleCities Conferences Four thematic events will be organised by TeleCifies next year in order to facilitate the sharing of experience between cifies, the promofion and disseminafion of good pracfice and the lobbying towards the European institufions. > Brussels, 29-30 April 2002 > Gdansk, end of June 2002 > Villafranca, October 2002 > Siena, end of November/beginning of December 2002 Workshops and events foreseen in the work programme of project proposals submitted by TeleCifies may be - if accepted by the European Commission - organised during next year as well. The attempt will be to have such project related events organised in conjuncfion with the four TeleCifies events. In order to: > allow a clear benefit of those projects to the whole membership > manage resources in a cost effective way.

TeleCities Working Groups Since its creafion the TeleCifies network has facilitated the exchange of experience and transfer of know-know between its members through a number of themafic working groups. They allow members to "network" around concrete Inifiafives and projects in small groups and to maintain regular contacts between each other in between the quarteriy events. They also give members the opportunity to develop common projects and respond to EU policy-making affecting cifies in their specific field. Therefore, the working groups represent one of the core acfivities of the network. They have produced positive results during last year. However, some of them have come to the end of their life cycle and there is a clear need to propose new ones. The objecfive will be to have few dynamic working groups, based on a policy and project- oriented approach: a chair will be coordinafing the group acfivifies to the implementafion of a very clear and focused work programme adopted at the beginning of the year. The proposal includes the setting up of three Worthing Groups on the four above-menfioned challenges for the 6in FP and a Working group on benchmarking e-strategies, as follows: 1. Re-engineering local public administration - multichannel model of services This would address several issues, such as online delivery of services, Customisafion of services. Management of internal re-organizafion processes, eLearning possibilifies for staff.

2. e-Democracy and Citizens' Empowerment This would address issues like Participation and consultation of citizens' groups to government. Secure eVoting, Strengthen the local social economy community,

3. e-Security This would address issues related to secure identificafion, measurement plans of security and plans of affection on municipalities, ensuring complete transparency in all administrafive processes as well as complete integrity and confidenfiality when dealing with sensitive data.

4. e-Learning and Digital Inclusion This would address issues like eLearning for youngsters approaching the labour market, eLearning for school students. Digital Inclusion for socio/economic/cultural-excluded groups

5. Bench-learning e-Strategies This WG would have the aim of collecting and sharing informafion and knowledge about e-strategies and their implementation in cifies, finding and/or developing benchmarking framework and 1ST indicators suitable for cities, benchmarking e-strategies and finding best pracfices, finding the special features of the cifies' e-

TELECITIES WORK PROGRAMME 2002 6 / 9 government development compared e.g. to the nafional level and disseminafing the informafion through the TeleCities website/database.

A contact city per WG will be idenfified in Marseille with the aim of collecfing the interest of members and starting to plan and organise the work within each group in the period mnning to the April Brussels Conference.

The related costs are to be found in the budget.

Proleet Development and Management The exchange of experience and transfer of good pracfice within the network often leads to the development of common projects. This is the way cifies can test out innovative solufions to mobility and environment problems. TeleCities will be acfive in facilitating members in developing common project proposals, as well as being direcfiy involved in a number of European projects addressing the strategic objectives and policy areas of the work of the network. However, considering that project development and management is extremely fime consuming, TeleCifies will seek direct involvement only in European projects aiming to the achievement of the network's policy goals. The project development and management should therefore be considered as supplementary to the core objectives of the network. It will be a challenge to reconcile two controversial tasks: not to let the income from European projects decrease (which is an important source of income for TeleCifies), and at the same time increase the efficiency of the network in servicing its members and addressing its main goals. In terms of project management, TeleCities has put forward its candidacy as a partner within several project proposals during the last months of 2001, where the decision on approval by the European Commission is yet pending. Since the opportunities in terms of call for proposals are not well known at this stage, it is a difficult task to give a detailed overview ofthe project development acfivifies for the year 2002. However, it is affirmed that TeleCities will pursue the following acfivities:

Support to Members for Project Development TeleCifies will provide its members with regular informafion on European Programmes and funding opportunifies. This will include opportunifies for research and demonstration projects within the still open calls of the 5th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, the e-Content and e-Learning calls, the Ten-Telecom programme and other relevant ones. In addition, the network will try to function as a "clearing house" where members submit their interests for project development and where "matches" between potenfial project partners are made possible. In other words, the network will provide assistance for finding suitable partners for project development and consortia building. The partner search will be ensured through the Website Partner search area.

Present a Proiect Proposal as Coordinator TeleCifies will contribute to present the project proposal (as the coordinafing partner) "A European Observatory for Smart Government", to support the 1ST Smart Government Cluster, a range of projects within the 5th FP - Key Acfion 1 under the Administrations secfions of Systems and services for the cifizens - that the European Commission has grouped under the Smart Government heading. The goal of the project is to provide services to those projects that are members of the cluster pursuing similar goals and to facilitate their exchange. It will be working around a range of topics (portals development, exploitation, demonstrafion, etc.) that would be of great interest for the TeleCifies members as well. Such project will foresee activifies from which TeleCifies members can receive benefits, in terms of information provision and opportunifies to exchange experience and know-how and it will allow TeleCities to place itself in a strategic posifion towards the 6'^ Framework Programme for Research & Technological Development.

