DGXIII Telecommunications, Information Market and Exploitation of Research *** * * * * * * ISSUE NUMBER 2/93 ______*•* ___. XIII Magazine n°11 ~ezvs Reviezv

Council conclusions: INTERNAL MARKET increased European RTD cooperation. Green light for liberalisation of vocal telephony The conclusions of the Presidency of On 16 June in Luxembourg, the present its views on a coherent frame­ the European Council, delivered at Ministers of Telecommunications of the work for a Community telecommunic­ the Copenhagen meeting of 21-22 CEC confirmed that the Member ations policy by the end of 1995. June 1993, set out among other States are determined to achieve total topics the importance of increased liberalisation of vocal telephony by the At the end of the meeting Arne European cooperation in the field of end of 1998. Melchior, Danish Minister for research and development. Communications and President of the Under the terms of the resolution Council, stressed the following: "The The council proposed the following : adopted by the Twelve, four countries - fact of allowing certain delegations to * 3% of GNP to go to R&D and Spain, Portugal, Greece and Ireland - have time delays is not a sign of a innovation (ie a 1% increase) will benefit from a delay of five years "two-speed Europe", which would be a * concerted action in areas which maximum to make adjustments to the negative vision of the European or of can complement the policies of tarifs before putting liberalisation into its cohesion". Member States and businesses; action. * creation of European frameworks On the contrary, he continued, "It is for business-to-business cooperation The Commission is committed to hel­ the proof that we are taking account of to help them harness innovation ping these countries to speed up these the prevailing circumstances. There and adapt production processes; adaptations. Countries with very are some specific technical areas for small networks, like Luxembourg, can which certain countries will be granted A new technological revolution is benefit from a derogation of two years transition periods: this proves that we focusing on the common information in this. The Commission furthermore are sufficiently sensible and realistic to area. In order to keep pace, Europe accepted the request from Belgium to go beyond the existing situation. And must create a decentralized economy keep in mind the specific situation of just to underline the point again: there with a properly trained workforce small networks. is nothing to stop the more advanced and an abundance of small and countries from going on ahead; they medium-sized businesses cooperat­ The Twelve reaffirmed their willing­ don't have to wait till January 1998 to ing with each another, and a ness to liberalise, but underlined the make headway on the road to liberal­ European information infrastruct­ importance of maintaining a universal isation". ure to serve as the real artery of the service, and of progressive structural economy of the future and stimulate adjustments, notably in setting tariffs, the information industry (telecom­ in order to make allowances for the THIS ISSUE munications, computers, fibre­ specific difficulties of peripheral optics, etc.) with the prospect of regions with less developed and very INTERNAL MARKET abundant supply. small networks. 1-4 Training courses for these new The Twelve deferred until later the PROGRAMMES IN ACTION skills must also be set up, and dis­ question of opening the private user, 5-21 tance working by computer encour­ networks to public supply, as well as STANDARDISATION aged, not only for people in the data­ that of liberalising infrastructures and 21 processing industry itself but also telecommunications networks. EUROPEAN DIMENSION for those in education, medicine, These latter will both come under the 22 social services, environmental prot­ aegis of a Green Paper which the ection, urban planning and those Commission has been invited to present PUBLICATIONS dealing with important social issues by 1995. The Council also noted in its 23 such as the prevention of disease, resolutions that it awaits a Green Paper AGENDA drug abuse and crime. on mobile communications. Finally, the 24 Twelve have invited the Commission to Fourth Framework Programme for Community research and technological development (1994-1998) On Wednesday 16th June 1993 the Japan), the fourth framework pro­ structured fashion on transport, the Commission adopted its proposal for gramme sets out to make the transi­ problems linked to evaluating techno­ the Fourth Framework Programme tion from a package of Community logies, and social issues; (1994-1998) for Community research RTD activities to a Community policy * improved dissemination of research and technological development (RTD). in this field. findings, in particular to SMEs (net­ works, European infrastructure for The Fourth Framework Programme, With a view, then, to making maxi­ technology transfer, etc.) in order to which is designed to cover all mum use of the resources available, improve the record of European compa­ Community research activities bet­ increasing the economic spin-offs and nies in translating scientific break­ ween 1994 and 1998 and thus ensure thus helping to make European indus­ throughs into commercial success. greater coherence, will be the last fra­ try more competitive and enhancing mework programme to be implemented the quality of life, this framework pro­ In addition, the framework programme in its entirety before the end of the cen­ gramme will give priority, in the light will endeavour to: tury. The proposal, which is being of the conclusions of the Edinburgh launched against a background of deep European Council, to ensuring: * develop the links between research economic crisis and profound change * greater integration between national and education/training by undertaking on the international scene, is part of a and Community RTD activities, in par­ research for the first time into educ­ major Community plan to revitalize ticular by means of improved coordina­ ation and training needs and methods, the economy and stimulate employ­ tion of Member States participation in in order to better equip education sys­ ment. major international projects and with tems to meet the demand for an in­ the research conducted by various crease and improvement in the level of The Commission has earmarked an European organizations (ESA, CERN, training offered in Europe; overall amount of ECU 13.1 billion for etc.); the fourth framework programme to * closer cooperation between * better exploit the scope for synergy enable Community research to make a Community RTD activities and those between research policy and policy on significant contribution to achieving carried out under EUREKA, with par­ economic and social cohesion, while these goals. ticular emphasis on strategic projects respecting the specific nature of each, which combine the development of key in a bid to reduce the considerable In order to rise to the challenge posed technologies with research which is structural disparities which exist in by American and Japanese RTD policy close to the market; RTD within the Community; and make up the ground lost by the * greater concentration of RTD activity Europeans as regards research intensi­ within each sector on a smaller num­ * seek greater flexibility in the frame­ ty (2% of Community DGP in 1991 ber of problems and generic technolo­ work programme itself, the specific compared with 2.8% in the United gies with a multi-sector impact, parti­ programmes, and the work pro­ States and 3% in Japan) and human cularly in the field of industrial techno­ grammes, in order to enable the resources (an average of 4.3 research­ logies, but also in the field of life Community to respond quickly to new ers per 1 OOO members of the workforce sciences and technologies. For the first scientific and technological changes. as against 7.5 in the United States and time research will be conducted in a

Research council on fourth Framework Programme

At its meeting on 30 June 1993, the implementation and improved manage­ lines for receipt of proposals and the Research Council proceeded to an in­ ment of the framework programme in start of selected projects, as well as the depth debate on the Fourth order to ensure that its objectives are provision of information to applicants Framework Programme of Community fully met. of non-selected proposals. activities in the field ofRTD. Simplification and harmonisation of The Council, wishing to take a view on The Council focused its debate specifi­ procedures and tools for programme this issue as soon as possible, noted the cally on the global financial amount implementation were also emphasized Commission's intention to assess in (ECU 13.1 billion) to be committed to in order to facilitate participation in further detail the possible benefits and the programme and on the breakdown Community research programmes, par­ disadvantages of decentralized mana­ of financial resources between the four ticularly by SMEs, and to allow for gement and possible further concrete different activities (RTD programmes, smooth, transparent and timely implem­ measures that could be taken in this international cooperation, disseminat­ entation of the Framework Programme. field. According to the Council, new ion ofresults, training and mobility). On this point the Council welcomed the types of activities, for example them­ regular circulation by the Commission atic networks of excellence, concerta­ The management of Community RTD of information bulletins. tion networks and consortia for integ­ programmes was discussed in detail, rated projects, as proposed by the with the Council recalling its conclus­ As a continuation of the Council Commission, need to be clarified fur­ ion of 29 April 1993, according to which conclusions, improvements in specific ther. detailed criteria and mechanisms areas were also stressed such as the should be established for cost-effective shortening of delays between the dead- Financial breakdown of the Fourth Community RTD Framework Programme (1994-1998)

million Ecu (current prices) First Activity ( research, technological development and demonstration programmes ) 10 925

Second Activity ( cooperation with third countries and international organizations) 790

Third Activity ( dissemination and optimization ofresults) 600

Fourth Activity ( stimulation of training and mobility of researchers) 785

Maximum Overall Amount 13100

Tentative breakdown between themes within first activity million Ecu (current prices) -Information and communication technologies* 3 900 -Industrial technologies* 1800 -Environment* 970 -Life sciences and technologies* 1325 -Energy*/** 2 525 -Research for a European transport policy* 280 -Targeted socio-economic research* 125

* Of which 1067 million Ecu for the Community's Joint Research Centre (JRC). N.B.: In addition to its participation in the first activity, the Joint Research Centre will also participate in the third activity to the tune of 70 million Ecu. ** Of which 1 050 million Ecu for non-nuclear energy sources 495 million Ecu for nuclear safety 980 million Ecu for controlled thermonuclear fusion

amongst its objectives "the implemen­ Introduction of High Definition Television: tation of all technologies including Council accepts action plan entirely numerical ones". Martin Bangemann, Commissioner in At a meeting in Luxembourg on 16 financed by the plan, which is envisa­ charge of this subject, commented on June, the Ministers for Tele­ ged for a period of 4 years, ending on the decision, pointing out that it was communications adopted the 30 June 1997. not, however, a question of simply Community plan of action for abandoning the Mac standard: "The introducing high definition televi­ Out of the total funding of 405 million HD Mac has never been more necess­ sion (HDTV) in Europe, thereby Ecus (228 of which are Community ary for achieving high definition, as opening a financial package of 228 monies) 160 million will be available this is equally possible with a digital million Ecus (Community funding) for projects of not more than 50% of the standard", he stated, adding neverthe­ over 4 years. total cost once the action plan comes less: "High definition depends above all into force. on the format being used and the This sum will be increased to 405 mil­ degree of resolution on-screen". lion Ecus by finance from other A reserve of 68 million Ecus has been sources, preferably from the private frozen until the start of 1995. It is set Commissioner Bangemann confirmed sector, though without ruling out the aside for similar programmes in coun­ that before 1st October 1993 the use of public funds. tries with underdeveloped audiovisual Commission would present a report on resources, the funding in this case the development of digital television. The agreement reached concerns a being able to rise to 85% of the total Council resolution on the development cost. Funds will be accorded to compa­ Furthermore, at the request of the of technology and standards in the nies broadcasting a minimum of 50 U.K., the text also specifically men­ field of HDTV services, with a frame­ hours per year in 16:9 format. tions that in conformity with the rules work agreement attached for the plan already in force, the economic particip­ of action. As far as standards are concerned, the ants in the plan will have access to Council confirmed its intention of revi­ Community R and D and normalisat­ Any extra costs incurred by manufac­ sing the Mac directive as quickly as ion activities. turers and broadcasters as a result of possible. The approved text does not the introduction of such sources will be exclude any standards, stressing ... ,,,,~., : '·°f?:'# • • • • t 3 Transeuropean networks: Ministers welcome new proposals announced new Community

In the course of the last session of the administrations (IDA-see the last edit­ postal services Council of Telecommunications ion of the News Review). Ministers on 16 June in Luxembourg, guidelines Michel Carpentier, Director General of On the same occasion the Director DG XIII (Telecoms) presented a brief General also announced to the Twelve In May '93 the Council published a oral report to ministers on the chang­ that this services would announce two Communication entitled "Guidelines ing situation in the networks area. sets of new proposals. for the Development of Community Postal Services". In it he noted that on 15 March 1993 * One would be on the development of the Commission had presented a com­ the Integrated Service Data Network This gives the results of a public munication on this question composed (ISDN) for which a budget of 90 million consultation exercise which was initiat­ of two draft proposals of the Council, ECU over 4 years was available. ed by the Commission's Green Paper of one on directions for the development June '92 on developing the single mar­ of networks for transmitting data bet­ * The other would be on Integrated ket for postal services. ween administrations, and the other Broad Band Communications (IBC), for a programme of support over several with a budget of 12 million ECU over After Ministers had given their first years for data transmission between two years. reactions in a preliminary discussion in Luxembourg on 16 June, they decided that because of the importance of the topic a decision on the matter should be deferred to the next Council meeting Hearing aids and electromagnetic pollution: on 16 November. a special point made by the Presidency Copies of the guidelines are available in the nine EC languages from the address below. At a press conference on 16 June at the The President of the Council requested end of the Telecommunications Council, the Commission to attend to this ques­ Mr. Arne Melchior, Danish Minister for tion and examine the possibility of Communications and President of the laying down regulations not only to Council up until the end of June, stated protect hard-of-hearing people from that he had submitted a communicat­ being inconvenienced by such equip­ ion about the effects of electromagnetic ment being used near them, but also to Contact: pollution on hearing aids to Mr. Martin enable them to make use of it them­ Bangemann, the Commissioner respons­ selves. F. Toledano ible for this sector. CECXIII/A7 Commissioner Bangemann took note of 200 Rue de la Loi According to this report, which refers this and indicated that his department B-1049 Brussels to studies carried out over several was working on this topic at the months in Denmark, mobile phones are moment. Tel: +32 2 29681770 the cause of significant interference to hearing aids, thereby creating serious problems for hard-of-hearing people wearing such aids.

