Euro-Mediterranean Innovation Network

The evolution of information and communication technology – the progressive emergence of an “information age” – has been dramatic in the past decades. The integrative power of information technology is increasingly clear, as is its progressively growing capacity to model and map the properties of entire systems. To better respond to the transformations and development of societies through technological means, countries have initiated different collaborations to serve best their interests. Such is the case for the Euro-Mediterranean innovation network.

In this session, the following aspects will be tackled:

• Presentation of the Euro-Mediterranean Innovation Network
• New innovation paradigms for services
• Presentation of the ICPE (Bulgarian Ministry of the Economy)
• Presentation of French Agencies in charge of innovation (NRA, EDA, ADETEF, OSEO)
• Participation of various countries (Cyprus, Egypt, Morocco)
• New thematic priorities (Solar Energy, Eco-Conception, Heritage & Sustainable Tourism, Education)
• Evolution in the context of ecosystems: New Business Models

Participation: Senator Pierre Laffitte, President of Sophia Antipolis Foundation will chair this session, where representatives of the Tunisie and France Telecom companies in the persons of  Mr. Maledh Marrakchi, Tunisie Telecom and Mr. Candace Johnson, President Johnson Paradigm Ventures, and European Commissioner Mr. Timo Haapalehto, Innovation Policy Development Unit, will also hold important speeches.

Euro – Mediterranean innovation network gathers organizations contributing to innovation around the Mediterranean: innovative startup companies support, technology transfer and innovation financing in the Mediterranean. Meanwhile, the increasing scale and role of information and communication technology in the global economy and the increasing impact of automation, the rapid growth in both access and inequities in access confirm that the implications of information technology can only support common involvement and solutions for the challenges of the extended Information Society.

Other resources:

On the Mira Project – Mediterranean Innovation and Research Coordination Action
On the Mediterranean Partner countries region
The creation of the Euromed Innovation Network by Mr. Pierre Laffitte.

The Future is Green

While ICT accounts for around 2% of global carbon emissions, it can also play a key role in saving time, energy and money. In the actual circumstances, where the damaged done to the environment must be stopped and reversed immediately, the future can only lead to a green approach. The technologies that have determined serious environmental problems are also the ones that hold the key for a safer, healthier and a more responsible future. The central characters are played by large corporations and governments, the consumers holding the supporting act. Redefining our goals, our activities and our needs to be done accordingly to the principles of consumption moderation, responsibility and care for the environment.

Some important issues to be discussed at Global Forum are:

• The Carbon Cost of ICT and its Inefficiencies
• The Potential of ICT to Further Sustainability in all Fields of Human Activity
• The Role of Governments in Environmental Sustainability
• Sustainable Public Procurement
• Measuring the Real Cost of ICT— Cost and Environmental Impact of the Technology Life Cycle
• Energy Use in Telecommunications
• Reconciling Business Constraints and Environmental Responsibility — Green is Profitable
• The Role of Education in Green ICT
• Reduce the Energy Consumption of ICT and Leverage it for Sustainability

Participation: This session will be moderated by Mr. Dani Flexer, Datacenter Optimization Consultant, United Kingdom, and the main subjects will be debated amongst other important speakers from both the public and private sector such as by Mr. Varujan Pambuccian, Member of the IT Comission of the Romanian Parliament and Mr. Bruno Pennino, Marketing Executive for Public Sector, IBM North Est and South West Europe at IBM.

There is a definite need to identify and address critical sustainability issues from a whole, to examine the full life-cycle costs and insist on the transition from a predominantly material to an increasingly digital economy – including resource and capital cost implications. Nonetheless, how information and communication technology can be used to strengthen effective community-based, participatory planning, decision-making and implementation processes relating to sustainability and equitable development, focusing on the use of information exchange mechanisms that are accessible at a grassroots level are also of utmost importance.  The solution is dependent on the actions of all players involved. Balancing between business interests and environmental responsibility, real needs and ignorant consumption, ICTs cost and energy saving activities is the first step to a greener future. Are all players involved ready to take this step?

Other resources:

Smarter technologies that reduce global emissions
Impact of technology on the environment
The latest climate legislation measures proposed in the US Government
Individual ideas for greener activities

Mobile Broadband Wireless Access. Connecting All EU citizens Against Economic Downturn

Session 7, chaired by ANCOM, will approach a subject of topical interest worldwide: effectively increasing access to broadband services, so as to allow extensive access to the benefits of the Information Society for people and economies, especially in the current economic circumstances.