Be Partnor in Other EU-funded Projects In the course of next year the network will possibly submit a few project proposals focusing on the idenfificafion, promotion and transfer of cifies' policies and inifiafives in the fields of the four Working Groups. To this end the funding opportunifies offered by European Programmes supporting this kind of project will be regulariy monitored by the network. The TeleCities Steering Committee will agree, on an ad hoc basis, on the proposals to be submitted, according to the idenfified policy priorities ofthe network.

List of Projects in Which TCO Is Currently Involved In 2002 TeleCities as a network will be involved in the following projects:

TELECITIES WORK PROGRAMME 2002 7/9 1) 1ST Programme The following projects are running within the 1ST Programme. TeleCities assures dissemination of the outcomes during events, website etc. and will ensure that the whole membership is gaining benefits from such projects. A strong effort will be done to combine many the listed projects' activifies (events, workshops, disseminafion acfions) with the core TeleCities events and Working groups. PACE - Public Administrations and Electronic Commerce in Europe. The role of the PACE project is to support public administrafion eCommerce learning process through the fonnation of an integrated learning environment for the benefit of relevant actors, such as public administrafions, companies, eCommerce R&D projects and policymakers. The PACE project aims at accelerafing the European eCommerce market, at enhancing value and quality of service to cifizens and at improving the success of relevant eCommerce applicafions. - MUTEIS The overall objecfive ofthe MUTEIS project is to explain and understand funcfional and spafial diversity in Europe's digital economy both from a macro and a local/urban perspecfive. The project aims at improving knowledge of the macro economic impact of the digital economy, but also on the origins and causes of local diversities in the development of the digital economy. Against this background, the TeleCifies network provides an effecfive case study to monitor and to assess the implementafion of policy acfions on European and local levels. Clip Card The objecfives of the Clip Card project are to trial out the Clip Card concept (i.e. the use of smart cards in the traffic violafion sector) and to prepare a full-scale deployment of smart cards across Europe. Against this background, TeleCifies will take care of the trails and will monitor the implementation of the Clip Card concept among a given number of city members.

2) eContent Programme The following projects are running within the "Preparatory Acfions under Promofing European Digital Content on Global Networks". TeleCifies assures dissemination ofthe outcomes during events, website etc. e-CT - electronic Calls for Tenders The e-CT project aims at investigafing the possible public-private partnership to facilitate access to and use of calls for tenders for public works. The objecfive is to replace the tradifional paper-based process with an e-process which would allow a more efficient and quick tendering process. In addlfion, the use of electronic formats would save up to EUR 2 billion/year, as well as allowing data mining for stafistics.

ODA - Open Digital Administration The ODA project aims to demonstrate the re-use of public informafion and personal data from classic systems (digital signature), as well as to develop a citizen portal for self-service, access, and case handling. The objective of the project is to offer the customers several possibilities of communication to make a strong solution of self-service access to public informafion. On a wider perspective, the ODA project benefits the TeleCifies networks as it demonstrates the impact and consequences of a strong solufion of digital case handling on the reorganisafion of public administrations.

Other activities Co-operation with Eurocities Synergies with Eurocifies will be continued and consolidated, in terms of access to informafion, through Eurocities' tools (Magazine, brief, etc.), to best pracfices from big European cifies, support in partner search and consortia building in other fields other than Information Society and new technologies. Addifional Eurocifies acfivities will be open to TeleCifies members, such as events and Committee information and cooperafion will be looked upon on an ad hoc basis in the framework of specific horizontal Working Groups, in particular the following ones could represent a starting point: Governance (lead by Birmingham) Public Private Partnership (lead by Lyon) Education (lead by Copenhagen) Disabilifies (lead by Stockholm) Innovafion and Entrepreneurship (Stockholm) Culture and ICT (lead by The Hague) This synergy will be represent an added value for both networi

TELECITIES WORK PROGRAMME 2002 8 / 9 Co-operation With Other Networks and initiatives TeleCifies will confinue and consolidate its co-operafion with other networks, like ELANET and Eris@, and initiatives like the Global Cifies Dialogue and regional or nafional networks of cities like the Czech ISSS (Local and Regional Informafion Society) Inifiafive and The Polish Cities in the Internet Association. Following last September meeting between the three networks TeleCifies, ELANET and Eris@, where it was agreed to have closer coordinafion and define future common acfions, the three networics will keep permanent dialogue and propose concrete cooperation acfions to avoid overiaps and to provide a common framework for discussion at European level on Informafion Society issues involving their members and the territories in which they operate. A mutual co-operation between TeleCifies and Global Cifies Dialogue is to be aimed at. TeleCifies remains promoter of GCD among its members; it is an observer member in the GCD Steering structure and will contribute to the organisafion of signatory and other events. A more detailed plan for mutual cooperafion will be developed together with GCD. With regard to the cooperafion with cifies from accessing countries, the TeleCities event in Gdansk will represent a first concrete opportunity for collaboration; moreover, the TeleCities president is invited as honorary member of the ISSS 2002 Program Committee and will contribute to the agenda; both initiafives will help to pave the way to further acfivities.

