Hail the Directorate General for Communications Networks, Content and Technologies and long live DG CONNECT! No need for exclamation mark actually: this acronym is propitious enough to sound like a burning imperative, a compelling invitation to act.

So, DG INFSOC is out, CONNECT is in. This switch will likely inspire the digital natives: staying connected at all times is all that matters, they care little about agendas. Even networks or technology look secondary to them. Take online gamers: they are obsessed with latency possibly marring their gaming experience; how you secure flawless quality of service throughout is their provider’s problem, not theirs.

Shifting from mere communication to the substance behind, the Digital Agenda for Europe is more than ever a valuable roadmap to where Europe should go. Besides imparting a much-warranted sense of urgency, the switch to CONNECT sets goals and tools in the right perspective.

Indeed this change puts digital technology where it belongs: a superb tool, only an instrument though probably the most effective to achieve what really matters to all of us, i.e. to drive economic growth and deliver social benefit, to help tackle unemployment and improve our carbon and resource efficiency.

DG CONNECT’s Mission Statement has got it right and it’s in the right order to get there:

• High quality research & innovation is the foundation stone of a competitive European economy. Without a sterling record in this field, the EU construct will confront the problems of houses built on sand.
• Creativity is the mother of invention. Though it does not mind sparking in isolation, sharing has proved to be a potent catalyst to turn a pie in the sky into reality. By emphasising empowerment, DG CONNECT puts all Europeans on notice: your creativity matters to Europe. Even more than a safe bet, this determination to pick the low-hanging fruit of our collective inventiveness is the soundest possible investment in the future of Europe: it bodes particularly well for our legendary cultural diversity.
• The European single market can do with a big boost. This is admittedly an understatement when it comes to services, an area of growing importance where we enjoy the largest and most affluent market in the world in theory while confronting the always awkward, sometimes harsh reality of a mosaic of twenty seven vastly different pieces. By championing the internet as the ultimate border buster, DG CONNECT will successfully spearhead the competition for taking this unparalleled tool to the next level of innovation and convenience.
• Virtual marketplaces are not that different from those in the real world: their success or demise hinges on the level of trust – a sheer magnet on shoppers – they are able to inspire. Arguably, this metaphor holds another lesson for policy makers and regulators: sellers won’t set up stalls, buyers won’t flock into places littered with “No trespassing” signs and teeming with policemen. Once the appropriate bans, warnings and safeguards are in place, the subtle art of fostering confidence turns to dialogue: connecting looks like a good start to this effect.
• The borderless digital technology takes business and consumers alike into a global approach. DG CONNECT looks set to get rid of the many roadblocks standing in the way of an open Internet. The successful transatlantic cooperation may provide an inspiring blue print in this respect.

To be sure, the switch from DG INFSOC to CONNECT will not take on its full meaning until it feels like a fully-fledged retrofit, no plain facelift. Ideally, it will make DG CONNECT as contagious or pervasive to fellow DGs as social networks are to the always-on generation. Massive improvement will result from DG CONNECT’s ability to connect the dots with their many peers who could do with optimal use of digital technology. So whether you are sitting in the Commission premises, the European Parliament, national administrations or SMEs, please connect with DG CONNECT: they know a few things about how ICT can boost growth and highly skilled employment, improve health, take cultural diversity to new heights, enable education systems fit for the 21^st century, secure energy efficiency, enhance trade in services, provide cohesion policy with effective enablers, etc. The EU has just found its champion of digitally-driven growth and jobs across the board, the sesame we have been looking for to restore confidence in the ability of our region to overcome the current crisis and to keep influencing the course of world developments.

In case these goals would look intimidating, let’s take a different perspective and face this plain fact: European consumers and creators increasingly care about what digital technology has in store for them. On stating that “The consumer is king”, Vice President Kroes warns in the same breath: “Do not underestimate the consumer. They are getting more into the position where they do not accept what was common in the past”. Europe’s new blood is getting impatient: either policy makers will shape the right environment here now, or they’ll go get one elsewhere.

By Patrice Chazerand, Director Digital Economy and Trade Groups, DIGITALEUROPE

The stereotype of a hacker is some dodgy looking, long haired, uncouth youth who creates and cracks codes in order to exploit a company or organisation. Nothing could in fact be further from the truth says Caroline De Cock, organiser of the EUhackathon, who is actively working to change the perception of a “hacker” into a positive term for “anyone who can creatively use code.”