Mobile Broadband Wireless Access deals with one major subject of public interest that covers various aspects to be analyzed and debated at the Global Forum 2009.

Primarily, the concern at international level is to develop the next generation high speed broadband access networks that hold an essential role to play in generating growth and jobs and accelerate economic recovery from the crisis. While a crucial intervention belongs to the public sector via investments, the public authorities are very important in the extension of broadband coverage to areas where private investment is not commercially viable. Furthermore, governments also have a key role to play in stimulating citizens and businesses to embrace new broadband-based services for instance through tax incentives and by ensuring that public services are widely accessible online.

The most important topics to be discussed are:

• Mobile BWA – Work in progress towards bringing EU communications at the next level
• Digital dividend to bridge the digital divide
• US digital switchover – summing up and a first assessment
• A harmonized European approach based on the 790-862MHz band
• Spectrum reframing to boost competition
• Future of Wireless Services in the Wake of the Digital Dividend
• State-of-the-art technologies and most feasible solutions for a fast wireless broadband development
• LTE vs. WiMAX – next generation networks for mobile broadband
• Regulation to speed up mobile broadband development
• Solutions for successfully developing wireless broadband networks
• Enabling Mobile Broadband for All with Single RAN

Participation: The debate chaired and moderated by Mr. Catalin Marinescu, President of ANCOM,  will bring together the European Commission represented by Mr. Ruprecht Niepold, Adviser with special responsibility for the Future Development of the Spectrum Policy , high officials of the regulatory authorities of Portugal -  Mr. José Manuel Ferrari Careto, Member of the Board, The National Communications Authority, ANACOM -  and Denmark – Mr. Finn Petersen, Deputy Director General of the National IT and Telecom Agency – NITA, as well as representatives of the telecom industry from Romania and abroad.

Digital Dividend could become the next solution for the future in the internet by ensuring a broadband and high speed transmission at a superior quality level for consumers across Europe.

At the same time, the extension of access to broadband services implies a more careful approach concerning privacy matters. One very common problem that affects most active internet users is found in the social networking sites, due to its open access to private information and personal data. Thus, there is a need for regulation at international and national level, concern expressed by the European Commission and ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency) representatives, in order to maintain a good level of trust regarding the usage of information posted on social networking sites and ensure the obedience of a common ethical and conduct code. All these and much more will be discussed in detail during the Session no 7 of Global Forum 2009.

Other resources:

Further information connected to session no7 can be found on:
ENISA website
European authorities involvement in the extension of broadband networks
European Digital Dividend for TV and radio

Digital Content & the Media of the Future

The Internet is forcing the content industries (music, film, publishing, news, TV, print etc.) around the globe to change their strategies. Always-on, hyper-networked, location-aware, ever faster and smarter yet more affordable mobile devices are further escalating the urgent need for the creation of a new content logic; a new ecosystem that involves device makers and CE companies, ISPs, mobile operators and telecoms, search engines and Internet portals, content creators and media companies, as well as brands and advertisers.
New players are emerging from these sectors. The competition between all those actors makes us debate at Global

The Forum’s key topics are:

• Telecom and Broadcaster: Between Collaboration and Competition
• Digital TV/ IPTV/ Cable TV/ Mobile TV / Satellite TV
• Balancing Broadcast Regulation and IPTV, Web TV, P2P-TV, …)
• Digital Content Platform: The Key Point in Competition
• The Difficult Way towards Real Convergent TV Standards?
• Telecom Players in the TV business: Risk or/and Opportunity?
• Future of Advertising in Delivering Digital Content Services
• Cloud Computing as the Architecture of the Future for Media Content Services

Participation: European Commissioner – Mr. Luis Rodriguez-Rosello, Head Unit for the Networked Media Systems, will outline the need for regulation on Converged media and networks, while Mr. Eric Legale, Managing Director of ISSY MEDIA, in charge of the Communication and the Information Technologies of the City of Issy-les-Moulineaux, will present the local authorities view on this matter. Mr. William S. Coats, from White&Case LLP (Hollywood Studios), one of the most important law firms in the USA, in charge with complex intellectual property matters involving patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secret disputes for the software, hardware, computer, electronics, entertainment and movie industries will focus on the legal  aspect of the digital content.

The latest trends between young people show that the media of the future will definitely be dominated by digital content. For example, the Digital Interactive Television is easily becoming a major consumer habit, especially for those less than 35 years old that are more loyal to content than to channel. Authorities have also become aware of this reality and consequently have taken specific measures. The European Parliament has therefore adopted a resolution on the interoperability of digital interactive television services.