Public - Private Partnership / New Industrial Members TeleCifies will wori< towards a stronger involvement of its industrial partners into the acfivities of the network.

National Branches The national branches will continue and consolidate their work at the national level. Work programmes will be established and regular reports of acfivity will be available on the web site. Contact and lobbying towards the nafional governments will be enhanced. Special attention will be given to gain cifies from applicant countries as TeleCifies members.

Promotion of and Participation in Events TeleCifies will participate, through its SC members and Nafional Branches' coordinators, in other important internafional events, relevant for the work of the network, as follows:

> March: ISSS 2002, Hradec Kralové (Czech Republic) > 15-16 April Vienna conference on Governance organised by Eurocities > October 1ST 2002 > November Eurocities AGM

> Others to be idenfified

Statutory Meetings The Annual General Meefing 2002 will take place in Siena, end of November/beginning of December 2002. The Steering Committee meetings will take place at least 4 times during the year, in relation to TC events or at the TCO in Brussels. The TeleCifies Administrafive Board (TAB), composed of the President, Vice-President and former President, will take place when necessary.

TELECITIES WORK PROGRAMME 2002 9 / 9 10th of December 2001 Annual Acfivity Report Prepared for the TeleCifies AGM

TeleCities

ANNUAL ACTIVITY REPORT

2001

activity report 2001 v.5.doc Table of Content

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 5

ACTIVITIES SINCE THE PREVIOUS TELECITIES AGM 5

Introduction ^

Organisation and management ofthe TeleCities Co-ordination Office 5

Formal conclusion ofthe Technology Policy Forum 5

POLICY RELATED ACTIVITIES 6 The EC 6th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development consultation process 6 EC Conference on "eGovernment applications: from policy to practice", 29-30 November 2001 6 Policy paper on tele-democracy ^ Report on e-Education for employability ^

SERVICES TO THE MEMBERS 6

Information provision and communication ^ Web Site 6 Database ^ Weekly news brief 1 Eurocities Brief ^ Eurocities Flashes Eurocities Magazine ^ Communication and Marketing Plan ^ Dissemination of TeleCities related projects 1

TeleCities Events ^ e-Education for e-Employability , Huelva, March 2001 1 OneCity, Edinburgh, June 2001 7 European cities for digital inclusion, Antwerp, October 2001 8 Citizens at the heart of democratic renewal: change management in cities, Marseille, 11-12 december 2001 8

TeleCities working groups * PACE - Public Administration to Public Administration (Manchester) 8 PACE - Public Administration to Business (Nuernberg) 8 PACE - Public Administration to Consumer/Citizens (Edinburgh) 9 Tele Democracy (Bologna) ^ Smart Government (The Hague) ^ Organisational changes and new jobs in the City of Tomorrow (Cologne) 9 E-education for employability (Naestved)

PROJECT RELATED ACTIVITIES 10

Ongoing projects PACE - 1ST programme (IST-1999-13041) 10 Exchange of Skills -LEONARDO programme 10 e-CT - electronic calls for tenders - eCONTENT programme 11 "ODA Open Digital Administrations" - eCONTENT programme 11

activity report 2001 v.5.doc Project proposals 11 GIET 11 CLIP CARD 11 SARIDE 11 eGov-net H Entente " PSEEBiHpa 12

OTHER ACTIVITIES 12

National branches 12

Global Cities Dialogue 12

Synergy with other European networks 12

Events attended 13

Statutory meetings 13

OVERVIEW OF MEMBERSHIP 13

activity report 2001 v.5.doc Executive Summary

This document contains an overview of MAIN POINTS.

Activities since tlie previous TeleCities AGM

Since its launch in April 1994, the TeleCifies network has earned out pioneering wort<, based on the objecfives stated in its internal rules. This report describes the main progress achieved during 2001, in agreement with the priorifies defined at the last AGM, by the Steering Committee and with the political program presented by the City of Vienna for the Presidency. Introduction "Co-operafion and Social Inclusion" are the guidelines according to which TeleCities has been promofing the cities' way to Information Society by using the networks opportunities and strengths based on active and responsible members. In order to work on a people-oriented level and promote the Digital Include Society, to strengthen TeleCifies as the ICT representafive of the Cifies towards the EU insfitufions and to intensify the co-operafion of the EU Cifies, special emphasis was laid on the following objecfives: > Influence on EU policies and programmes, acfive lobbying for projects. > More interacfion with EU insfitufions especially on Social Policy and Educafion and Training. > Development of a sfill more explicit strategy for an active transfer-of-knowledge policy. > Raising the awareness of national governments in the field of the Informafion Society.

TeleCifies has worked to achieve those objecfives by using a two-fold approach: The "internal" one has been concerning the diverse sen/ices rendered to the network members by TeleCifies directly, aiming at the efficiency and effectiveness of these services, of general administrafion and of the customer care management. The "external" one has been targeting the activities of TeleCifies towards EU insfitufions by co-operating with Eurocities and other EU networks, the benchmarking of those acfivities being their use to the present and future TeleCifies members - thus rendering indirect services to the cifies.