Caroline’s brainchild, the EUhackathon, is now in its second edition and this year will be held to coincide with the Digital General Assembly – 20 June 2012 – in Brussels. Although there was only meant to be one EUhackathon, Caroline succeeded in bringing European Institutions together with corporate sponsors Facebook, Google, Vodafone and Orange in Brussels – and the idea for a second ‘hackathon’ became a reality. After resounding support from participants of the 2011 EUhackathon, many hackers have asked to apply again: “I’ve got alumni!” exclaims Caroline.

The applicants are both EU citizens and non-Europeans, and Caroline says that she would love to expand the network to include hackers from all over the globe, bringing the heart of hackers to Europe. Right now, though, she must start out small: “It comes down to budget and finding the right space to host the young hackers. We hope that as this is the second year and people begin to see all the exciting options there are for career opportunities that sponsors will come forward and take this idea to the next level. This is how we build a generation of digital talent.”

Forty hackers will be brought to Brussels in June this year, matching the size of the last EUhackathon which took place in November 2011. “Any more than that, and it’s a bit like a coder can of sardines,” says Caroline. “With the coders as well as the forty or so engineers and sponsors, the room will be packed,” she says.

It’s important to keep the event attendees rather small; the thirty one hour competition will require plenty of room for creativity. But Caroline’s not worried; “I’m sure that each of these teams will undoubtedly display an immense amount of talent and energy and endurance and tenacity,” she says. “Just what you need as a young person trying break into the workforce,” she continues.

The theme of this year’s EUhackathon – Hack4Kids – revolves around children and how young people can creatively and safely develop personal skills through online and offline endeavours. An added challenge will be tweens (13+ age group) participating in the jury that plays an important role in evaluating the teams and their end products in collaboration with a group of engineers from the sponsoring companies.

Caroline hopes that the EUhackathon will: “enable youngsters to understand the Brussels machine.” By meeting members of the European Parliament, engineers and policy makers, young European citizens will have the opportunity to improve their understanding and observe the transparency of EU Institutions whilst deploying their creativity.

Click here to see the official 2011 EUhackathon video!

This blog post was published by Colleen Wood, stagiaire, DIGITALEUROPE and the content supported by Natalia Kurop, Director of Communications-Marketing, DIGITALEUROPE

19 April 2012

Having been solicited last year by Commissioner Michel Barnier, Antonio Vitorino has just decided to don the full gear of mediator in the thorny issue of private copying and reprography levies. His announcement back in November 2011 had originally raised hope mainly based on the calibre of this shrewd politician, a former deputy Prime Minister in Portugal and holder of a particularly challenging portfolio in the Prodi Commission.

As months passed by and Spring was around the corner, rumour was spreading that another seemingly good idea had gone awry.

On actually taking charge last week, Mr Vitorino dispelled any doubt: after pondering the process he is expected to preside over, he intends to spread his wings and make a difference. His statement released on 2 April 2012 gave interesting clues as to how.

1. Mr Vitorino clearly rules out letting himself be stuck in “well-known and entrenched positions”. This fits a negotiator of his stature: his agile mind, his wealth of experience will not be wasted on sterile reiteration of how the systems have worked – or not – in the analogue era. Incidentally, a man who does not want to associate himself with a mere rehash of stale arguments has surely paid scant attention to charges levelled by GESAC and SAA at the digital industry lately. He may have contrasted these failed attempts to raise the level of noise with the industry’s wise indifference which turned these firecrackers into damp squibs, thus preserving the serenity he needs to start on the right foot.

2. Mr Vitorino wants instead to investigate “the opportunities offered by the current developments of new business models”. As if he knew already part of the answer, he goes on saying: “Such models deliver new forms of authorised access to copyright protected content. They should at the same time enable right holders to better control the use of their content and the manner in which they are remunerated for it”. These words would sound visionary enough had Mr Vitorino made a secret of his deep interest in technology. But he did not wait for his mission as mediator to meet his born inquisitiveness regarding how technology has changed the world over the centuries, a feature perhaps built in the genes of the sons of a nation once blessed with a knack for using the latest sailing and location technology to conquer continents… This mediator looks definitely well positioned to reconcile traditions and innovation, to keep from the past the lessons likely to foster more creativity and to shed those turned into an impediment, to take stock of the legacy only to move forward with stronger determination. While he has yet to declare cloud computing a game changer – and thus one more compelling reason to overhaul the rules of the copyright game – Mr Vitorino led readers of his inaugural statement to believe that he will think twice before holding the EU back in this particular area as a result of recommendations giving rigid and obsolete models of copyright management and clearance a new lease of life. This carefully crafted declaration suggests that he will use the investigating part of his remit to secure from multiple sources whatever answer he does not have yet on how digital technology can transform the levies environment radically and for the better.