Nevertheless, the best framework for digital content has not yet been designed; the question is who will offer a better solution – telecom players or the television companies?

Press Summary by Moderator Jay Edwin Gillette, Ph.D.
“Video is the killer application,” Cisco CEO John Chambers recently proclaimed. Together with the concept of world-wide collaboration, Chambers sees video as the future of his company Cisco Systems, the global leader in digital networking hardware. The convergence of video, voice telecommunications, computing, and television broadcasting has created a new, 21st-century reality for media and information professionals.

To understand this new reality, Global Forum 2009, the latest edition of the “Davos of IT,” will host a special session on “Digital Content & the Media of the Future,” chaired by Herve Rannou, President of ITEMS International France, and moderated by Professor Jay Gillette, Center for Information and Communication Sciences, USA.

“We are in a new world of emerging media,” Gillette said. “The media of the future is interactive–not just one-way downstream, as in the past. Today’s news and entertainment originate with the audience, as well as the traditional producers, in delivering digital content. Today’s media up make a true, world-wide web of information. Our session will host a lively discussion of the technical, economic and political issues of this innovative media of the future.”

Other resources:
Details on the European Parliament resolution for digital Television
USA National Telecommunication Commission advice for content providers
Cloud computing and the debate around it

Telecom and Internet Regulatory – Challenges and Opportunities

New Policy framework for Broadband Ecosystem:

Universal access, Net Neutrality and Internet Governance

The regulation of the internet raises many problems in itself by the need of stricter laws, permanent content update and reinforcement or the lack of internet access to all areas. Still, at international level, this respect is under constant debate since there are three different main perspectives involved – European, US and Asian.  Internet litigation is met with problems for there is no law stating clearly which state has jurisdiction over online matters. The vital bond that naturally ties state sovereignty, national territory and law is loose concerning internet regulation. What is more, different approaches such as USA versus China make it difficult to cooperate internationally and ensure a proper collaboration between countries so as to prevent and reduce cybercrime and online terrorism.
How to adapt legislation to the latest technological developments in telecommunication and Internet?
Topics to be developed in the Section 6 of the Global Forum:

• Net Neutrality /  Net Regulation: European, US and Asian perspectives
• Internet Governance, do we have to reinvent it?
• Digital dividend facing future of  wireless services
• A wider digital divide – lack of broadband access in the rural areas.
• Internet tegulation stakes facing terrorism and cybercrime
• International domain names: Openess change innovation with new TLD ? (ICANN, NTIA, EU, ISOC, AFNIC , ITU)
• Regulate the TV of the future: Preserve national compliances or the end of frontiers

Participation: All these will be debated by law experts, large telecom companies’ managers  and governmental authorities. Mr. Andrew D. Lipman, a partner and head of the Telecommunications, Media and Technology Group of Bingham McCutchen LLP, an international law firm, will moderate the discussion between important personalities such as  Mrs. Jacqueline Ruff, Vice-President, International Public Policy & Regulatory Affairs, Verizon, one of the largest mobile networks operators in the USA, and Mr. Ma Yuan, a representative of the Ministery of Information Industry in China and also a Division Director of Institute of Economy and Policy, China Academy of Telecommunications Research (CATR).

As seen, the common fight against cybercrime and online terrorism becomes difficult. Cross-border collaboration is in fact an essential element for an effective combat against crimes committed online. While the matter of extending the internet access to rural areas remains important, watch out for the hot topics on the online security and internet regulations at Global Forum 2009.

Other resources:

”Net neutrality” and its effect on the US economy
Chinese internet regulation and fight against cybercrime
China and USA differences

Innovation & Sustainable E-Health

eHealth is all about delivering better and more efficient healthcare services.
eHealth is a broad term including electronic medical records, personal health records, mobile devices, home monitoring or telemedicine.
This is how Information and Communication Technologies are helping people, doctors, pharmacists and hospitals take better care of our health.
eHealth is also breaking down barriers, enabling health service providers (public authorities, hospitals) from different states to work more closely together.