Both were unified in the overall issue of TeleCities: To be of use for its members. TeleCities and its members have continued to establish themselves as reliable "knowledge partners" vis-a-vis the European Commission and other partners, providing knowledge and experiences from the memt)ers in the network and contributing to make the feature "Member of Telecities"a kind of quality brand. OrganisaUon and management ofthe Telecities Co-ordination Office Description of the staff (with tasks and job descriptions), structure, etc.. to be developed Formal conclusion of the Technology Policy Forum Need to be developed.

activity report 2001 v.5.doc Policy related activities

The policy related acfivifies carried out by the TeleCities network, since the last Annual General Meefing, are mainly related to the following:

Tho EC 6th Frameworic Programme for Research and Technological Bevelopment consultation process Two meefings were organised within this consultafion process. The first meeting took place on 298421- 984febnjary 2001 in Bmssels. TCO attended together with Eurocifies in order to influence the City of Tomorrow Program. A second consultation meefing was held on 19-20 April 2001 in Brussels, during which TCO presented the TeleCities Report of Survey on Tele-Democracy in European Cities, as the outcome of the TeleCities Working Group "Tele-Democracy" and the TeleCities Sun/ey on Interoperability on Locally Accessed Public Services, a report of the TeleCifies PACE Project Working Group "Public Administrafion to Public Administrafion". EC Conference on "eGovernment applications: from policy ta practice", 29-30 November 2001 The aim of the conference is to illustrate eGovernment in pracfice, to show how cifizens and businesses can draw real benefits from electronic public services in their day-to-day needs. The conference will therefore feature the best examples of online public services in Europe, at all levels of government. The European Commission asked TeleCifies to contribute to the selecfions of the examples as well as to present a list of its members to be invited at the conference itself The TeleCifies President was invited by the Commission to cooperate in the preparatory process of the conference and later as expert evaluator on the proposed eGovernment projects. Policy paper on tele-democracy The working group on Tele-democracy has worked on a survey on Tele-Democracy in European Cities, out of which a policy paper was produced with the contribufion of the Cities of Bologna and Lewisham and the University of Edinburgh. Its main objectives are to emphasise the posifive achievements of cities and TeleCifies on tele-democracy, to summarise policy recommendations from the Conclusion section and key points from the survey and finallypoin t to future developments on tele-democracy as well as to draw together areas for further research and work. Report on e-Education for employability This report is the policy outcome of the e-educafion Working Group. It focuses on the scope of educafion in the new economy, the requirements for each of the key players in the learning process, the specific 'new' skills and a number of suggesfions for the regions and cifies to act as partners, midwives and providers of new ways of learning are presented. A list of pracfical cases is also included. Services to the members

Information provision and communication

WebSite In April 2001 TeleCities has presented its brand-new website. The new database-driven website is hosted at http://www.telecities.org/ with essenfial informafion on events, EU policies, working groups, projects and initiafives. In addition, TeleCifies is developing a more advanced portal site due to come online during 2002. This site is being built by an external contractor and has been designed to work in conjunction with the new Eurocifies website. Both Eurocities and TeleCifies sites will be driven by the same database, which will be custom built to serve the needs of both networks. Database The TeleCifies database contains the essential contact, membership information of all members and network documents. With almost 400 entries, the database focuses on the three leading people for each member city or organisation, namely the Mayor/Leader of Council or Elected Representafives and the Technical Expert.

activity report 2001 v 5.doc At the moment there are 150 TeleCifies documents in the database out of a total of 498 documents of the global Eurocities network (including TeleCities and Access). These documents are all stored in a single location and are related through subject, descripfion and keywords. Weekly news brief Conceived as a tool to provide fimely and quick information to members, the weekly news brief started in June 2001. It provides an overview of all TeleCifies acfivifies and projects, as well as infonnafion on EU policies, events and calls in the field of Information Society. In addlfion, each issue of the weekly news brief includes a list of last uploaded documents on TeleCifies web site and a two-month calendar of events. Eurocities Briei The Eurocifies Brief has been sent to TeleCities members every two months, in both English and French. It contains infonnafion about EU policies and calls, Eurocifies general and committees/sub-networks-related activifies. It is issued in a very user-friendly electronic format with direct links to more extensive informafion uploaded onto the Eurocities web site. Eurocities Flashes The Eurocifies Flashes have been sent to the TeleCifies members on a regular basis. They are meant to provide fimely and acf hoc EU and members related informafion. Eurocities Magazine The Eurocifies Magazine, sent to TeleCifies members was published twice a year in both English and French. It has been a major "informafion 8e lobbying instrument", designed to sfimulate running - or upcoming - debates on key issues discussed at EU level which have an impact on cifies. Communication and Marlteting Plan During 2000, at the April SC meeting in Huelva, the SC set up a communicafion working group, composed by Lewisham, Stockholm, Antwerp, Hull (^l^^l)' A first draft of a Communicafion and marketing Plan for TeleCities was drafted and very generally discussed at the following SC meefing in Anwerp. A final version of it will be available during 2002 and progressively implemented. Its aims are to support Telecifies to achieve its visionary goals, by better idenfifying its target groups, the messages to those target groups, the means by which those messages will be transmitted as well as by better defining the different memberships, both when it comes to rights and obligafions but also packing and pricing of membership sen/ices. Dissemination of TeleCities reiated prelects TeleCifies ensured the disseminafion of the projects where it is directly involved and those that are carried out by its members through the following means: > the Telecifies Website (specific documents uploaded and links to the projects' web site added) > TeleCifies events (full presentation of projects during conferences, distribufion of dissemination products, stands) > Other events (full presentafion of projects during conferences, distribution of disseminafion products, stands) > The Eurocities Brief (specific articles) Telecmes Events TeleCifies would like, first of all, to express its gratitude to the cities that organised the TeleCifies events for the magnificent effort they invested into making them so successful. During 2001 the events have been the following:

e-Education ier e-Employabillty, Huelva, March 2001 TeleCities organised its spring conference on 5-6 April in Huelva, in co-operafion with the Huelva City Council and the Local Development Agency The event focused on the need of integrafing ICT tools in new methods of training suitable for the knowledge-based society. The discussion fed into the ongoing debate within the TeleCifies Worthing Group on eEducafion. Moreover, alongside the conference the first meefing of the Spanish Nafional Branch was convened. OneCity, Edinburgh, lune 2001 The second Telecifies conference, held on 11-12 June in Edinburgh, was focused on the achievement of Public Private Partnerships creafing community gains and sustaining this gain for the cifizens and organisafions of the city. Using ICT as a vehicle to develop and deliver strategies and programs that bring total citizen social inclusion to a modern city, integrating all the municipal services and all the opportunities for citizens whether from public or

activity report 2001 v.5.doc private bodies. At the forum, the themes were grouped regarding the Government, the Industry and the City perspecfive on the first day. The conference continued with the PACE and TeleCifies worthing groups meefings on the second day. European cities for digital Inclusion, Antwerp, October 2001 The third TeleCifies 2001 Conference took place in Antwerp on 8-9 October 2001. Held in collaborafion with Telepolis and the just launched Antwerp.be Center, the conference explored new ways in which the challenge of social exclusion and digital divide in cities can be tackled. The conference combined a more general part to set the Scene with a more specific one with case studies. The fomrier provided the auditorium with essenfial knowledge and informafion about the state of the art on ICT usage in Europe, with a particular focus on excluded groups, as well as about the existing EU policies and programmes related to fostering equal access to the Informafion Society and social inclusion through ICT. High profile speakers from the Universities of Bnjssels and Valencia and from the DG Information Society of the European Commission made presentafions. A second part followed, during which case studies from Antwerp, Barcelona, London-Lewisham and Naples were presented, trying to focus on the challenges and encountered difficulfies. A debate with the public followed and concluded the conference. All the presentations and background documentation can be found on the TeleCities web site. Citizens at tho heart of democratic renewal: chango management In cities. Marselllo, 11-12 december 2001 The last TeleCifies conference of 2001 (Marseille, 11-12 December), organised in cooperafion with the Cifies of Marseille and Nice, addresses the issue of how local public administrafions respond to the changes that Informafion and Communicafion Technologies bring about in terms of organizafional and cultural restructuring . A genuine involvement of citizens and new modes of interacfion have a strong impact on governance processes and influence the fundamental relafionship between government and citizens. Cities need to be ready to govern these changes. Several the presentations on the agenda, leading to a moderated debate: "Knowledge Management in public administration" by the Marseille Ecole Superieure du Commerce and cases studies by the City of Siena, by the polish Cities on the Internet Association and by Brussels capital region. A round table with political representatives from several TeleCities member cities, representatives from Citizens associations and private ICT companies aims at creating a debate around the theme of the conference with all the local community ICT stakeholder representatives. In order to describe the way fonward for TeleCities in this field, a report by Cologne about developing a survey on the impact of ICT in structural changes in public administration and an overview of the 6* Framework program on R&TD by the European Commission were foreseen. TeleCities working groups This year, the TeleCities network has focused strongly on the revival of working groups during the TeleCities conferences. All members have contributed actively with a strong commitment to the following groups:

PACE - PubHc Administration to Public Administration [Manchester! Within the PACE project this working group addresses new models for delivering PA2PA applications and the impact on the business process including employment and ways of working. This includes issues of privacy and standards and evaluations of the different approaches being adopted, including commercial models and the implications for privacy and data ownership; partnership models and how a balance can be made between the demands of the citizens, the public sector and the private sector; and other models which can combine different aspects of business and public sector approaches, including community based initiatives. The working group has met four fimes and the report in February 2002 will gather experiences on case studies on interoperability. PACE - Public Administration to Business (Huerniierg] Within the PACE project this working group addresses concrete experiences using or planning to use digital signatures. These experiences constitute expressions of public administrafion to business (PA2B) and will provide the linchpin to examine the technical, legal, consumer protecfion and business and implementation issues of trust building on new services and applicafions. The working group has met four times and the report in February 2002 will gather best practices and ways of overcoming constraints upon the innovation of digital signatures into local PA services.