Equipment for land-based satellite communications: the Council agrees

On 16 June the Ministers for ications services and equipment sector. 3.to guarantee rights of use for land­ Telecommunications reached an agree­ It addresses four essential objectives: based satellite communications equip­ ment on the draft directive on legislat­ ment legally available on the market; ion for equipment for land-based satel­ l.to establish the single market for lite communications. land-based equipment; 4.to guarantee connection rights to public telecommunications networks This directive widens the field of applic­ 2.to instigate harmonised procedures for land-based communications. ation for telecommunications terminal for certification, testing, brand names, equipment, including the mutual recog­ quality assurance and product evaluat­ nition of their compatibility, adopted in ion, in order to ensure conformity to 1991. It is the first in a series of texts the essential requirements detailed in aiming to regulate the satellite commun- the 1991 directives;

.···. y~, ·..... ~~ 4 PROGRAMMES IN ACTION

Coordination Centre (NCC) in 1994. It J\\ was unanimously felt that RARE ,,. .. 3: .. ~"' should continue to take the responsibi­ ESPRIT NEWS lity for operating the NCC after 1993. The RIPE NCC provides a wide range The European IT public dialogue on the future imple­ of technical and administrative mentation of the IT programme. It will support to network operators in the Conference 1994 now be called the European IT Internet community throughout Conference, and the next one will take Europe. place between 13-15 June 1994 at the 1994 marks the completion of 10 years Palais des Congres, Brussels. of Community R&D in information GENERAL MANAGERS APPOINTED The theme of the conference, "LT. and technology. 1994 is also the year FOR OPERATIONAL UNIT LTD. the Transformation of the Enterprise", which will herald a new era for In the context of the OU initiative is one that promises to play a major Community R&D in IT with the adop­ RARE has set up a company called role in determining the future direction tion of the Fourth Framework Operational Unity Ltd. Two general ofR&D. Programme. managers have been appointed: These landmark events have prompted Howard Davies (University of Exeter) Contact: and Dai Davies (COSINE Project the Commission to reorient and resha­ The European IT Conference pe the annual ESPRIT conference and Management Unit). Currently other secretariat senior staff are being recruited. The to move it from its late autumn slot to Fax: +32 2 296 83 97 a time appropriate for the opening of a setting up of the OU Ltd is to facilitate its start-up. Legal structures will be RARE finalised this summer. RARE News NEW PUBLICATIONS RARE has published the fifth in its JENC4 OF HIGH QUALITY AND programme committee. Local arrange­ series of Technical Reports: "TRT5, A WELL ATTENDED ments are in the hands of Jan survey of Distributed Multimedia. On May 10-13 the 4th Joint European Gruntorad (Czech Technical Research, Standards and Products". Networking Conference took place in University). The report was compiled and edited by Trondheim, Norway. 350 people from Chris Adie from Edinburgh University 33 countries attended the event, which HUNGARIAN OFFER TO HOST Computing Service. The RARE was hosted by the Norwegian Institute JENC7 ACCEPTED Working Group on Multimedia com­ of Technology. The attendees could Following the conference the 26th missioned this survey of state-of-the­ take their pick from more than 50 pre­ RARE Council of Administration mee­ art multimedia networking. sentations, numerous BOFs, demons­ ting was held in Trondheim. During A new edition (2nd printed and 3rd trations, and meetings of RARE and this meeting the CoA welcomed the electronic) of RTRl "User Support and EARN (European Academic Research offer from the Hungarian Academy of Information Services in Europe" has Network) working groups. A number Science to host JENC7. It will take been issued. In this updated version of interesting social gatherings comple­ place in the first week of the World information on 25 national networks ted the event, e.g. an organ concert in Exhibition EXP0'96, the theme of and five international networks has the impressive Nidaros Cathedral. which - "Communication for a better been collected. The best papers presented during the world" - fits in well with the character Thirdly, the RARE Annual Report conference will be selected for publica­ of the JENC. 1992 is available for distribution. tion in a special issue of the Elsevier Paper copies of RARE publications are North Holland Journal "Computer CEEC SEMINAR BUDAPEST available from the RARE Secretariat. Networks and ISDN Systems" (October This autumn a seminar addressing Electronic versions can be obtained or November issue). computer networking for research and from the RARE documents server via development in the central and eastern gopher.rare.nl or ftp.rare.nl, directories INET'94/JENC5 ORGANIZATION European countries will be held in doc/reports or doc/rtr or e-mail: send a TAKES SHAPE Budapest, Hungary. The seminar was message to [email protected] with the As announced earlier, JEC5 will be initiated by HUNGARNET officials text: send doc/reports/rare-annual­ held in conjunction with INET'94 (the and will be financially supported by report.92 (add.ps for ps version) or annual conference of the Internet NATO while RARE will be involved in send doc/rtr/rtrl (add.ps for ps ver­ Society in Prague. RARE and ISOC the organization. The central topic will sion). officials attending JENC4 already took be how to improve the availability and the opportunity to draft a preliminary quality of networking services for the Contact: Call for Papers for next year's event R&D community in CEEC countries. Josefien Bersee (available from inet-jenc [email protected]). RARE Secretariat The conference committee of CONTINUED SUPPORT FOR RIPE Singel 466-468 INET'94/JENC5 is chaired by Geoff NCC NL-1017 AW AMSTERDAM Manning (UKERNA, responsible for An important decision taken by the e-mail X.400: C=nl; ADMD=400net; JNT programme), while Bernhard CoA was that RARE will continue to PRMD=surf; O=rare; S=raresec; Plattner (ETH, Z,rich) again chairs the support the RIPE Network e-mail RFC822; [email protected] .···. ~~'#~ . . ~ v::-· 5 · ... · •«/ 5th IFIP conference on high performance networking Call for Papers D. New applications (Multimedia; dis­ Deadline for submission of papers: tribution network algorithms; group­ As soon as possible The Conference organised by IMAG ware communication) Institute and IBP Institute is due to be Notification of intent to submit a paper held in Grenoble (France) from 27 E. Internet working (Routing in high October 30, 1993 June-July 1 1994. This workshop performance multimedia networks; belongs to the series started in 1987 in bridges and routers technology and Full paper submission deadline Aachen, followed by Liege in 1988, protocols; meshed architectures) January 31, 1994 Berlin in 1991 and Liege in 1992. It aims at presenting and discussing evo­ F. Implementation and Performance Notification of acceptance lution in the framework of high-speed Evaluation (MAC Performance in high March 31, 1994 networking and computing in private speed networks; efficient protocol and public networks. Original contri­ implementation; parallelism) Camera-ready copy due butions on the following topics are soli­ June 27-28, 1994 cited. G. Protocol and Network Engineering (Traffic control, modelling, and analy­ Tutorials A. New MAC Services and Protocols sis; performance evaluation; formal June 29-July 1, 1994 (Gigabit networks; ATM-based specification; validation, simulation, Conference Systems) implementation) Contact: B. Enhanced Network and Transport Authors of accepted papers will be Services and Protocols (Multipeer requested to sign a copyright release Serge Fdida Services and protocols; admission and form to IFIP. A participant edition of Uni versi te Rene Descartes-UFR congestion control; time-constraint the proceedings will be made available Math-Info management) at the conference from the camera­ La bora toireMASI-In sti tut ready copy which will be used later on BlaisePascal C. New Services and Protocols for the publication of the proceedings 45, rue des Saints Peres (Synchronisation semantic and mana­ by Elsevier (North Holland). The 75006 PARIS (FRANCE) gement; protocols for groupware com­ accepted papers not presented by the Tel: +33 1 42 86 21 36 munication; video over high speed net­ author(s) at the conference will not be Fax: +33 142 86 22 31 works; QoS semantic) included in the published proceedings. e.mail: [email protected]