This health-dedicated session will cover many topics such as:

• Mobile Health
• Web 2.0 Solution for e-Health
• Satellites options for e-Health in Remote areas
• Tele-Health Application (Ambient Assisted Living, Managing Dependency, chronic disease management)
• Electronic Medical Records and Integration of Clinical Processes
• Ethics, Responsibilities & Patient Empowerment, data protection mechanisms and policies for Patient Access
• The New Business Models for e-Health & Innovative Solution
• Impact of e-Health on the Quality of Care
• Transfer from Knowledge to Clinical Practices
• Perspective of Cloud Computing in Bio-Technology.
• Knowledge Management of Clinical Data

Participation: Company representatives of different states – Mrs. Judith Carr, Founder and CEO Envision Consulting, LLC, USA, Mr. Thomas Osburg, Director Europe – Corporate Affairs, Intel Corp, Mr. Philippe Scheimann, CEO Ayala Alternative Organizational Consulting, Israel – will discuss on the need to further technology in medicine applications alongside two European Commissioners: Mrs. Mary Tovšak Pleterski, Principal Adviser to the Director General, DG INFSO & Media, and Mr. Florin Lupescu, Director – Directorate H: ICT Addressing Societal Challenges, DG INFSO & Media.

EU is moving towards an “European eHealth Area” aiming to set up health information networks, to ensure online health services and to develop teleconsultation, ePrescribing, eReferral and eReimbursement capabilities.

The purpose of eHealth is to significantly improve the quality, access and efficacy of health care, the challenge being the best use of technology and smart investments.

Other resources:

The Public Health Portal of the European Union
Telehealth Markets in Europe
Telehealth Technologies and Medical Reformation

Trustworthy E-ID Services in a Digital World, Threats and Opportunities

In today’s world, most interactions among citizens, businesses and administrations revolve around the concept of ‘identity’. Governments and businesses face the challenge of identifying citizens, customers and users reliably and accurately on a daily basis. Identity plays a central role in processes as varied as paying for an online order, getting a mortgage, and claiming unemployment benefits.

The modernization and streamlining of businesses processes in the public sector offers the potential of increasing efficiency and accuracy, reducing costs, and improving the end user experience. However, in order to reap the full benefits of such increasingly digitalized environments, an assured way of authenticating our identities is required.
This requires a safe and reliable environment for everybody.

This session treats how the internet has given huge opportunities to governments, organizations, and individuals to meet, network, collaborate and conduct transactions in any time and any place. It provides descriptions on how the public can securely access their public administrations, or groups can safely meet to discuss things in confidence.

In this context there are:

Threats and Solutions:
Critical Infrastructures Attacks
Cyber Criminality (Denial of Services; Intrusion; Cyber Squatting & Cyber Fishing)
Opportunities:
Safer Identity Management
Biometrics for Authentication or Identification
RFID – (RFID/NFC: Leading Services in Industry, Transport, Health and Retail….
Governance Issues
Security & Privacy Issues
Trust and Transparency Issues

Participation: This particular session has a high number of participants coming from different backgrounds (European Commission, local authorities, private companies) that will discuss the pros and cons of the Digital services, being moderated my Mr. Michael Stankosky, Professor of Systems Engineering George Washington University, USA.
As the subjects of digital identity and information security are highlighted in the session, the concept of knowledge security is introduced, in large part because knowledge, more than information, is the new currency of the 21st century economy, wherein lies the true wealth of nations, organizations and individuals.

Citizens, businesses and administrations should be able to benefit from secure electronic identification (eID) in order to allow people online to enter secure zones where they can be sure that their privacy is respected and where they can make use of services without fear of getting attacked by malicious software or fraudsters.

Other resources:
Trends and issues in the adoption of biometrics technology by governments

Smarter Governments: “Empowering Citizens”

This session is all about how Government can engage more effectively with citizens to increase social inclusion and efficiency whilst delivering better public services with the use of digital technologies in the public sector.

It’s all about enhancing the way citizens can participate in shaping their communities. It requires a combination of people, technology, collaborative capabilities.

E-Government is reforming the way Governments works, shares information and delivers services for the benefit of its citizens and businesses that they serve.

Some key issues for Governments, citizens and enterprises, all included in the Session 2 of the Global Forum 2009:

• E-Procurement in support of Economic Recovery
• Contribution of Technologies and Services to Transformation and e-Inclusion
• E-Democracy & e-Participation at the National, Regional & Local Levels
• e-Services & e-Content as Means to Transform Government
• Cross Border Procurement
• Renewing the Social Contract & Ensuring Equality
• Digital Cities Today and Tomorrow
• Social Networking
• The City 2.0
• The City as Platform for Innovation
• Urban Infrastructures Facing 4G
• Educating Citizens

Participation: The debate will be chaired by Mr. Gerard M. Mooney, General Manager, Global
Government and Education, IBM Corporation, USA and moderated by Mr. Hugo Kerschot, Managing Partner, Indigov, Belgium with a wide participation from representatives of private companies and public authorities from all around the world: Greece, United Kingdom, Romania, Denmark or USA.