activity report 2001 v. 5.doc PACE - Public Administration to Consumor/CIUzens [Edinburghl Within the PACE project this working group addresses technical, legal, business process re-engineering and customer and service quality focus (criteria, concepts, and frameworks). This working group will work specifically on the issue of community portals and address the elaboration of a definition of public-private partnership. The working group has met four times and the report due in February 2002 will gather experiences from the emerging concept of community portals. The term has not yet achieved a clear definition and, although closely associated with the application of web-based technology, it has come to represent a notion of increased citizen access to public services and the renewal of democratic processes. The conclusions from this group so far have identified opportunity and barrier areas and these are detailed on the Forum site in Pace. The differences in Municipality working throughout Europe mean that there can be no single template to contact cifizens but the community portal via the web offers another vehicle that may well overtake in usage terms the more tradifional methods. Without doubt such Portals will be the more attractive for citizens through interactivity and the use of both public and private information sources. Various methods of implemenfing Portals have been idenfified from on one hand a pure Public Portal to a combined public/private portal operated by a third party. Access vehicles have also been considered from personal PCs, communal PCs and kiosks in all their different guises. It has been idenfified that a web offering must be seen as only one of a number of mediums for Public Administrafions to reach and interact with citizens. Tele Democracy [Bolognai The overall objective was to create a forum on Teledemocracy for the members of TeleCifies in which to tackle all major issues, exchange common experiences, and to create an informal network for the preparafion of joint project proposals. The main achievements during 2001 have been: 1. Draft of an official paper to influence the EU policies in the field, based on the results of a survey carried out by the members. This report covers a diversity of experiences and opportunifies on teledemocracy. Particular technologies employed, alignment with strategic objecfives and integrafion with service re-engineering varied. The policy report has been disseminated and used for lobbying purposes. 2. Exchange of local experiences during the working group meetings and by remote 3. Set up of a web site as a working tool for the members and a source of Information (www.comune.bologna.it/iperbole/teledemocracy_tcwg/ 4. Creafion of relafionships/synergies with other networks that work on this topic as GLOBAL CITIES DIALOGUE FORUM, E@CN, European Alliance for Civic Networking, and the COMMUNITY NETWORKING GLOBAL 2000 and 2001 (cnglobal2001.org), the internafional "body" born in the Barcelona Conference (2-4 November - see www.cnglobal2000.org) Smart Government [The Hague! This working group addresses various aspects of governmental services, such as user-friendly services based on multi-funcfional and mulfilingual systems facilitating intelligent dialogue and interacfion. The overall objecfive is to discuss the projects and presentafions in the working group and to work on submitting proposals. The preparation was partly done by using the Yahoo groups website. Two proposals, one from a city member and another by the group itself were discussed. The working group has met four fimes during the year to exchange information and best pracfices as well as prepare project proposals for submission to the 1ST programme. During the reporting period the emphasis has been on the exchange of informafion. Organisational changes and now lobs in tho City of Tomorrow [Cologne! The WG was started after last years AGM with the topic "city of tomorrow" in order to try a merger between tasks of the key acfion "City of Tomorrow" (EESD program) and programs of the European Social Funds. Following the discussion of the participants the WG reshaped its focus to the challenges of ICT on the internal structures of public authorities and especially their impact on work places and staff. Main reason was an esfimafion that up to 70 % of current work areas will be changed or diminish during the next ten years. The WG realised that there are a lot of cifies having ICT strategies but very few with corresponding plans to master the structural and social changes in the administration. The WG agreed to start deeper research of the issue. A first outline document led to a discussion about a possible bidding for a thematic network and the TeleCifies organisafion as disseminafing structure. During the following session draft versions ofthe proposal were elaborated and commented to have a final version at the AGM in Marseille.

activity report 2001 v.5 doc The WG had four meefings during the reporting period, the last being in Marseille. All in all there were 55 representafives of cities and companies having participated in the sessions at an average of 20 participants per session. E-odication for employability [Naestved! The Lisbon European Council defined a series of objectives related to the goal for all citizens to be equipped with the skills needed to live and work in the informafion society. These are addressed by both the eEurope Acfion Plan and the European Employment Strategy. TELECITIES' e-Educafion for Employability group has prepared a policy paper on e-Education. The group has also participated in the best practice exchange at the employment conference in Antwerp last September.

Proleet related activities

Tele Cifies also participate as a Network in the development and management of European projects in the field Informafion Society at local level. The main role normally taken by TeleCities in these projects is the dissemination of projects results and best practices throughout Europe. TeleCities members can thus indirectiy benefit from the Network involvement in the projects Ongoing projects TeleCities is currently participating in a number of projects benefiting from the European Commission financial support and other project proposals have been submitted to be involved in strategically important projects in the future.