Delta: telematics based training

On 26-27 October, a first online multi­ tackling these problems from a specific * BERLIN ISDN Applications site conference will be organized focu­ technological point of view: and Integrated Broadband sing on distance learning. Communications (ATM based) European research will be the basis of * User requirements: Market/user * BRUSSELS Interactive Cable TV this conference. During the two days, trends. Relevance for peripheral * LONDON VSAT Applications researchers, decision makers and other regions. Configurations to meet the and ISDN Applications experts in distance learning will meet demands of home users, professionals * MADRID Computer Conferencing in seven European sites, (Athens, and training centres. The future elec­ and Electronic Mail Bern, Berlin, Brussels, London, tronic campus, trans-European know­ * MONTPELLIER DBS Applications Madrid, Montpellier) with broadband ledge networks for SME and speciali­ and Interactivity, videotext. diffusion on Eurelsat satellite and zed professionals. ISDN video feedback facilities. * Pilot experiments: Pilot trials in deli­ very, distributed joint production, The demonstrative value of the event information access and integrated net­ Contact: will be the facilitating of group discus­ works. sion between the sites, while at the * Standardization and networks: SNE France Telecom same time keeping the individuality of Network architectures for education on tel : + 33 67 04 14 08 each site during separate site debates. and training. Standards organizatio­ fax:+ 33 67 14 67 29 This conference will be a platform for nal and management issues. Towards or: on-line demonstrations and exchanges a test-bed. about the state of the art in DELTA Jacques Babot Projects and more widely of distance Each site will take a specific technolo­ DG XIII/ C3 (DELTA) teaching research. gical subject: Telecommunication applications * ATHENS VSAT Applications 200 Rue de la Loi Three main problems will dominate * BERN ISDN Applications B-1049 Brussels the debates in seven sites, each site and Tele-tutoring Tel: +32 2 296 35 94 .···.r,~, : ..... ~~ 6 and life-long learning environments; for the DELTA Central Office. The DELTA News Q cost-benefit and efficiency analysis of Board reviewed the objectives of the different learning scenarios; govern­ Telematics programme of General ment/private sector policy and partner­ Interest in the area of Flexible and MULTIMEDIA AND SIMULATION­ ship models. Further research and Distance Learning. The Board recogni­ BASED TRAINING MATERIAL development in each of these areas will sed the positive effect of the DELTA This DELTA workshop took place in ensure that people learn when, where programme in widening interest and Barcelona 26-27 April 1993. The work­ and how most appropriate to their promoting research in technology­ shop brought together leading experts needs. based learning in and between Member to compare and assess the differenct Cross-fertilization of research and States, and noted that the DELTA pro­ approaches, methods and tools suppor­ development undertakings, exchanges gramme has made "a substantial ting the design and developments of of information and experiences of lead­ contribution to flexible and distance multimedia and simulation based trai­ ing-edge research in the area of flexible learning opportunities across Europe". ning material. The workshop provided and distance learning are expected to The Board recommended that the mis­ an opportunity for the six DELTA pro­ occur as a result of the EC mission to sion for the future for R&D in telemat­ jects in this area to present their pro­ Canada. These collaborative activities ic applications for flexible and distance jects and discuss their findings in a will be enhanced by the negotiation of learning should be "to develop and test wider context. The proceedings of the a science and technology cooperation technologies which improve access to conference will be available for the agreement between the government of and efficiency of education and train­ DELTA Central Office in September Canada and the Commission of the ing'' This was followed up by the ident­ 1993. European Community. More informat­ ification of a number of priority actions ion, including p,ractical examples of and research topics. Canadian distance learning projects, CANADIAN STUDY TOUR AND can be obtained from the address JOINT WORKSHOP ON LEARNING below. News from Telematic TECHNOLOGIES. A DELTA study tour of Canada took Contact: Systems on flexible and place in April. The tour included a workshop with a transatlantic Lieve Van den Brande distance learning l't.. ISDN/DBS based video conference DELTA Central Office experiment organised by one of the Rue de la Loi, 200 - BU 29 04/05 (DELTA} &.J DELTA projects which allowed the par­ B-1049 Brussels ticipants, in seven European sites Belgium A Call for Proposals for DELTA was (Madrid, Berlin, London, Paris, Tel: +32 2 296 34 16 published on 1st May 1993 (OJ C Brussels, Oslo and Uppsalla), to attend Fax: +32 2 296 23 92 121/lo) with a deadline of 15th June and contribute to the conference in Email: [email protected] 1993. The key objectives of the call Canada. The study tour included visits were as follows: to successful distance learning pro­ * integration and validation of res­ jects. Canada is facing many similar earch and development results emerg­ challenges to Europe: skill shortages, DELTA 1993 ing from current DELTA projects; problems of distance, cultural and lan­ * interoperability and management of guage diversity. However, Canada has annual report training delivery networks; a powerful telematics infrastructure in * extension and strengthening of on­ place, a strong commitment to educat­ The Annual Technical Report on going DELTA projects. ion and training as a priority area, an Research and Technological The emphasis of the call was very increasing emphasis on non-formal Development: Flexible and much on validation, integration and (non-traditional) education, and a trad­ Distance Learning is now available strengthening of DELTA research acti­ ition of close cooperation between tech­ from the DELTA Central Office. This vity. The technical evaluation was car­ nologists and educators. report is one of seven annual reports ried out by a group of independent The workshop discussions focused lar­ on the EC Programme for the develop­ experts fom all over Europe. The total gely on the Canadian and European ment of telematics systems in areas of budget available for this call was 6 experience in the use of communicat­ general interest. The DELTA 1993 MECU. In total, 65 proposals were ions networks for flexible and distance report provides an overview of the submitted (many more than anticipat­ learning. The Canadian as well as DELTA programme. It includes a ed); 52 proposals were for new projects European telecommunications carriers short description of the 23 DELTA pro­ and 13 were for extensions to existing participated in the workshop and jects and 9 concerted actions, involving projects. The proposals were of high explained the role they expect to play 176 organisations, working together to quality and the overall funding reques­ in providing networks for training and meet a common goal - the improvement ted was 32.4 MECU. education. of education and training systems in Because of financial contraints, only a Workshop participants discussed a Europe. 1993 is a crucial year for small number of projects could be pro­ number of emerging distance learning these projects: they are now in their posed for acceptance. These include issues such as: the development and second year of operation, launching seven new projects, one new implementation of new instructional experiments and starting to consolida­ 'Accompanying Measure' (an infonnat­ models for interactive and group learn­ te results. This report gives an over­ ion/a wareness raising activity) and ing; the development of a full range of view of the progress to date. eight extensions to existing DELTA media (voice, graphics, data, imge, full­ projects. It is anticipated that the new motion video); a focus on the needs of The Review Board Report publi­ projects will begin this autumn and the the learner in individual, institutional shed in May 1993, is now available extensions to existing projects at the start of 1994. .···. r'A/4' ·.. _... ~~ 7 RTD telematics programme: Thirty-one proposals were received requesting and EC contribution of 22.2 6 AIM Projects to be launched MECU. A total of six proposals were recommended to be retained for an EC A Call for Proposals for AIM was publi­ ve of the shared cost projects are to be contribution of 2400 KECU. Another shed on 1 May 1993 (OJ C 121/20) with implemented at the integration, inter­ proposal was put on the reserve list. a deadline of 15th June. Following a connection and validation of key AIM The proposals meet the objective and technical evaluation by a group of projects. are seen to strengthen efforts in data independent experts, the Commission collection, local or remote access to intends to launch new projects and Twenty-eight proposals were received databases and standardisation. It is accompanying measures. in this part. Of these evaluators recom­ the proposal of the Commission to fund mended considering 6 projects for a these activities with 2275 KECU, sub­ The Call consisted of three parts. The total funding of 5734 KECU and 1 pro­ ject to outcome of negotiations with the EC contribution to the first two parts ject was put on a reserve list. The pro­ consortia. Details are shown on the fol­ all in ail will be in the region of 7 posals retained constitute a package lowing table, "Draft Commission MECU, and to the third part in the which addresses the technological Proposal for Topic 3.3" and on the region of 3 MECU. Although a number approach, regional and wide area inter­ table, "Draft Commission Proposal: of very good proposals were submitted, connection, primary and secondary Reserve List for Topics 3.1, 3.2 and financial constraints will necessitate a care, and relations with other 3.3". strict selection of only a limited num­ European programmes. Together the ber of projects, concerted actions and six projects integrate, interconnect or The objectives are to allow finalisation accompanying measures, and the validate at least 14 out of 35 on-going of emerging products, promote common extension of some contracts for on­ AIM projects as operative tests, with results and demonstrate viability of going projects. one of the selected projects providing solutions. Extensions will be subject to the necessary framework. It is the pro­ a favourable technical review outcome A total of 87 proposals requested 73 posal of the Commission to fund these planned for October 1993. A total of 28 MECU in the domain; the recommen­ activities with 5124 KECU, subject to on-going projects asked for extensions dations of the evaluators would imply outcome of negotiations. at an EC funding level of 13.8 MECU. the spending of 11.1 MECU. The pro­ Evaluators recommended extensions of posed finance plan therefore represents The objective is the demonstration of 15 projects subject to a favourable a further reduction to 10.1 MECU and results of the on-going R&D efforts in technical review and put 1 project on a reserve list of 4 proposals represen­ health care telematics by either sup­ the reserve list. The Commission ting a value of 1.9 MECU. This reser­ porting large scale demonstration acti­ plans to propose 14 of the 15 for exten­ ve list should be considered only if the vities or establishing and coordinating sion with a CE contribution of 2670 negotiations foreseen with some of the pilot added-value services for health KECU, subject to outcome of negotiat­ selected consortia would fail or lead to care providers. ions, and to put 2 on the reserve list. further reduction of costs. The objecti-

R&D in advanced communications technologies for Europe-RACE

Final report on Phase 1 (1988-1992) CEC -DG XIII-CD-NA-15022 EW-C Telecommunications now underpins cost and with minimum delay, the ser­ Commission as a communication to the most industrial activities and is central vices which will sustain the competitiv­ European Parliament and the Council to business competitivity in Europe. eness of the European economy and of Ministers in March 1992, with the Mastering the technology options has contribute to maintaining and creating reference COM(93)118. therefore become a key to economic employment in the Community". growth and the creation of new employment. The Council Decision requires that "after the completion of the first five­ The first phase of a 10-year RACE year period of the programme, the Programme (Research and develop­ Commission shall, after consulting the ment in Advanced Communications Managemnt Committee, send to the technologies in Europe) was launched Member States and the European by decision of the European Council of Parliament a report on the perform­ Contact: Ministers in December 1987. The ance and results of the programme". objective was to "promote the competit­ This report fulfils that obligation.It Office for Official Publications of the iveness of the Community's telecom­ draws on numerous evaluations and European Communities munications industry, operators and audits of the programme and its consti­ L-2985 Luxembourg service providers in order to make tuent projects during the period to available to final users, at minimum December 1992. It was adopted by the Technology transfer days 1993-95

The SPRINT programme is organising ANVAR (F), and regional development LEDU/T.I.I. eighteen Technology Transfer Days bodies like IMPIVA (E), KTTC (UK) BELFAST (NI) MAR94 over the next two years to promote and ARIST Alsace (F). The European transnational technology transfer to Association for the Transfer of ARIST Alsace selected firms by introducing compa­ Technologies, Innovation and STRASBOURG (F) APR94 nies located in a Member State or Industrial Information (TII) is also region. The emphasis is on selectivity organising five of these events across Infogroup and a targeted approach, whereby the Europe in conjunction with some of its ATHENS(GR) MAY94 brokers are previously briefed on the member organisations. needs or resources of these selected KTTC firms and therefore come with poten­ SPRINT will coordinate these meetings CANTERBURY (UK) JUN94 tial partners firmly in mind. These to ensure a comprehensive and coherent meetings, with a total Community overall programme, and good geographic U. Liaison Officetr.I.I. contribution of 600,000 ECU, will lead coverage. DRESDEN (D) SEPT 94 to technical cooperation between European SMEs. ANVAR LYON CF) SEPT 94 Technology Transfer days are part of Contact: additional activities designed to sup­ DTI/DTO port technology transfer networks. Mr Gottfried Thesen COPENHAGEN (DK) OCT94 Since 1986, SPRINT has supported CEC - DG XIII / D4 about 300 transnational innovation Telecommunications, Information SOCRAN BICtr.I.I. networks of organisations (such as Market and Exploitation of Research LIEGE (B) OCT94 Chambers of Commerce and Industry, Jean Monnet Building research and technology institutes, L-2920 Luxembourg EMDEME technology brokers, regional technolo­ Tel: +352 4301-32508 VISEU (P) JAN95 gical advisory centers) providing tech­ Fax:+352 4301-34544 nology transfer services to European or T.V.A SMEs. Along with other types of BERLIN (D) FEB 95 actions, these networks are considered Mr Jacques Bonnin to be a significant tool for improving SPRINT Technical Assistance Unit IC.N./T.I.I. the industrial innovation capabilities 119, Avenue de la Fai:encerie To be advised (NL) MAR95 of companies. L-1511 Luxembourg Tel: +352 465588 ANVAR In 1990 SPRINT launched a first Call Fax: +352 465550 BORDEAUX (F) MAR95 for Proposals which resulted in the organisation of a series of 23 Technology Exchange Technology Transfer Days during 1991 BEDFORD (UK) MAY95 and 1992. Following this successful two-year programme, at the end of SPRINT IMPIVA 1992 a new call for proposals to organi­ Technology Transfer Days 1993-1995 VALEN CIA (ES) JUNE95 se these Community-wide events over the next two years was launched. EOLAS ARD N. Pas de Calais DUBLIN (IRL) NOV 93 LILLE CF) SEPT95 After this call, 17 organisations were selected, including national agencies SOGES Zabala/T.I.I. like EOLAS (IRL), DTI (DK) and LECCE (I) JAN94 PAMPLONA (ES) DEC95