One important  topic is represented by the Digital city and its implementation in the actual economic and technological context. With the development of information and communication technology, the construction of digital cities has become more feasible. It is a powerful way to elevate the city’s strength, to improve the social environment and to promote national sustainable development.

Other resources:
e-Trikala: First Digital City in Greece
Research on the progress and direction of Digital City by Chinese specialists

New Broadband and Dynamic Infrastructures for the Internet of the Future

The first session of the Global Forum 2009 is dedicated to the exploration of the Future of Internet and related ICT infrastructures to support it. New application areas are now becoming the drivers of such evolution thanks to the availability of high speed broadband both fixed and mobile.

The Internet of Today has now 50 years and serves 1.5 billion people connected to 65,000 autonomous systems, which meet in 300 Internet Exchange Points where they share 300,000 routes.

The current internet is an answer to old needs such as emails, social networking, telephony or video-conferencing.

The Internet of Tomorrow is going to make greater and greater use of rich audio-visual media and communication  for various uses such as distance learning, distance conferencing, entertainment , Libraries, e-Books, Chat, Cars, homes, clothing, e-commerce, e-health, e-gov and so on.

For all this, the Internet of the Future depends on the new developments of the infrastructure and especially on broadband and telecommunications R&D.
World’s fastest Internet connections
Japan has the world’s fastest Internet connections, delivering more data at a lower cost than anywhere else. The speed advantage allows the Japanese to watch broadcast-quality, full-screen television over the Internet. Ultra-high-speed applications are being rolled out for low-cost in domains like high-definition teleconferencing or telemedicine — which allows urban doctors to diagnose diseases from a distance — and for advanced telecommuting to help Japan meet its goal of doubling the number of people who work from home by 2010.

All this brings to a series of hot topics to be developed in the opening session of Global Forum 2009:
Which infrastructures to support the Internet of the Future?
Towards 100 Mbps for Everybody: Utopia or the Best Investment for the Future in a Difficult Time?
Next Generation Networks: Can we meet a Global Standard?
Programs and Initiatives in S.U.A., E.U. or Asia
Role of Satellite in providing Internet in Remote areas and Developing Countries
Models to Deploy Fiber in Semi Rural Areas
Satellites trends in the perspective of LTE (Long Term Evolution)
Perspectives towards 4G & LTE
Ecosystems to Exploit Broadband, New Business Models
Impact of Digital Dividend on 4G Services
Opportunities for satellites in “white areas” for TriplePlay

Participation: Representatives from the two of the largest mobile network operators in the USA and the world, Mrs. Jacquelynn Ruff from Verizon as chairman and Mrs. Dorothy Attwood from AT&T as panel speaker, will update on advanced networks, fiber at home and 4th generation wireless.

Broadband applications and benefits for the society and the economy like IT&C applications for Healthcare and Telemedicine, Environmental Smart Grids or Mobile data will all be the hot topics of the opening session.
Recent European Union initiatives intend to facilitate the fast adoption of new Internet enabled infrastructures to make important domains like health care, urban transportation or energy distribution fully managed, integrated and “smart”, all this to be presented at Bucharest by Mr. Joao Da Silva, Director for Network and Communication Technologies at the EU Commission.

Next focus in the session will be on the telecommunication and information technology infrastructures to support such initiatives: Mr. Mario Agati,  VP Multimedia and System Integration from Ericsson South East Europe will talk about Ecosystem and the Cloud Computing model while Margarete Donovang-Kuhlisch, European Government Industry Technical Leader, Executive IT-Specialist from IBM will present the Smarter Planet initiative and related Dynamic IT Infrastructures that support it.

Examples of funding research for Information Society Tehnologies all over the world

• In Finland, Tekes (the Finnish innovation agency) is providing €50M of funding in 2009-2010 for research into Future Internet, Flexible Services, Devices and Interoperability, and Cooperative Traffic ICT..
• In Sweden, a joint partnership between Vinnova (the Swedish innovation agency) and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology will invest €4M in seven joint projects focused on mobile technologies.
• The UK government is investing £1 million to help companies and universities carry out initial research and feasibility studies into technologies that will be needed for the next generation of broadband.
• In the US,  Obama Administration signed the stimulus package of  $ 7. 2 Billion for Broadband grants and loan programs.
• In Asia, Japan is investing 1.04 Billion Yen in the development of Next generation High Efficiency Network Device Technology.