3. Mr Vitorino’s statement lifts another doubt: mediator, not moderator, he does consider himself. If words have a meaning, he will not shape his action towards containing another fit of mud-slinging in a room filled with stakeholders. This vain exercise may be rightly left to minds of a lesser stature. It may even become a thing of the past outright, if Mr Vitorino were to succeed. The mediator selected by the Commission will meet stakeholders to generate light, not heat: good pick that bodes well for a successful mission.

Indeed, Mr Vitorino will “start, in the first instance, by holding these discussions on an individual basis as, in my view, this is a more effective and efficient way to achieve progress”. This is mediation at its best, giving all stakeholders a chance to be heard in a serene, open and constructive setting, only to design a set of recommendations that make sense to all. Almost by definition these recommendations will sound unheard of, since they must be innovative enough to break the stalemate. But by definition too, they should not stray too far away from a notional middle-ground as parties feeling ignored would have no part in the recommended model. Mr Vitorino thus paints the fine line he has to walk: “We must find a way to reconcile the national private copying and reprography levy systems in place today with the smooth cross-border trade in goods and services in the Single Market”. Arguably, the current economic crisis only adds a sense of urgency to unlocking Single Market-based solutions as strongly suggested by President Barroso in his 27 February letter to 12 Prime Ministers.

With Mr Vitorino’s talent and determination, with genuine cooperation on the part of stakeholders and with a bit of luck, come this fall and Mr Vitorino will be able to make practicable proposals to turn outdated levy systems into a smooth-running, affordable, flexible and efficient construct that will work in the best interest of all stakeholders. This includes European consumers who, to paraphrase Sting, “want their MTV” anytime, anywhere on the platform of their choice.

By Patrice Chazerand, Director Digital Economy and Trade Groups, DIGITALEUROPE

Europe’s Innovation Network Discovered: Unexus.org Turning Dreams into Reality

A series of guest blogs by digital entrepreneurs. This first guest blog post is by Justin Brown and Mark Bakacs, founders of Unexus.org, an innovation network helping individuals, organisations and research institutions to build innovation communities.

The Innovation Union Scorecard for 2011 published in February this year reveals that research and development (R&D) spending in Europe is slowing and that the gap between Europe and the global leaders for innovation – the United States, Japan and South Korea – is growing.

Creating a new crop of digital entrepreneurs

With increasingly limited resources available for traditional R&D, there is an imperative for research institutions, corporations and individuals to collaborate in generating and executing innovative ideas. A Digital Single Market in Europe promises new opportunities for research institutions, organisations and individuals to bypass traditional methods of R&D and collaborate across organisational and national frontiers – effectively opening the door to new business models, and an innovation led recovery in Europe which will be spurred by the creation of a crop of new digitally-driven small to medium size businesses.

Our vision is for Unexus to help users harness knowledge, ideas and develop innovative solutions to some of the world’s grand challenges. Unexus provides a global web-based platform for today’s entrepreneurs and innovators to create profiles and projects and attract partners, expand on ideas and raise funds. The platform helps users build innovation communities around their projects based on a flow of knowledge and cross-pollination of ideas.

In a nutshell, Unexus is an ideas incubator; our objective is to spark new business and social ventures. We help innovators turn their ideas into workable business and social models, and provide a platform for them to receive varying levels of funding from research institutions, organisations and individuals via the Unexus website.

Unexus is currently in a beta phase of development, and is demonstrating how collaborative innovation results can be tracked during different stages of development. The Unexus community includes participants from the Erasmus Mundus Association and the OCEANS Network. The REALISE IT initiative, supported by the European Commission (read the press release) is a driving force behind Unexus providing essential expertise to spring-board this project into the commercial realm. Unexus is now seeking to extend its value proposition to other academic and professional institutions and expand its innovation-led community.

Unexus is an invite-only network, which is developed through trusted networks. Our core users fall into two broad categories: innovators and collaborators, where innovators create profiles for their projects, and collaborators share items from the central ideas feed to people and projects. In the first category of innovators, users are largely researchers who work in research institutions and innovation departments within organisations. The second category primarily consists of entrepreneurs seeking to build exposure and trigger funding for their projects. People in the collaborator group overlap substantially with people in the innovator group – as some people are both experts in their particular field, serial entrepreneurs, marketing specialists, information technology experts as well as highly specialised researchers and academics.