The Barcelona Investment forum

The European Commission SPRINT At these events a selected number of programme is supporting an invest­ SMEs give short presentations about ment forum to bring together innova­ their activities to potential investors, ting entrepreneurs and financiers, notably venture capitalists, but also which will take place in Barcelona on development finance companies, Contact: 18 November 1993. investment banks and large corpora­ tions. Mr Juan C Fernandez This event is part of a series of invest­ CDTI ment forums aiming to introduce inno­ The programmes are structured to vative small and medium sized compa­ allow adequate time for private meet­ Tel: +34 1 5815526 nies (SMEs) from Member States see­ ings between entrepreneurs and inves­ Fax: +34 15815594 king funding to financiers seeking tors, in addition to opportunities for investment opportunities. informal discussion during social events. .···.r.~~4, • • Ii' v:~ 9 ·._.· •Oi/ Sprint workshops on Laser Techniques for industrial measurements

This year the SPRINT Programme is Information and advice will be avail­ supporting a number of workshops on able to delegates with specific technical laser measurement techniques and the requirements. benefits these offer to manufacturing, process and energy generation indus­ tries. Schedule of Workshops on Laser Techniques for industrial measurements These include better monitoring and control, which lead to improved quali­ ty, reduced waste, greater efficiency and, above all, enhance competitive­ ness. * 12-13 October 1993 * 21-22 October 1993 Gaz de France, Paris, France Universitat Erlangen-Niirnberg Workshops are being run in the UK, Germany Italy, France and Germany during September and October 1993. The Contact: Contact: content and structure of each has been carefully designed against market­ Jocelyne Bardeau, Dipl - Ing. Manfred Stieglmeier researched regional needs. Laboratoire de Chimie Physique de Lehrstuhl fur Stromungsmechanik la Combustion Universitat Erlangen-Niirnberg In addition to presentation on various Universite de Poitiers Cauerstrasse 4 topics, exhibitions and demonstrations Domaine du Deffend D-8520 Erlangen are planned which involve the latest 86550 Mignaloux Beauvoir Tel: +49 9131859490 rechnology and methods from leading Tel: +33 49 468019 Fax: +49 9131859503 suppliers of instrumentation and Fax: +33 49 468382 consultancy.

Promoting the acquisition and diffusion of tacit knowledge: A Sprint/EIMS policy exchange workshop

Tacit knowledge is an expression to experience and demonstration. Despite ductory statement by Prof. Soete from describe the type of knowledge learned its importance, this subject has been MERIT and R. Chabbal, former only by experience and which is diffi­ neglected in the analysis of corporate Director at OECD. cult to transmit to others by any means strategy and public policy. other than demonstration. At the conference ample evidence was In order to contribute to an increased given of the efficiency of Japanese com­ A simple definition of tacit knowledge awareness, the European Innovation panies and society to create, utilise and is that "we know more than we can Monitoring System of the SPRINT pro­ diffuse this type of knowledge. This tell". Thus knowledge is diffused via gramme (DG XIII) organised a work­ intangible knowledge approach is pro­ personal communication, mobility and shop on the promotion of acquisition bably one of the key factors behind contact, and is highly dependent on the and diffusion of tacit knowledge in Japanese industrial success. ability to communicate what is in­ Luxembourg on May 25-26, with the volved. participation of about 50 experts from Knowledge transfer by demonstration different Member States. continues to be important, despite grow­ A common observation among plant ing codification and electronification of managers is that starting a new plant By and large, such promotional innovation, such as the use of expert with identical equipment, organisation schemes have been developed not only systems, CAD/CAM and CIM. This is and even the same people does not at national level, but also by regional partly due to the fact that the com­ automatically lead to the same produc­ or sectoral participants, and are often plexity of the system limits the codifi­ tivity and quality levels as in the old implemented on a public/private part­ cation of knowledge. plant. One reason behind this is that nership basis. They have to address competence is mainly accumulated in both the interest of firms in acquiring Since this knowledge can be acquired people, and therefore is tacit and experience and knowledge, and their only by personal experience or personal intangible in form. Thus there is a interest in protecting their technical interactions with experts, several growing awareness that the perfor­ competence, often a relevant factor in public programmes have been laun­ mance of firms and nations depends on their competitive advantage. These ched at the regional, national and com­ skills that can only be transferred by points were highlighted in the intro- munity level in recent years. These

; ... : ~,,~,~-9:", 10 .. ~ programmes cover support of know­ ledge transfer by mobility, site Bright future for Science Parks Networks demonstration, user-supplier relation­ ships and through technology clubs. The increasing number of science and local SMEs, specially in the least Most Member States have implemen­ technology parks or similar initiatives favoured and/or peripheral European ted programmes of this kind, quite in the Community raises issues of regions. Science and technology parks often following the example of similar what communication and coordination located in these regions usually have schemes in another Member State, e.g. is necessary between them, a trend the task of technology dissemination to many mobility schemes have been ins­ which coincides with the spontaneous local business. pired by the Teaching Company emergence of networks around local, Scheme in the United Kingdom, such regional, and national, formal and They can, for example, play host to as CIFRE and CORTECH in France, informal, science and technology parks. technology transfer centres and re - TECHSTART in Ireland, and the search units, etc. German TOP-Scheme. An important These networks can include universi­ effect of these programmes has been to ties, research centres, public agencies, The use of some parks as demonstra­ increase the ability particularly of enterprises, etc. Organisations actively tion centres for advanced telematic small and medium sized firms to iden­ participate in technology transfer and tools could be an efficient way of encour­ tify and absorb technical competence. diffusion, exchange of good practice, aging the use of such tools and dis­ Programme managers are aware, and of technical, financial and admi­ seminating technology in the however, of the difficulties in imple­ nistrative information. areas surrounding the parks. menting such schemes with a large number of firms: companies will only Networks can be based on telematics, Results, including the opportunity and participate once they can operate in a or can depend on traditional means of conditions of eventual Commission climate of trust, and feel that they can communication. actions on the promotion of networks engage in both giving and receiving between science and technology parks, relationships. It is important for this movement to are expected to be available at the end develop as efficiently as possible and in of this year. At the conference the question of crea­ a way that will allow communication ting a European network for scheme between the various networks across managers to exchange experiences was European national boundaries. raised. In addition it was requested to facilitate secondments for scheme It is of equal importance that the least Contact: managers across different countries. favoured European regions are not left outside this networking process. Mr Gottfried Thesen This policy forum was the second of a CEC -XIII/ series of workshops in the field of inno­ In this context, the Commission ser­ Telecommunications, Information vation support for firms and technology vices responsible for innovation and Market and Exploitation of Research transfer, launched by the Commission technology transfer, telecommunica­ Jean Monnet Building of the European Communities as a part tions and regional policies are jointly L-2920 Luxembourg of the SPRINT programme. The semi­ looking into the necessity and feasibili­ Tel: +352 4301-32508 nars bring together programme mana­ ty of supporting Networks of Science Fax:+352 4301-34544 gers, policy and strategy developers Parks and the Diffusing of Advanced or and experts in innovation support and Telematic Tools (SPNET). technology transfer in order to ex­ Mr Jacques Bonnin change experiences and to inform on Following a call for tenders, a consor­ SPRINT Technical Assistance Unit best practices. tium of experts and international 119, Avenue de la Fai'encerie consultants led by Segal Quince L-1511 Luxembourg The next workshops are scheduled as Wicksteed Ltd (UK) has been appoin­ Tel: +352 465588 follows: ted to carry out a feasibility study on Fax: +352 465550 the networking of science parks. * November 15-16: Research and technology organisations - strategies The study has three main objectives: for the future * December 6-7: The clustering of I.To see how, where and when net­ innovative SMEs works of European science parks can be established or strengthened.

2.To evaluate if the use of telematic applications by science parks and their Contact: tenant companies could support the transfer of technology, exchange of MM Gerhard Braunling/ Enrico experience and cooperation between Deiaco science parks and firms as well as CEC - DG XIII/ D/4, research centres locally or internatio­ Jean Monnet Building nally. L-2920 Luxembourg Tel: +352 4301 34532 3.To assess the potential role of science Fax: +352 430134544 parks as demonstration centres for .···.r~' ·... ~~ 11 Pilot information service for Open Information Interchange: 011 Spectrum

The pilot information service covering Oil Spectrum will explain what is Oil standards will be launched in being done to make Oil possible, by September. whom and why, and how you can en­ sure that your organisation benefits The CEC is supporting the launch of a from OIL "news plus" service, that will combine the friendly and useful features of a The news service is a commercial serv­ newsletter with the in-depth knowl­ ice and will be published by edge analysis of experts and consul­ Technology Appraisals Ltd. tants. Technology Appraisals Ltd A free wall chart explaining on will be To be published monthly, each issue available at the same time as the 82 Hampton Road contains: analysis, discussion and guid­ launch in both English and French. Twickenham ance in authoritative feature articles Middlesex TW2 5QS commissioned from leading experts and To obtain a copy of the wall chart and United Kingdom industry commentators, providing you more information about on Spectrum with the basis for short-term decisions write to: Fax: +44 817441149 and long-term strategy formulation.

Open Information Interchange

Study of graphics standard Second Work shop on OIi

A study of graphics standards has been The IMP ACT programme will organise DTD fragments such as tables and carried out by PIRA (UK) in the a two-day workshop on Open mathematical notation, the possibility context of the on (Open Information Information Interchange the 2nd-3rd of extending the Text Encoding initiati­ Interchange) actions. December 1993 in Luxembourg. ve to business information, and the use of SGML coding in conjunction with The study provides a brief introduction The workshop is a follow-up to the first EDI. to each of the main standards for workshop in June 1991. image and graphic coding for still The workshop will provide a forum for images, their application and use, and * The first half-day will provide a pro­ publishers and document designers to a general statement of the factors to be gress report on on activities: image discuss the issues of attaching intellec­ taken into consideration when using standards study, references model tual property management information graphic standards. study, pilot information service and the to electronic documents and design multimedia/hypermedia workshop. issues in the use of SGML. The standard covered are both official standards from ISO and other interna­ * The second half-day will cover intel­ Registration for the workshop is free; tional bodies and the main de facto lectual property management services: further information can be obtained standards in use in industry. what data will be required and how from DG XIII/E in Luxembourg. will it be connected to documents. Copies of the 94 page report can be obtained free from: * The second day will be devoted to the standardisation of Document Type Descriptions (DTD) for use in SGML environments to aid the interchange of Contact: electronic documents. The IMPACT Central Office G. Heine Speakers will discuss how DTDs can DGXIII/E DGXIII/E help in overcoming the problems of L-2920 Luxembourg L-2920 Luxembourg SGMLJODA interworking, the current Tel: +352 43013 3260 Fax:+ 352 4301 32847. state of international DTD standards Fax: +352 43013 3190 for publishing, standards for specific

:_""·:-~'12 Info EURO Access:

Call for Declarations of Intent soon

In order to stimulate increased partici­ organisations to declare tasks or sub­ or sound, where such forms are of pation in the IMP ACT programme, its ject areas which are not yet ready to be value to the user in his working envi­ Central Office is giving advance infor­ the subject of proposals but require ini­ ronment; mation on a call for Declarations of tial study, further work or activity on * a clear and open combination oflocal­ Intent, due for publication in the EC's the legislation front. ly stored information and remote infor­ Official Journal in early October. mation, in particular using ISDN, Declarations will enable the broadband, satellite or other advanced IMPACT's main aim is to create a Commission to plan the INFO EURO transmission facilities, showing how European market for information serv­ ACCESS exercise in the light of the the end-user can integrate it into his ices, and the projects sought will there­ interest and orientation shown by working environment. fore be orientated towards applications industry, in particular by defining the based on available technologies, rather scope and conditions of the intended Responses to the October call will be than on technological research and call for proposals and ensuring adequa­ invited from organisations established development. te administrative and budgetary sup­ in an EC Member State or in another port for projects. They will also assist country included in the European In the Council Decision 91/691/EEC of the Commission to define future Economic Area (Austria, Finland, 12 December 1991 the EC Commission actions supporting the development of Iceland, Liechtenstein, Norway, adopted a programme for the establish­ a European information market. Sweden). ment of an internal information ser­ vices market (IMPACT 2). It now The Commission will be looking for the intends to complement its market sup­ following characteristics in projects: Responses should arrive by 15 January port of 1992 and 1993 with an initiat­ * the development of information pro­ 1994 at the following address: ive in favour of integrated information ducts and services for significant tailored to the needs of specific end­ groups of users. Such users should be users in different locations in Europe. addressed as an open market and not linked in closed networks. Information CEC - DG XIII-E-2 Known as INFO EURO ACCESS, this sources likely to be of value to the initiative is designed to improve European economy, for example by IMPACT Programme, European-wide access to information improving commercial and industrial Jean Monnet Building, and enable businesses to obtain infor­ productivity or creating new employ­ Office C4-25A, mation rapidly and efficiently, in parti­ ment opportunities, will be of particul­ L-2920 Luxembourg cular through the emerging transmis­ ar interest. sion facilities to be offered by EURO­ * the improvement of access to and use ISDN, forthcoming broadband comun­ of information through innovative ications and other advanced delivery approaches and presentational fea­ channels. tures, using new tools such as geogra­ phical information systems, interactive Organisations submitting their names By supporting key development pro­ multimedia devices, advanced inter­ and addresses after that date will jects INFO EURO ACCESS will show faces and intelligent interpreters to nevertheless be sent further inform­ viable ways of combining data from dif­ overcome language or other barriers to ation on calls for proposals or other ferent sources, local and remote, for information access. actions decided as a result of this exer­ the benefit of business users, and * commercial viability cise. demonstrate solutions for overcoming * involvement of active partners from technical, linguistic and administrative different Member States. This may The Commission expects to be able to obstacles impeding access to informa­ include participation from States in the invite full proposals from all respon­ tion. At the present time it is not fea­ European Economic Area. The involve­ dents by mid-1994 in order to permit sible to invite formal and complete pro­ ment of enterprises in the less favour­ evaluation and negotiation of projects posals since IMPACT's 1994 budget ed regions and projects benefitting the by early 1995. will not permit support for new pro­ economy of those regions will be encour­ jects in that year. aged. * Projects must be led by a private­ However, as an adequate budget sector company should be available for 1995, the Commission will be looking for interest­ This list is not exhaustive, and projects ed organisations to declare their intent are likely to be sought with specific to make a later proposal. Such decla­ features such as: Contact: rations should contain only very brief * organisational and administrative summaries of the intended projects. measures to simplify contract and pay­ IMPACT Central Office Full details would only be necessary in ment facilities for access to remote response to a later, formal call for pro­ information; Tel: +352 3498 1222 posals. * integration of information in differ­ Fax: +352 430132847 The Commission will also be inviting ent forms, such as text, images, video Internet extends information access potential: ECHO databases now accessible via this network

It is increasingly difficult to keep Protocol/Internet Protocol). Networks information services market. This track of the proliferation of data net­ which register with and operate on directory contains information on works available. The past decade has Internet are, where permitted, acces­ more than 2500 online databases, seen significant growth in the num­ sible to any other Internet network, 2000 CD-ROMs and CD-I products, ber of public and private, local, wide using either the TCP/IP protocol 800 other information products, 1800 area and regional networks now suite or the OSI (Open Systems information producers, 800 services estimated to exceed one million. Interconnection) protocol suite. offering access and 1000 information Beyond these are the national, inter­ brokers. national or top-level domain net­ Created in 1983, Internet has seen works which can, for example, enable dramatic growth in the number of In addition, via Internet, online researchers to obtain information or networks connected to it, expanding users can access the entire range of communicate with other researchers from 100 networks in 1985 to over databases hosted on the European on almost any network in any part of one million hosts connected worldwi­ Commission's host ECHO, falling the world. International networking de in March 1993. Present-day user within the general categories of user may appear potentially straightfor­ figures stand at over 10 million support, research and development, ward. However, each network has its worldwide (16,000 organisations), language industry, and industry and own physical layout or topology mainly from the university and economy. All databases can at pre­ determined by location, equipment research institute communities. sent be accessed free of charge with and application. To enable different Services available can be categorised the exception of TED (Tenders networks to link up and communica­ as connectivity (via the Internet Electronic Daily), the online version te with each other, special protocol Protocol), communication (such as of the Supplement S to the Official converters or interfaces have there­ electronic mail and file transfer) and Journal of the European fore been developed. information (access to databases). Communities, containing invitations to tender for public contracts from An example of the extension of a So, what have *LANs, WANs and over 80 countries. national network to an international MANs to do with DG XIII's IMPACT level is the case of the JANET net­ programme (Information Market ECHO is accessible via Internet at work connecting all university Policy Actions) aimed at developing the following address: research networks in the UK. By ins­ the European information services Telnet ECHO.LU. Internet mail­ talling the special EuropaNET (for­ market? The availability of such box address: echo.mail@Eurokom. merly IXI - International X.25 wide networking potential is seen as Infrastructure) interface, JANET an opportunity not to be overlooked Contact: users can connect to all EuropaNET in disseminating awareness about users in other countries. electronic information services. ECHO Customer Service Network users are obviously already B. P. 2373 Addressing the demand to access and converts in terms of using electronic L-1023 Luxembourg search information on a global scale information. There is, however, huge Tel: +352 3498 1200 by tackling the plethora of networks scope to increase awareness of what Fax: +352 3498 1234 and protocols that exist, Internet has is available in the European electro­ emerged as an organised "network of nic information services market. The networks". Aiming to link all net­ number of users capable of being rea­ * LAN = Local area network works together so that a user has ched offers a vast audience who can (or short-distance network) access to information from all parts benefit, for example, from access to WAN = Wide area network of the world, Internet operates on the I'M Guide database, the ''Yellow MAN = Metropolitan area network TCP/IP (Transmission Control Pages" of the European electronic

LAB meeting addresses information industry concerns

At DG XIII's Legal Advisory Board ices across borders is that the seller charge full or reduced VAT. In the (LAB) meeting on 29-30 April 1993, (the information service) applies no annex to the Council Decision, a list of two main agenda items were of concern VAT, whereas the buyer (ie the user) suppplies of goods and services which for the electronic information industry: has to apply the VAT, pay the VAT to may be subject to reduced category is namely the situation concerning VAT his administration according to the of interest to the information industry: in general and on information after 1 rate in his country. information published on traditional January 1993, and liability issues rela­ media, newspapers, books, periodicals ted to information services. In the Council Directive 92/77 /EC of 19 and library loans. This means that, if October 1992, the Communities have a database is published on paper, a Since 1 January 93, the basic principle for the first time established a harmo­ reduced rate can be applied; if it is concerning VAT on information serv- nised principle concerning where to published electronically (e.g. on a CD-ROM), the full rate must be Proposal expansion awards for applied. Concerning the difficult subject of lia­ SMEs participating in the bility issues, the LAB had a lengthy discussion based on a number of docu­ Libraries third call for proposals ments and introductory presentations. The advanced notice concerning propo­ posed third call, and are intended for The LAB recommended to the sal expansion awards related to the SMEs established within the Commission that more studies be car­ Libraries intended third call for propo­ Community, in partnership with libra­ ried out. It was also proposed that the sals, has been published in the Official ries. Qualifying consortia would be Commission initiate work on providing Journal of the European Communities. invited to submit proposal outlines for practical guidelines to all those concer­ themes of Libraries action line 4: ned with the provision and use of infor­ The proposed third call is scheduled for Stimulation of a European market in mation services. These should not seek November 1993, subject to availability telematic products and services specific to offer definitive guidance but should offunds. for libraries, feasibility and require­ describe any relevant national or EC ments. authorities and should include check Results of the two previous Libraries A final decision concerning the propo­ lists of significant legal issues. calls indicated that a problem exists in sal expansion awards initiative should Finally, and in conjunction with the matching the technological skills of be taken in September. However, guidelines, it was suggested also to suppliers of library-related systems interested organizations are invited, as make model standard contracts. and services, primarily small to of now, to contact the Commission for medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), information with the requirements of libraries as users of new or emerging technologies. Contact: Contact: To facilitate communication between CEC/E-3 G. Papapavlou SME suppliers and libraries the LIBRARIES Programme CEC, DG XIII/E Commission is examining the possibili­ Expansion Awards L-2920 Luxembourg ty of making financial awards to partly Jean Monnet building (C5 66) fund activities related to the proposal Luxembourg Tel: +352 4301 34318 expansion of suitable projects. Tel: +352 4301 32126/4301 34071 Fax:: +352 4301 32847 These expansion awards would be Fax: +352 430133530 made only in conjunction with the pro-

Libraries programme: results of Call for Proposals 1992

The second Call for Proposals in the 15 of these 19 have been selected for * electronic delivery methods, inclu­ framework of the DG XIII Libraries further negotiation as a first priority. ding typically fax; Programme was published in October * development of multimedia front-end 1992 with the same scope (defined by There are two test-bed projects in the tools to the services; preferred priority themes) as the first OSI standards area: use ofX.500 proto­ * experimental technologies new to call. cols and structures to support an libraries such as voice recognition and enquiry and reference service; the the communications technologies By the deadline of 15 February 1993, a development of a gateway between two necessary in a mobile, rural environ­ total of 97 proposals were received, search and retrieval standards, Z39.50 ment. representing 500 participants from 438 and ISO SR. Service-oriented projects organisations in all Member States will extend and improve access to A number of projects will develop proto­ except Luxembourg. EFTA countries information sources for users of mobile type tools or products aimed both at were also amongst them. 38 of the pro­ libraries, for end-users accessing the end-users (handling of SGML docu­ posals submitted had libraries as coor­ academic networks, distance and inde­ ments and automatic matching of search dinating partners, and libraries or pendent learners in public and higher results with local holdings) and at libra­ library agencies and cooperative orga­ education institute libraries, and for ry professionals (scanning and structu­ nisations accounted for almost half of public library users requiring commu­ ring of enriched bibliographic data in the participants. nity or quick-reference information. A documents and a prototype CD-ROM number of projects will test access to integrating bibliographic data and tex­ Following technical evaluation, 19 pro­ information and delivery of documents tual images). posals were retained, involving 98 par­ for specific categories of users (aero­ ticipants from the 11 Member States space research and industry, distance Contact: which put forward proposals. Of these learners, those requiring chemical 66 (68%) are from the library sector, information) and in two different natio­ CEC - DG XIII /E-3 including 11 from public libraries. All nal contexts (Italy and Portugal). Libraries Unit, types of organisations are represented, Jean Monnet Building room C5/66, though private sector participation is The technologies are varied, including: L-2920 Luxembourg. particularly weak (only 7 organisa­ * the network interfaces for online Tel: +352 4301 32126. tions). After strategic considerations access and ordering; Fax: +352 4301 33530 .