PACE - IST programme [IST-1999-13041! The overall objective of the PACE project is to accelerate and expand the European e-commerce market in the arena of public administrations, through the implementation of a programme of integrated accompanying measures for the benefit of public administrations, 5"^ FP projects and relevant e-commerce clusters, solufion suppliers and policy strategists. PACE has been generating a leaming environment exploifing the synergies of different accompanying acfions with a view to creafing a sustainable process grounded on TeleCities. PACE intends to enhance successful e-commerce development and implementation by providing the necessary considerafion for socio-economic issues, including trends in technology, the market, legal and ethical considerations, worid-best work and business practices and employment impact. During 2001 project period, PACE has run for TeleCities members: > 4 working groups; > 3 training sessions for decision makers inside the cities on the electronic commerce centre of competence in Paris, Echangeur; > Periodic reports on legal, technical, business and consumer protection trends in electronic commerce (from all PACE consortium members); > Case studies on successful developments of e-commerce solutions in public administrations; > Virtual forum, virtual campus, virtual resource facility, help desk and website.

This year many TeleCities members have been active in the PACE working groups. In terms of reports and products emerging from the PACE consortium partners, the following documents have been made available to the membership: Exchange of SkMls - LEONARDO programme The Exchange of Skills project (co-ordinated by the City London-Lewisham), terminated on 30* August 2001, was focused on local job creation and the development of new job opportunifies with local communifies, through the promotion of capacity building with the social economy sector. The target group was mainly existing social economy organisations or user representative organisations wishing to establish social enterprises and integration projects in the future. The pilot project has developped tools and guidelines for the development of the social economy sector, with a methodology exploring how ICT can assist in supporting the local social economy sector. The role of TeleCities has been to assure dissemination of the project activities and results and to identify a small group of cities, which will join a multi skilled expert group to provide good practices in working in the social

activity report 2001 v.5.doc 10 economy and provide feedback on pilot materials developed. Furthermore, the project has established formal co- operation with the REVES (the European Network of Region and Cities for the Social Economy) and enrich the work on employment carried out within PACE and Eurocities. e-CT - electronic calls for tenders - eCONTENT programmo The e-CT project is a preparation action project under the eContent programme (Action Line II - Demonstrating exploitation of public sector information). The project aims to investigate possible public-private partnerships to facilitate access to, and re-use of, data embedded into public works calls for tender. Replacing the traditional paper-based process with an e-process would save up to € 2 billion/year, would speed up the tender process, and finally would allow data mining and TeleCities' role has been to conduct a survey on state-of the-art on e- procurement in France, Vienna and the Hague, and to disseminate project results, specifically during TeleCifies events. "ODA Open Digital Administrations" - eCONTENT programmo Run the City of Naestved, the Open Digital Administration (ODA) project is a preparatory acfion under the eContent programme (Action Line II -Demonstrafing exploitafion of public sector informafion). The project rationale lies in that the Information and Communication Technologies are opening up a wide range of opportunities for bringing to public administrations closer to citizens. In this context, the ODA project proposes a solution where the customer (i.e. the citizen) is given a wide overview of public sector information and services. Therefore ODA aims to demonstrate the re-use of public information and personal data from classic systems (digital signature), as well as to develop a citizen portal for self-service, access, and case handling. In other words, the citizen portal will enable self-case handling, allowing citizens to apply on-line for public services and track them throughout the delivery process. As sub-contractor, TeleCities' role is to widely disseminate the results of the ODA project (through newsletter, multi-media tools, website) as well as to organise events where the project can be presented to specialised audience. Project proposals Since the last AGM, TCO has joined several proposals, which have been submitted for funding under the Information Society Technology programme under the 1ST Programme.

GIET The GIET project is an 1ST two-year accompanying measure. The main objective of GlET is to stimulate the demand ofthe public sector at local and regional level in the use of G.l. (Geographic Information) and G.I.S. (G.l. Systems) through different actions lines allowing a significant improvement of education, active training and competent consultancy in this field. CUP CARD The objectives of the Clip Card project are to trial out the Clip Card concept (i.e. the use of smart cards in the traffic violation sector) and to prepare a full-scale deployment of smart cards across Europe. Against this background, TeleCities will take care of the trails and will monitor the implementation of the Clip Card concept among a given number of city members. SARIDE The SARIDE project aims to facilitate the inter-regional exchange and transfer of local strategies for inclusive "leaming environments". The TeleCities Working Group on eEducation will play a crucial role in fostering the benchmarking exercise as well as the exchange of experiences on physical and virtual learning facilities. oGov-not The project aims at developing a collaborative blueprint for the implementation of eGovernment. This will be done through the creation of a Network of Excellence for eGovernment allowing users to share ideas, tacit knowledge and experience of "on-line" public services. The project will plan, develop, demonstrate and evaluate novel solutions and models for digital interactivity in the field of eGovernment. Within the framework of this project, the TeleCities Working Group on TeleDemocracy will provide a platform for discussions. Entente This 1ST project on eLeaming aims at setting up a strategic collaborafion of all major actors to share high quality eLearning resources, infrastructures and methodologies. The TeleCities Working Group on eEducation will be used as the main platform for exchange of best practices.

activity report 2001 v.5.doc 11 PSEERIHpa The project is one of the main outcomes of the TeleCities Smart Government Working Group. It aims at elaborating the so-called PSEEBiHpa multi-agent architecture, which will encompass many additional delivery technologies in the filed of public e-services. In this context, the TeleCities Smart Government Working Group will act as a user-group in charge ofthe evaluation and testing phase ofthe project.

