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eMobility News - June 2010
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Having a vision is not very fashionable in times of economic crisis. This is even more true for the area of information and communication technologies (ICT). Europe's last grand vision, the Lisbon strategy of becoming the world's leading knowledge economy by 2010 (i.e. now), did not achieve its objectives as envisaged. However, this is not a reason to abandon a vision, but rather to update it with respect to new global conditions. Now the next European vision, the Europe 2020 Strategy, is on the table, and ICT is to play a key role in it.

One of the seven flagship initiatives of the Europe 2020 Strategy is the Digital Agenda, which aims to define the key enabling role of ICT for Europe's future. My colleague Uwe Herzog from Eurescom provides an overview on what the Digital Agenda is about and how eMobility is dealing with it.

A lot is happening in Europe to reach the goals of the Digital Agenda, as participants of the Future Network and Mobile Summit 2010 could have witnessed in Florence. Read the event report by Fiona Williams from Ericsson to learn more about it.

If you want to know what will happen next in European ICT research, there are two events in September you should not miss: the first is the eMobility General Assembly on 16 September, followed by the ICT Event in Brussels from 27 to 29 September - see further details below.

We hope you enjoy reading this issue, and we would appreciate your comments.

A personal remark: this is the last eMobility News issue edited by me. I would like to thank all loyal readers of eMobility News for their attention and their constructive feedback. Please stay tuned to news from eMobility.

Milon Gupta, Eurescom
Editor

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ACTIVITIES

+++ eMobility feedback on the Digital Agenda for Europe +++

On 19 May 2010, the European Commission published a Digital Agenda for Europe. It is directed to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. The overall aim of the Digital Agenda is to deliver the sustainable economic and social benefits of a digital single market, for example based on fast or ultra-fast Internet and interoperable systems and applications.

The Digital Agenda makes proposals for actions that need to be taken to get Europe on track for growth by maximising the social and economic potential of ICT, most notably the Internet.

Seven most significant obstacles have been identified, including, for example, fragmented digital markets, rising cybercrime and low trust in networks as well as insufficient research and innovation efforts.

For each challenge a number of concrete actions are recommended. They include, for example, the funding of high-speed broadband through EU instruments in order to achieve fast and ultra-fast Internet access. Regarding research and innovation, the Digital Agenda states that Europe must invest more in R&D and ensure that Europe's best ideas reach the market.

In its meeting on 1 June 2010, the eMobility Steering Board discussed what steps could be taken by eMobility in order to contribute to this action. It was agreed that, as a first step, eMobility should prepare a response that could highlight the eMobility view, e.g. in which specific technology or application areas investments should be made. In addition, eMobility will be answering a survey, which has been launched by the EU Commission.

The Digital Agenda will require a sustained level of commitment at both EU and Member State levels and cannot succeed without a major contribution by other stakeholders.

Anybody who is interested in contributing to the eMobility response is invited to send their contribution to info@ist-emobilityssa.org.

The Digital Agenda is available at http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/digital-agenda/index_en.htm

Uwe Herzog, Eurescom

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PAST EVENTS

+++ eMobility at the Future Network and Mobile Summit in Florence +++

At the Future Network and Mobile Summit meeting, held on 15-18 June 2010 in Florence, Italy, eMobility organised a workshop on 15 June before the start of the actual conference. The purpose was to discuss our new initiatives on the Digital Agenda with conference participants.

During the event, Steering Board representatives chaired sessions and presented papers. This year, there were very many young academic researchers among the over 400 participants in the event and many more representatives of the optical networks sector than in previous Summit meetings. This was a positive reflection of the new scope of the Summit meetings to include fixed and optical network topics as well as mobile issues.

Two new eMobility Newsletters, on the rollout of fibre in Europe and on forthcoming eMobility-related events, were published to coincide with the start of the conference. They were popular with the participants and disappeared quickly from the tables. You can download copies of these newsletters from our website at http://www.emobility.eu.org.

We also organised a lively exhibition stand and attracted a range of new members and enquiries about our activities, including the next version of our SRA and future events, such as the upcoming General Assembly in Venice on 16 September.

Fiona Williams, Ericsson

Summit website: http://www.futurenetworksummit.eu/2010

June edition of the eMobility Newsletter:
http://www.emobility.eu.org/documents/Newsletter/Newsletter2010-June.pdf

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UPCOMING EVENTS

+++ eMobility General Assembly 6 in Venice +++

The 6th General Assembly of the eMobility Technology Platform will take place in Venice, Italy, on 16 September 2010. All members and non-members are cordially invited to attend.

At the General Assembly, members of eMobility will discuss selected activities of eMobility Working Groups and the Steering Board on the ICT sector and the preparation of EC Framework Programme 8 for future collaborative research.

The programme includes:

Planned keynote presentations:

In the afternoon the meeting will split into parallel sessions, each having the focus on contributions to grand societal challenges such as Energy, Transport, and Future Networking.

The meeting provides a good networking opportunity e.g. for the preparation of new research consortia for upcoming FP7 calls 7 and 8 and the Future Internet PPP.

Further information: Further information on the event is available on the eMobility website at http://www.emobility.eu.org/GA6/GA6-intro.html

Registration: All participants have to register and pay the registration fee before the meeting. The registration form is available on the eMobility website at http://www.emobility.eu.org/GA6/GA6-intro.html

For queries please contact Ms Ellen Tallas from Eurescom at tallas[at]eurescom.eu

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27 - 29 September 2010
ICT 2010
Brussels, Belgium
eMobility will be involved via a networking session Further information: http://ec.europa.eu/information_society/events/ict/2010/conference

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