: ... ·. -~.,f ?:'~ 15 · ... · •«/ Current state of development of EUROGI

Issue no 10 of XIII Magazine News citizens, better harmonisation and Regarding services, it is proposed that Review announced progress towards exchange of ideas and skills leading to EUROGI would: improve and effect­ the establishment of a European successful exploitation of these deve­ uate interdisciplinary communication Umbrella Organisation for Geographical lopments could bring potential benefits at a European level; improve informa­ Information (revised acronym EURO­ to a large proportion of the European tion gathering and dissemination; and GI), following an enquiry into its feasi­ population. provide assistance to the less advan­ bility initiated by DG XIII/E entitled ced. Information Industry and Market and By May 1993, a draft document was Language Processing. The inaugural written detailing the strategic, coordi­ A business plan is currently being pre­ meeting to set up EUROGI is schedul­ nating and service roles ofEUROGI. pared to select from the proposed acti­ ed to take place in Luxembourg on 25- vities those that are most appropriate 26 November 1993. In terms of strategy, it is proposed that for the new organisation. A more EUROGI would: stimulate strategic detailed status report is now available It has been recognized that the current thinking and innovation; promote stan­ from the address below. national and international initiatives dards and technical benefits; stimulate in Europe which deal with geographi­ R&D developments; accelerate techni­ cal information need to be consolidated cal developments; and stimulate dis­ within a unique forum. The existence cussion on legitimacy and support for of a European umbrella organisation GI in Europe. would better address the commercial Contact: opportunities presented by forces such In terms of coordination, it is proposed as flexibility of computer tools and the that EUROGI would: improve and Martin Littlejohn versatility of digital geographical infor­ streamline cooperation; reduce dupli­ CEC, DG XIII/E mation and its access. Because most cation; increase internationalisation L-2920 Luxembourg national and international geographic and harmonisation; and serve as a Tel: +352 4301 32187 activities have spatial aspects that point of contact between the European Fax: +352 430133190 could affect the lives of most European Community and the GI community.

Information Market Observatory (IMO): an update

IMO working paper (93 I 2) on the CD­ videotex services, CD-ROM publishing, Mr Steffens ROM market 1987-1992 provides a and fax-based and audiotex services. NCWTD-CNDST comprehensive overview of the market, Among the many interesting findings 4 Boulevard de l'Empereur from both a geographical and a techni­ presented is that the inter-EC trade in B-1000 Brussels cal perspective. It gives specific details online ASCII databases (26.1 % growth Tel: +32 2 519 5640 on both demand and supply sides of in absolute terms) was the fastest grow­ Fax: +32 2 519 5679 the market: number of installed drives, ing market area between 1989 and 1990. titles in print, revenues and market The equivalent 1992 Annual Report is trends. The paper addresses the conti­ in the final stages of preparation. In With the exception of the working nuing proliferation of format and plat­ addition to the areas covered in the papers (available as above and from form types, and the confusion experien­ 1991 report, attention is given to the the national dissemination agents), ced by the consumer. business environment for electronic copies of the above reports may be publishing and to the evolving obtained from the address below. The third working paper of 1993 (93/3) European information marketplace. Please note that the Annual Report is contains an overview of the audiotex available in all official Community lan­ market for the period 1987-1992. The proceedings of the IMO workshop guages. When requesting the 1991 Attention is focused on European held in Luxembourg on 3-4 November Annual Report, please indicate if you issues in a global context, the current 1992, entitled The role of information wish to receive the 1992 version when state of premium rate services, as well in the economy and in society, are also it becomes available. All other docu­ as non-technical problems. The paper available. This workshop discussed the mentation is in the English language also reports on the barriers in the mar­ wide-ranging role of information, from only. ket, and how these may be overcome. the point of view of the economy, firms and organisations, and the social, The IMO's 1991 Annual Report covers legal and policy aspects. Contact: the main events and developments in the European electronic information Finally, the IMO is pleased to announ­ IMP ACT Central Office services market, and reviews the most ce that, for Belgium, IMO working CEC, DG XIII/E important trends in the following sec­ papers may now be obtained from the L-2920 Luxembourg tors: online ASCII database services, address below. Fax: +352 430132847. _.··· .. ,-,~'16 ·... ·~ PUBLAW 2 workshop findings IMPACT

The previous issue of the News Review Guidelines or their being supplemen­ national and EC level. There appears (N°1/93) outlined the subject of synergy ted with sector-bases guidelines. to be a wish for Commission involve­ between public and private sectors in ment and support in the organisation the information market, which was Parts of the private sector pushed for a of these forums. addressed by the Legal Advisory Board directive that would create a format for (LAB) workshop held on 4 March 1993. possible action with the public bodies A large number of participants expres­ The aim of the forum was to produce in dealing to establishing a commercial sed serious doubts about the opportu­ concrete indications of action which the right of access to public sector data­ nity to include a provision in Article marketplace expects the CEC to take bases. 8.2 of the Draft Directive on the Legal in this field . Protection of Databases which would Supplementary or alternative steps introduce a de facto right of access to Options for action focused on: were also proposed, such as obliging public sector databases. * the future of the Guidelines for synergy public bodies to publish inventories of * reinforcement of the Guidelines' status their information resources; the proce­ After useful debate, it was concluded * exploration of a legislative initiative duralisation of the process by which that the various proposals should be * the organisation of discussion groups Member States make decisions in the thoroughly examined and that the and similar measures. information market; and the appoint­ resulting series of difficult points ment of a single authority in each required further clarification. The discussion and the replies to a Member State administration to deal questionnaire confirmed that there is with the private sector and ensure a Contact: quite a division between the views of realistic approach to synergy and some members. Many participants, access issues. G. Papapavlou predominatly from the public sector, CEC, DG XIII/E appeared sceptical about a potential Both public and private sector repre­ L-2920 Luxembourg legislative initiative by the sentative seemed to agree on the organ­ Tel: +352 4301 34318 Commission. They would be prepared isations of forums to discuss practical Fax: +352 430132847 to accept a slight upgrading of the public-private synergy issues at both

Results of LRE Call for Proposals 1992

A second Call for Proposals was publi­ ries and universities, through SMEs to Unexpectedly, several Member State shed in October 1992 for shared-cost IT companies and user organisations. administrations and government projects in the area of linguistic resear­ Half of the projects eligible to receive bodies also participated. ch and engineering (LRE ), one of the EC funds are concerned with the build­ seven areas covered by the Specific ing of practical applications based on Despite the limited budget available, Programme in the field of Telematic existing knowledge. R&D tasks are the growing interest and participation Systems. nevertheless present in all projects, of those active in the industry through­ along with integration and validation out the EC, including SMEs, is signifi­ The call generated a very positive res­ of innovative technologies. cant. It shows that LRE initiatives can ponse by its deadline of 11 January successfully increase awareness of the 1993. The 82 proposals accepted for Compared with the first call for propo­ economic impact of language modelling technical evaluation represented some sals, which addressed a wide range of and engineering activities in Europe, 400 participants from 300 different themes, the second call took a more and stimulate the emergence of a organisations based in 17 countries, selective and integrated approach to European language infrastructure. with a evenly balanced distribution technology development and applica­ between universities (55%) and compa­ tion building. The main themes addres­ nies, administrations and R&D centres sed were research aimed at improving (45 %). The total EC contribution the scientific basis of linguistic techno­ requested by the 82 projects amounts logies; common methods, tools and lin­ to approximately 69 Mecu, exceeding guistic resources; and pilot and by a factor of 7 the funds available. demonstration projects (those selected focusing on machine-aided translation Contact: Sixteen proposals have been recom­ and advanced office automation tools). mended for funding, representing R. Cencioni around 2000 man-months of work, and The call has been successful in attrac­ CEC, DG XIII/E involving some 90 project partners in ting the interest of the private sector, L-2920 Luxembourg all Member States and several EFTA including major IT suppliers, SMEs Tel: +352 4301 32859 countries. A wide variety of organisa­ specialising in natural language pro­ Fax: +352 430134655 tions is represented, ranging from aca­ cessing and artificial intelligence, serv­ demic institutions, research laborato- ice industries and user organisations. ,.····.r'~'·. _.·~ 17 New opportunities for publishers in the IMPACT information services market

Over the past 15 years, traditional nover of more than 75,500 Mecus) are most traditional publishers have yet publishers have experimented with unaware of the dramatic changes in realised. For example, the strength of new media products, but with limited the information industry and of the video game publishers, largely success in terms of return on invest­ opportunities and threats of the new Japanese and American companies, ment. The world's leading publishers media. There is uncertainty about should not be overlooked. Traditional still gain more than 90% of their pro­ technologies, markets and economics, publishers not exploiting opportunities fits from paper-based systems. It is and very little vision of the future. in electronic publishing at the right therefore of strategic importance for time and with the appropriate strategy the future of the European information Whereas Japan is strong in hardware will lose this business to third parties. industry that the publishers, who own and the USA has an additional strength The same applies even more to book­ most of the content, become involved in in application software, Europe's sellers and in particular to printers. the emerging scene of electronic publi­ strength lies in the richness of content shing. This fact has led the CEC, in for information products. Whilst this Against this background, the report close cooperation with representatives gives European publishers attractive suggests that significant support from of the publishing industry, to commiss­ opportunities for electronic publishing, the European Commission is necessary ion a strategic study on new opportuni­ it is also a threat that their mainly to help the European publishing indus­ ties for publishers in the information text-based contents will not be adequ­ try increase awareness, willingness services market. This has been initiat­ ate for multimedia applications where and ability in electronic publishing. ed within the framework of the music and "movies", with production This is strategically even more impor­ IMPACT (Information Market Policy dominated by non-European compa­ tant in the light of the Japanese and Actions) programme ofDG XIII. nies, play a significant role. American governments' commitments to electronic and multimedia publi­ The main findings of the CEC study Since publishing markets are based on shing and related industries. are as follows. On 7th October 1993 languages, electronic publications in electronic publishing will also be the the English language find larger mar­ The report has been disseminated to subject of a plenary meeting and inter­ kets and offer a higher and faster 2000 participants in the market with a active workshop during the Frankfurt return on investment. This gives an request for comments. Their replies Book Fair, with the participation of advantage to publishers based in the will enable the Commission to validate leaders of the relevant industry sec­ USA and makes the necessary learning the views and recommendations tors. curve longer, more costly and risky for expressed in the report. non-English publishers. Although print products will remain Contact: the most important publishing sector There are many new opportunities for in the coming decades, the study ident­ publishers in electronic information Luc Briol ified a rapidly growing market for elec­ businesses (such as corporate publi­ CEC, DG XIII/E tronic information products in Europe. shing), but also for players outside the L-2920 Luxembourg Most of the 60,000 European publi­ traditional publishing arena, who are Tel: +352 4301 34450 shers (mainly SMEs generating a tur- expected to play a stronger role than Fax: +352 430133909