Other activities

National branches Several national branches have been set up and consolidated during 2001. In particular: Germany (Cologne) The TeleCities national branch cooperates with the National Association of Local Authorities, which is a member of CEMR. Regular meetings have been held, when possible in conjunction with the EUROCITIES national coordination. The branch is being used for dissemination of TeleCities acfivities and to attract new members. Italy (Rome) The national branch wants to be used for cooperation on strategic issues (such as the 6*" FP R&TD) and as a lobbying tool towards the national government. The members of the branch are now 17, but many of them prefer to use the national meetings for financialconstraints . The branch is used also to exchange experience on specific issues, such as the electronic ID card. The national branch has participated to the Stockholm Challenge with the Schoolwebby Project and has launched the second edition of the Junior Global Challenge. The national branch uri is www.telecifies.net. Spain (Barcelona) The branch has been used to provide members with documents translated into Spanish. The national branch is contributing to promofing ICT, raising the awareness about TeleCities among Spanish cities, creating a portal on funding opportunities in Information Society at European, national, regional, local levels. On 9-10* of November Barcelona will organise a TeleCities stand during a conference. The members are at the moment 5. The national branch uri is www.bcn.es/telecities. UK (Hull and Lewisham) There have been attempts to create a formal national branch. Belgium-Flemish (Antwerp) The TeleCities national branch cooperates with the Flemish Association of local authorities that is creating an NGO to develop INFSO-related issues. Antwerp will be part of the Steering Group France (Marseille) The Marseille AGM will be used to relaunch the national branch idea and to attract new French members to TeleCities. To this end some ofthe TeleCities documents will be translated into French. Global Cities Dialogue The Global Cities Dialogue (GCD) was launched joinfiy by TeleCities and the Global Bangemann Challenge (today the Stockholm Challenge Award) and provides a platform for polifical debate on information society issues between Cities of the worid. It was based on the principles and commitments of the Helsinki Declarafion "Mayors of the Worid for a Global Cifies Dialogue on the Information Society". It follows the premise that the development of the Information Society should be for the benefit of all the cifizens, communifies, and peoples of the worid, regardless of race, social posifion, creed, gender or age. GCD is an open framework for adhering cifies to promote information society related actions. Many TeleCities members have signed the Helsinki declaration and follow the work in the GCD, although much still has to be done by the TeleCities presidency to ensure a regular communication among the adhering cities as well as to assure clarification on the roles of GCD and TeleCities. TCO has participated at two SC meetings Newcastie and Düsseldorf. Synergy with other European networks On 19 September 2001 in Brussels, TeleCities met with the ELANET and eris@ networks to discuss close coordination and future common actions. The meeting took place at a time when important mainstream projects

activity report 2001 v.5.doc 12 featuring local and regional governments have recentiy been approved, or are being discussed, by the European Commission under the 1ST 5* Framework Programme (DG Information Society) and under the Innovative Actions Programme (DG Regio), in an effort to promote strongly the regional dimension of EU programmes. Particular emphasis was placed on immediate collaboration on policy issues; in particular, to guarantee an adequate programme and budget for applied research regarding administrations in the 6th Framework Programme of Research and Technology. The three networks decided to produce a common statement in this regard on the role of administrations in applied technology research, with a particular focus on the definition of user requirements, content provision, methodological input and validafion of partial and final results. In terms of cooperafion at a pracfical level, ELANET/CEMR, eris@ and TeleCifies agreed to work together on future projects and accompanying measures dealing with innovafion at local and regional level, as well as to promote the integrated projects policy that research and development programmes of the Commission are now focussing on. They also agreed to promote and participate in one another's events and to discuss them in advance - to avoid overlap and to provide a common framework for discussion at European level on Information Society issues involving their members and the territories in which they operate.

Events attended During the last year, the activities of the TeleCities networic were promoted and presented at conferences and seminars around Europe, by the TCO and by the TeleCities members, including:

> Visionary Workshop, Brussels, from 7 to 9.02.2001 > Global Forum, Naples, from 13 to 15.03.2001 > ISSS 2001, Hradec Kralove, from 25 to 26.03.2001 > Annual Conference of the Major Cities in Europe, Triest, frolm 28 to 30.05.2001 > IT Conference, Zakopane (Poland), from 20 to 22.6.2001 > The second Kyoto Meeting on Digital Cifies, Kyoto (Japan), from 18 from 20.10.2001 > Contemporary Solutions in Capital Cities Governance, Tallin/Esfiand, from 25 to 26.10.2001 > Global Forum 2000, Newcasfie > 1ST Conference, Düsseldorf

Statutory meetings Four SC meefings took place during 2001, all in conjusction with TeleCities Conferences. The 2001 AGM is taking place in Marseille on the 10* of December

Overview of membership

As of November 2001, the TeleCities network represents 121 members:

XX European local authorities (full members) XX Local authorities from Eastern and Central Europe XX Provinces (associated members) XX Private organisations (associated members)

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