Other resources:

• Events: Between 13-14 October, in Tokyo, Japan, will take place the second edition of EU-Japan Symposium on “New Generation Networks And Future Internet”.
• European Leadership in the Future Internet and the Network of the Future
• How technology can bring people together
• Regulatory framework for telecoms in the EU today

The first session of the Global Forum 2009 is dedicated to the exploration of the Future of Internet and related ICT infrastructures to support it. New application areas are now becoming the drivers of such evolution thanks to the availability of high speed broadband both fixed and mobile.

The Internet of Today has now 50 years and serves 1.5 billion people connected to 65,000 autonomous systems, which meet in 300 Internet Exchange Points where they share 300,000 routes.

The current internet is an answer to old needs such as emails, social networking, telephony or video-conferencing.

The Internet of Tomorrow is going to make greater and greater use of rich audio-visual media and communication for various uses such as distance learning, distance conferencing, entertainment , Libraries, e-Books, Chat, Cars, homes, clothing, e-commerce, e-health, e-gov and so on.

For all this, the Internet of the Future depends on the new developments of the infrastructure and especially on broadband and telecommunications R&D.

World’s fastest Internet connections

Japan has the world’s fastest Internet connections, delivering more data at a lower cost than anywhere else. The speed advantage allows the Japanese to watch broadcast-quality, full-screen television over the Internet. Ultra-high-speed applications are being rolled out for low-cost in domains like high-definition teleconferencing or telemedicine — which allows urban doctors to diagnose diseases from a distance — and for advanced telecommuting to help Japan meet its goal of doubling the number of people who work from home by 2010.

All this brings to a series of hot topics to be developed in the opening session of Global Forum 2009:

• Which infrastructures to support the Internet of the Future?

• Towards 100 Mbps for Everybody: Utopia or the Best Investment for the Future in a Difficult Time?

• Next Generation Networks: Can we meet a Global Standard?

• Programs and Initiatives in S.U.A., E.U. or Asia

• Role of Satellite in providing Internet in Remote areas and Developing Countries

• Models to Deploy Fiber in Semi Rural Areas

• Satellites trends in the perspective of LTE (Long Term Evolution)

• Perspectives towards 4G & LTE

• Ecosystems to Exploit Broadband, New Business Models

• Impact of Digital Dividend on 4G Services

• Opportunities for satellites in “white areas” for TriplePlay

Participation: Representatives from the two of the largest mobile network operators in the USA and the world, Mrs. Jacquelynn Ruff from Verizon as chairman and Mrs. Dorothy Attwood from AT&T as panel speaker, will update on advanced networks, fiber at home and 4^th generation wireless.

Broadband applications and benefits for the society and the economy like IT&C applications for Healthcare and Telemedicine, Environmental Smart Grids or Mobile data will all be the hot topics of the opening session.

Recent European Union initiatives intend to facilitate the fast adoption of new Internet enabled infrastructures to make important domains like health care, urban transportation or energy distribution fully managed, integrated and “smart”, all this to be presented at Bucharest by Mr. Joao Da Silva, Director for Network and Communication Technologies at the EU Commission.

Next focus in the session will be on the telecommunication and information technology infrastructures to support such initiatives: Mr. Mario Agati, VP Multimedia and System Integration from Ericsson South East Europe will talk about Ecosystem and the Cloud Computing model while Margarete Donovang-Kuhlisch, European Government Industry Technical Leader, Executive IT-Specialist from IBM will present the Smarter Planet initiative and related Dynamic IT Infrastructures that support it.

Examples of funding research for Information Society Tehnologies all over the world

• In Finland, Tekes (the Finnish innovation agency) is providing €50M of funding in 2009-2010 for research into Future Internet, Flexible Services, Devices and Interoperability, and Cooperative Traffic ICT..

• In Sweden, a joint partnership between Vinnova (the Swedish innovation agency) and the Chinese Ministry of Science and Technology will invest €4M in seven joint projects focused on mobile technologies.

• The UK government is investing £1 million to help companies and universities carry out initial research and feasibility studies into technologies that will be needed for the next generation of broadband.

• In the US, Obama Administration signed the stimulus package of $ 7. 2 Billion for Broadband grants and loan programs.

• In Asia, Japan is investing 1.04 Billion Yen in the development of Next generation High Efficiency Network Device Technology.

Global Forum is now online!

World’s most important IT&C event has entered the online world. The official blog is the place where you will find out more about the discussion topics, about the speakers and about the programme of the 18th edition that will take place on October 19th and 20th in Bucharest.