GIS Call for Proposals - IMPACT evaluation results reflect pan-European interest

A Call for Proposals for information processing or modelling of the spatial services based on geographical infor­ component. The development of new At the conclusion of evaluation proce­ mation systems (GIS) technology was services based on the capabilities of dures, 28 proposals were recommended published in the Official Journal of the GIS can potentially contribute towards for Community funding, 24 of which European Communities (No. C308) in achieving the aim of DG XIII's (i.e., 85%) have LFR participation and November 1992. IMPACT (Information Market Policy 13 of which are LFR-led. Actions) programme, whose strategic In this context GIS is understood to theme is improving the accessibility of Of the total of 596 companies involved represent an information integrating information at the European level for in proposals submitted, 527 were small technology for digital processing, spa­ all interested parties. and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), tial analysis and presentation of infor­ taking under 500 employees as the dis­ mation which is associated with a posi­ By the deadline of 1 March 1993, a tinguishing criterion. tion on the earth. total of 190 proposals was received Selected projects involved 118 compa­ It is a powerful tool enabling easy involving 596 different organisations nies/organisations, 98 of which were access to large volumes of data, selec­ from all Member States. High partici­ SMEs. tion of information on the basis of pation by the five less favoured regions themes or locations, and representa­ (LFRs) is illustrated by their involve­ The types of organisations participa­ tions of data in new forms derived from ment in 166 of the 190 proposals. ting in these projects are distributed as :... ·.,-?':~-~., 18 ·.. ··~ follows: Many proposals were strong in specific shed in the Supplement S to the - Public administration: 21 aspects but not all, or were insuffi­ Official Journal of the EC - and also in - Research/academic: 12 ciently clear or did not comprise a suf­ the database TED (Tenders Electronic - Private enterprise: 77 ficiently significant use of GIS functio­ Daily). Every day between 200 and 300 - Non-profit association or nality, particularly in spatial proces­ calls for tender, contract awards and institute in private sector: 8 sing. other tender-related documents are published in both printed form and The total number of proposals recom­ The GIS market is not yet equally well online, the overall contract value per mended for funding per Member State established in all Member States. year amounting to approximately 500 is as follows: (T = total participation as However, the size of the response indi­ billion Ecu. Calls for tender and calls a partner or coordinator; C = participa­ cates the considerable interest in this for proposals issued by the Commission tion as a coordinator): market, especially in LFRs. The of the European Communities are also Commission's responsibility is now to usually announced via these media. In - Belgium: 3 (T) disseminate the results of the call and addition, TED contains tenders from - Denmark: 5 (T); 2 (C) the progress of the ensuing projects as other sources such as GATT and ACP - France: 7 (T) widely as possible to build on this level agreements. - Germany: 3 (T); 1 (C) of interest. - Greece: 10 (T); 3 (C) While the text of the documents is the - Ireland 6 (T); 1 (C) A listing of the proposals recommended same printed and online, the online - Italy: 6 (T); 4 (C) for support, together with fact sheets users benefit from enhanced search faci­ - Netherlands: 8 (T); 1 (C) on these 28 individual projects, may be lities. Searches are possible by country - Portugal: 7 (T) obtained from the address below. and city. Products can be searched - Spain: 10 (T); 5 (C) either by typing their name or by using - UK: 15 (T); 11 (C) the NACE product classification. Contact: Further codes include searching by The distribution of subject areas in the legal aspects in order to select, e.g., by 28 projects recommended for funding Mr Martin Littlejohn type of document, regulation of procu­ roughly reflects the current trend in CEC, DG XIII/E rement or type of bid required. It is the usage of GIS technology. L-2920 Luxembourg also possible to search by dates, e.g., Environment, business, transport and Tel: +352 4301 32187 the publication date or the final date navigation (including tourism), plan­ Fax: +352 4301 33190 for submission of tenders. ning and local government emerged as the main application areas addressed. TED is available online via a number Projects were selected on the merit of of commercial information providers. the proposal without preference being In addition, to ensure equal opportuni­ given to specific subject areas. ties for potential tenderers from all Following confirmation of the final Tenders Electronic Member States, TED is offered in all selection, the projects will be supported official languages of the European for a definition phase of up to six Daily= TED Community by ECHO (European months. After a further selection proce­ Commission Host Organisation) in dure, support will be given to a limited close collaboration with EUR-OP number of these projects for an imple­ The publication of Calls for Tender has (Office for Official Publications of the mentation phase of up to 18 months' long been a tradition at a national and EC) and DG III of the EC Commission. duration. regional level, but it is clear that a Single Market in the European TED can be accessed online on ECHO, The timing of the call for proposals was Community will not succeed without with the simple but powerful retrieval considered appropriate by the evalua­ the liberalisation of public procure­ language CCL. For those unfamiliar tors, who noted considerable variations ment. Though calls for tender which with CCL, a menu version is available. in terms of general presentation, infor­ amount to a sum of money below a cer­ Access to TED is charged at 48 Ecus mation content, GIS features, market tain threshold will be of particular per connect hour; users wishing to definition and potential commercial interest at a national level, those have a look at TED may use the free­ viability of proposals. In general, they which are above this threshold will cer­ of-charge TED-DEMO database avail­ were able to commend proposals for tainly be of interest to all EC countries. able under the public password ECHO marketable GIS information services, (Network User Address: 270448112). as opposed to applications internal to With this policy in mind, the EC esta­ an organisation or group of organisa­ blished, during the seventies, two main Companies interested in systematic tions that: directives which cover the supplies and scanning of their range of activity can * comprised a clear and adequate defi­ the construction areas. The Council obtain tenders matching their profile nition phase, has decreed that supply contracts daily via telex and telefax. * addressed essential issues such as which exceed 200,000 Ecus and works copyright and costs of set-up and of contracts exceeding 5 million Ecus must be made known to all EC compa­ maintenance, Contact: * proposed appropriate technology for nies under the same conditions. With a delivery, new regulation, services exceeding ECHO * set out a strong and realistic prelimi­ 200,000 Ecus must be published and P.O.Box 2373 nary business plan and showed clear opened EC-wide as of 1 July 1993. L - 1023 Luxembourg understanding of the inherent pro­ Tel.: +352 - 34 98 12 00 blems to be faced in implementing a Tenders are translated into all official Fax: +352 - 34 98 12 34 GIS information service. Community languages and are publi- European Commission encourages Attention focused on Multimedia developments European biotechnology On 15 and 16 March 1993, the The standards required of the new pro­ information needs Commission of the European ducts will be high, given that a number Communities brought together in a of different delivery bases are expected Nine European organisations involved special workshop the developers of 58 to co-exist on the market for the fore­ in biotechnology information have form­ interactive multimedia projects to hear seeable future.Moreover, although the ed a strategic forum in response to a the latest news from equipment and unit cost of the hardware is not high, report published in 1990. Entitled software suppliers, discuss vital issues in general users are not likely to invest "Bioinformation in Europe: Strategy such as copyright and marketing, and in more than one system. In the for a European Biotechnology exchange views and experience in the Commission's view, the key to market Information Infrastructure", the report new field of interactive multimedia penetration in these circumstances (co-financed by the CEC) concluded information products. comprises the twin facets of subject that Europe lacked the focus and infra­ importance and interactivity. Whereas structure to provide long-term stability Interactive multimedia is seen by the it is clear that the information content to both academic and commercial bio­ CEC as an essential activity for the of the product must be authoritative, technology information products. European electronic information indus­ valuable and tailored to the user's try and one in which new players will needs, the concept of interactivity has Given the immense importance of bio­ emerge from sectors as diverse as tra­ yet to be developed to its ultimate technology to industrial Europe, it was ditional print publishers, the film and potential. The surge of electronic concluded that greater benefit could be television industry, and computer games in recent years has led to higher derived by all users and producers if hardware and software houses. The expectations in terms of response biotechnology information products merging of skills from these different speed and interaction with a variety of could be brought together. sources will result in new information symbols and routines. The challenge products that will put a strong empha­ now is to take these advances further Supported by a grant from DG XIII, sis on the concept of interactivity and in the context of information delivery. the European Biotechnology accessibility of information. Information Strategic Forum (BTSF) For this reason, the project developers brings together: CAB International The 58 projects were selected from over at the workshop were interested to (UK), Excerpta Medica (NL), Inst.PAS­ 300 proposals received after a Call for note the latest advances of the major CAL (France), Pergamon Press (UK), Proposals published in June 1992, suppliers, IBM, Philips and Microsoft, Springer Verlag (Germany), The Royal within the framework of DG XIII's who demonstrated their authoring Society of Chemistry (UK), Wolters­ IMPACT programme. The projects are tools and latest application products. Kluwer Academic Publishers (NL), the currently engaged in a six-month defi­ Authoring tools allow the developers to EMBL Data Library (Germany) and nition phase, with Community finan­ compose the information product they CERDIC (France). cial support, to solve the initial pro­ intend to put on the market. These pro­ blems anticipated in mounting new grammes cut the cost of setting up a Modern biotechnology is highly inform­ projects in a rapidly changing environ­ new information product on an optical ation-dependent and uses a wide variety ment. Their subject matter is diverse, disc, but the major task lies with the of information sources and technologies. but in each case is expected to attract a imagination of the developers, drawing The members encompass these skills, significant number of users, thus open­ on the skills of film, computer anima­ and cover the full range of sciences ing up new markets and encouraging tion, programming and subject experti­ relevant to biotechnology, including further participants and products to se to produce commodities that will be agriculture, the environment, medici­ appear on the market. The European bought and used both in the home and ne, biomedicine and tropical medicine, Commission is investing almost 7 mil­ for a variety of professional needs. biology and chemistry. The business lion Ecu in support of the projects. aspects of biotechnology are also cater­ The 58 European projects continued ed for. Among the members are publi­ One project sets out to produce, for a their definition phase work until July shers active in the field, while the Philips CD-I system, a comprehensive 1993, after which they will be in a EMBL Data Library produces and dis­ encyclopaedia on the history of Europe, position to present their results and a tributes nucleotide and related protein combining text, pictures and video concrete plan for implementation of sequence databases, and CERDIC pro­ sequences, aimed at the home and edu­ main developments, production and duces immunoclones and cell line data­ cational markets. Another will compile marketing. The European Commission bases. a maintenance guide for trucks, while will offer further support to a small a number of projects, using CD-ROM number of the projects through this The forum has agreed the following in­ and multimedia PCs as well as CD-I stage, but the majority will continue itial tasks: and other bases, will offer health infor­ with other financing, including venture * to identify and characterise user mation on a variety of subjects inclu­ capital. needs through interactions with ding childbirth, childhood illnesses, fit­ industry platforms, advisory ness routines, nutrition, and health Contact: groups, market sectors and indivi­ and safety at work. Because of the dual purchasers/users; opportunity to include pictures, video C. Poliart * to measure these needs against com­ and sound in a truly interactive sys­ CEC, DG XIII/E mercial, technical and political limita­ tem, many of the projects target cultu­ L-2920 Luxembourg tions; ral subjects such as paintings, architec­ Tel: +352 4301 34226 * to develop potential solutions to such ture and music. Fax: +352 4301 33190 market-led questions; .···.r.~~, •· ... ·'-W• i;, v:-~ 20 * to develop systems for the long-term lish the BTSF as the permanent focal same group are investigating further support of non-commercial products; point for multi-partner European project research into the production of a com­ -to examine ways of interlinking pro­ development, general commercial stra­ mon core database in biotechnology. ducts to ease the use of both individual tegic needs, and product and project and combinations of files and products; security in the biotechnology inform­ Contact: *to examine ways of securing the fut­ ation sector. The BTSF also plans to ure of independent database hosts for become a European focal point for The Biotechnology Information the European user; international activities. Strategic Forum, * to strengthen the European informa­ Voorhaven 33, tion industry's response to internatio­ The partners stress that they will NL-1135 BL Edam, nal market and political demands. maintain their independent products; The Netherlands. strategic emphasis is being placed on Tel: +31 2993 72751 The project will run initially for two issues rather than individual project Fax: +31 2993 72877 years, although the intention is to estab- details. At the same time, many of the

STANDARDISATION

Electromagnetic ETSl's Intellectual Property Rights Policy compatibility: ETSI adopts framework principles for non-discriminatory terms. In the event workshop on the EC the implementation of its Intellectual of this happening, the standard in Property Rights (IPR) Policy and question would have to be redesigned directive Undertaking in order to avoid the withheld IPR incurring delays and extra costs. On 25th-26th October 1993 the At its 17th General Assembly, ETSI Directorate for Internal Market and approved the framework principles for The ETSI's IPR arrangements preserve Industrial Affairs - DG III - is organizing implementing its IPR Policy and the right of an IPR holder to withhold a workshop entitled "Electromagnetic Undertaking. Recognising that ETSI his IPR, if he so desires, but requests compatibility'' in Brussels. statutes allow the Institute to take any all its members and any other signat­ actions which help it fulfil its mission, ries to the arrangements to specify Items to be discussed: the general assembly confirmed in its their intention of withholding IPR resolution that such actions may incl­ within 180 days of the formal approval * international and European standar­ ude the implementation of the IPR of a work item. This enables the ETSI dization, Policy and undertaking previously work programme to be modified so that adopted. standards are not blocked by IPRs. * the "new approach" directives, As a consequence, the Institute's stat­ ETSI is the recognised standards body * the EMC directive of 1989, utes and rules of procedure will be for telecommunication, and has direct amended to allow its implementation. representation. Its IPR Policy and * telecommunications terminal equip­ undertaking aims to meet the needs of ment, The IPR Policy and Undertaking stipu­ all members, which include manufac­ lates Members' rights and obligations turers, users, network operators, tele­ * electromagnetic compatibility in the on IPR in relation to ETSI standards. communications administrations and information technology and telecom­ Building on the policies of other stan­ research bodies. It is therefore a vital munication equipment sectors. dards bodies, it ensures that the IPR tool for ETSI if it is to achieve its goal used in standards are licenced on fair, of producing the technical standards reasonable and non-discriminatory necessary to create a large and unified terms, and while preserving the rights European telecommunications market. Contact: of IPR holders, it tries to minimise the right to standardise. CEC-DG III Mr. Kyriakidis or Mr. Kupiec It thereby substantially reduces the Rond Point Schuman 3 risk of an IPR holder exercising his B-1040 Brussels right to withhold his IPR at the end of Tel: +32 2 296 45 51 a standardisation project by refusing to /296 52 60 grant licences on fair, reasonable and

•.···.r~~, · ~ v.;-~ 21 · ... · •«if EUROPEAN DIMENSION EIB loans for Slovak Telecommunications Danish IT & Telecoms

The European Investment Bank, the me co-financed by the EIB, the World industry under scrutiny European Community's long-term Bank and the EBRD. financing institution, has announced Fischer & Lorenz European loans totalling ECU 100 million for These loans bring the total EIB len­ Telecommunications Consultants have projects in Slovakia. ding in Slovakia to ECU 138 million, just completed a review and assess­ and the amount provided in six Central ment of the information technology and A loan of ECU 24 million to Slovenske and Eastern European countries to telecommunications sector in Telecommunikacie will help finance more than ECU 1 billion, some sixty Denmark. the expansion and modernisation of per cent of the ECU 1. 7 billion authori­ the Slovak telecommunications net­ sed by the EIB's Board of Governors The study was undertaken on behalf of work. The investment comprises a for lending in this region. the Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs digital overlay network, including four in the context of the Danish transit and one international The EIB's lending in Slovakia is part of Government's Investment Promotion exchanges and associated fibre-optical the European Community's program­ Plan to attract foreign high-technology and micro-wave transmission facilities. me to support Central and Eastern investments. The objective of the The works will allow the connection of European countries in their move Investment Promotion Plan is to some 300.000 new subscribers and are towards market orientated economies. contribute to the internationalisation part of a 1993-95 investment program- of Danish industry in order to strength­ en technology innovation, production and export.

TELEVERKET (Swedish Telecom) The review is presented in the report 'Analysis of the Information to become TELIA Technology and Telcommunications The Swedish Parliament has decided business operations, while a new inde­ sector in Denmark'. that the Televerket (Swedish Telecom) pendent agency, the National is to begin operating as Telia AB, a Telecommunications Board, will take Contact: limited liability company on July 1, over all authoritative powers. 1993. Lars M. Anker Televerket already cooperates interna­ European Telecommunications Parliament has also passed telecom­ tionally with PTT Netherlands and Consultants munications legislation that specifies Swiss PTT in Unisource, a jointly­ Leopold Damms Alle 3 the rules of the game for the Swedish owned datacommunications company. DK-2900 Hellerup telecommunications market. Denmark Televerket is also involved in major Tel: +45 39 4 7 07 72 Solely owned by the Swedish State, projects in the Baltic countries and in Fax: +45 39 4 7 07 77 Telia AB will assume responsibility for St. Petersburg.

Information technology business opportunities in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union: conference

Organized by the Adam Smith *Established and developing and effi­ *Experience of local and international Institute, a conference will be held in cient distribution and manufacturing software and hardware distributors, London from 13th-14th October 1993. network for IT products manufacturers and users.

The conference will analyse the invest­ *Financial, structural and legal issues ment and trading possibilities offered essential in the creation of a commer­ Contact: by the IT industry in the Eastern cial basis for the IT industry. European countries and the former Christina Watts Soviet Union. *Government assistance: tariff protec­ Conference Division tion, tax incentives, import/export 11-13 Charterhouse Buildings Subjects include: regulations. London, EClM 7AN ENGLAND *The emerging Eastern European and *Characteristics and segmentation of Tel: +44 71-490 3774 FSU IT markets within the internatio­ the market for IT products in Eastern Fax: +44 71-490 8932 nal context Europe . .-····.r'~'22 ·.... ·~ PUBLICATIONS

Industrial affairs (DG Ill) of the Logical Frameworks Panorama of EC Industry 93 Commission of European Communities, with the cooperation of Gerard Huet (INRIA-Rocquencourt) Commission of the European EC trade and professional associations. G. Plotkin (University of Edinburgh) Communities - DG III Industrial Cambridge University Press Affairs Contributions were invited by all such ISBN: 0-521-41300-1 Office for Official Publication of the organisations known to the European Communities 1993 Commission which represent industry This book is a collection of papers pre­ -ISBN 92 - 826 - 54 28 - 1 at the European level. sented at the first annual workshop held under the auspices of the ESPRIT Panorama of EC Industry 93 is a direc­ Basic Research Action 3245, Logical tory providing a comprehensive picture Frameworks: Design, Implementation of industry and services within the and Experiment. It took place at European Community. It is intended Sophia-Antipolis, France, from 7-11 of for all those requiring an update on the May, 1990. 74 people attended the present situation and probable future workshop: one from Japan, six from developments in the EC's manufact­ the United States, and the rest from uring and service industries. Europe. It opens with a "special features" sec­ The contributions are concerned with tion, which takes a globa1 approach to the application of logical reasoning and a number of horizontal subjects of top­ proof theory in computer science and ical interest. The main part of the book its relevance to automatic theorem prov­ is composed of the industry reviews ing, and consequently topics such as which provide a microeconomic survey artificial intelligence. It is the only of EC industry and services, tracing source for much of this material, and the major developments in production, will be a necessary purchase for employment, trade and structural mathematicians and computer scient­ change, and including in most cases Contact: ists undertaking research at the inter­ detailed statistical data and forecasts. face oflogic and software engineering. Panorama was commissioned by the Office for Official Publications of the Competition and Industrial Policy Unit European Community of the Directorate-General for L-2985 Luxembourg.

computation. The pre-dominant inter­ Lectures on parallel est is in the efficiency of computation. There has been some effort to ensure computation that the bulk of the contributed chap­ ters form a coherent stream, taking the ALAN GIBBONS (Department of reader from a position of having little Computer Science, University of prior knowledge of the subject to a Warwick) position of being familiar with leading­ PAUL SPIRAKIS (Department of edge material from a variety of contem­ Computer Science, University of porary research and preoccupations. Patras) For this reason, a few chapters are Cambridge University Press, 1993 - concerned with the presentation of ISBN 052141556 basic material of broad interest, others present details of particular specialisa­ This volume is essentially based on a tions and yet others provide a wide­ series of lectures delivered at the ranging but advanced perspective. The Spring School of Parallel Computation book may therefore function both as a held at the University of Warwick. source of teaching material and a refe­ The School was organised under the rence for researchers. general aegis of the ALCOM (Algorithms and Complexity) project of Contact: Contact: the ESPRIT II Basic Research Actions programme of the European Press Syndicate of the University of Press Syndicate of the University of Community. Cambridge Cambridge - The Pitt Building The Pitt Building Trumpington Street Almost exclusively, this book is concer­ Trumpington Street Cambridge CB2 lRP - UK ned with the foundations of parallel UK-Cambridge CB21RP .···.~v4, · ... ··~· ~ v:~ 23 AGENDA

MUMPS users· group Europe- 1Sth annual conference

'M Technology is an ISO standard The MUMPS User Group is a non­ There will also be a large exhibition of Computer Software Technology (incor­ profit making organisation dedic­ the latest innovations in Information porating the MUMPS Language) which ated to providing educational inform­ Technology and a series of cultural and is widely used in Europe by organisa­ ation and promoting the technology. social events. tions such as Shell, N ederlandse Aardolie Maatschapij, Swedish The MUMPS Users Group - UK & Onkologist Centrum, Russian Ireland have been selected as hosts for Parliament, the University of Milan, the 18th Annual Conference and Contact: the Hamburg Ports Authority, the Exhibition of the European User Swiss Federal Chancellery, the Bank of Group. This will run from the 25-29 Steve Gillman England, Coca-Cola, BICC-Vero, October 1993 in Jury's Hotel in Dublin. DUBLIN'93 Organising Committee Hoffman La Roche and many hospitals. SMS Ireland The theme of the conference is The SMS House, St. John's Court It is used as widely by many organis­ Future of Information Technology Swords Road, Santry ations around the world particularly in which will be covered by a wide range Dublin 9 the USA and UK and is well known for of tutorials, training courses, technical Ireland its portability, performance and ease of papers, presentations and meetings. Tel: +353-1-8420022 use. Fax: +353-1-8420927

DG XIII participation in technology exhibitions

SMAU (Esprit ABHS-P) Le Genie Logiciel (Esprit IPSS) Milan Paris 30 Sept. - 4 October 17-19 Nov.

COMPAT (Tedis) SITEF Birmingham Toulouse 5-7 October 19-23 Oct.

FOROTECH 93 (Esprit IPSS) Stamp Exhibition: Bilbao 5-7 October Strasbourg 20-23 October 11-22 October Lisbon 29 Oct. -11 Nov. Madrid

XIII Magazine and XIII News Review The opinions expressed in these publi­ are published every three months by cations do not necessarily reflect those Mr Jean Siotis the Directorate - General for of the Commission. All correspondence Telecommunications, Information should be addressed to : CEC DGXIII Market and Exploitation of Research BU24 -01/03 (DG XIII) of the Commission of the Rue de la Loi, 200 European Communities. B - 1049 Bruxelles

CD-AL-93-002-EN-C ... f"#' -:.)~" 24