Unexus’s platform employs a “follower” model that enables members of the Unexus community to track and contribute knowledge to someone else’s project and profile. Each project and profile produces a specific feed that enables followers to plot information flows, resulting in a lively and engaging product that updates real-time. When selecting a project of interest, followers read a brief description, goals and needs of the project. Followers can then click a pledge button on the project to contribute their expertise or funding. Unexus’s innovation rankings give a daily updated snapshot of the most innovative people and projects on the platform.

Unexus’s strategy for success will be developed based on its outreach to innovators, collaborators and funders across an expanding range of complementary, technology focused, market segments to provide the context for tangible innovation to occur. We are progressively introducing our own business model in the areas of targeted advertising, subscriptions for organisations and crowd-funding, creating in the process a market for innovation.

Alongside and separate from our invite-only innovation network, we host the Innovation Conversation on the Unexus blog to showcase the best examples of collaborative innovation inside Unexus according to our innovation rankings and in society more broadly. We are part of a sweeping global shift towards knowledge-based economies. In an environment of contracting R&D spending, which results in research institutions, organisations and individuals searching for new methods of collaborative innovation, Unexus harnesses the energy that will come from a wellspring of new business and social ideas. Through the Innovation Conversation, we are showcasing the growing importance of collaborative innovation within and beyond Unexus.

Unexus has already made some notable achievements. In recognition of these, in early 2011 Unexus was selected to be part of the UK Trade and Investment Department’s prestigious Global Entrepreneur Programme (GEP). The GEP’s mission is to attract the world’s best sustainable, early-stage companies and entrepreneurs to set-up their global headquarters in the United Kingdom.

Unexus believes that digitally connecting research institutions, organisations and individuals based on knowledge flows will improve rates of innovation in society and the internet economy. We believe that there are many ways to increase innovation in the face of declining R&D expenditure despite the high cost of intellectual property protection.

Collaborative innovation, after all, has occurred throughout human history. Unexus provides a scalable platform for our users to collaboratively innovate at a global level and come up with solutions to some of the world’s greatest challenges.

More information about the authors can be found here.

Justin has been awarded an Erasmus Mundus Fellowship for his doctoral research on European innovation at the University of Warwick and l’Université libre de Bruxelles. Justin has years of management consulting experience with GPR Dehler and consults, publishes and speaks to a wide audience on change management and innovation.

Mark has extensive experience for top-tier law firms in London, Paris and Tokyo, specialising in cross border financings, capital raisings and acquisitions. Mark is also co-founder of Playplotter, an events based global network of cosmopolitan and sophisticated gay men and women.

A thought piece on modernising time honoured traditions regarding content creation in the digital age.
Cultural diversity has a long history of departing from the established order, be it through immunity to international trade rules – otherwise known as cultural exception – or private copy levies whose claimed purpose of compensating right holders has gradually given way to funding of national culture through an archaic system of collection and re-distribution.

In a number of European member states cultural establishments have talked their government into mandating which content is good for consumers, at what time, and on which platform by way of a complex construct of tax on theatre admission, broadcasting quotas, mandatory investment, and an elaborate definition of what a national film is exactly.
Bad habits die hard
The birth of the internet offered everyone access to a borderless world, and with this irrevocable change, the particular legacy of the analogue era which thrived on fragmentation and ‘toll-gates’ was doomed to become irrelevant, and eventually obsolete. Consumers will shed no tears at seeing the expensive barriers fall, and neither should citizens, since the above practices run against the very values that underpin democracy, freedom of expression, equal chance afforded to all citizens to education, information and culture, fair competition, etcetera.
Early visionaries
Viviane Reding, now Vice President of the Commission, provided a striking illustration, back in 1999, that appropriation of culture by governments will not always meet its intended purpose. On being confirmed to her first stint – on Education and Culture with the European Commission – Mrs Reding told MEPs that she planned to engage with Hollywood to unveil the secret behind their knack for making money out of movies. She knew for a fact that the US government played no part in the unabated success of the US’ top export industry: a hard to match recipe that today still wins eyeballs, hearts and minds of massive audiences around the world.
If the digital industry has taken the wheel in delivering content created by millions of people to millions more hungry to consume it; then  it was equally born agnostic when it comes to judging good from less good content.  Technology and its kin – electronic devices –  tends to leave it to consumers’ judgment to choose the content that suits them. But by affording every creator instant and ubiquitous spread of their creation, it proudly affirms its role as the ultimate multiplier of exposure – arguably the touchstone of success in the eyes of most creators.
The European approach was flawed from the start
Administrative and creative minds rarely mix. Chasing subsidies requires skills and experience that the typical freshman creator lacks. Accordingly, independent creative content outfits must hire expertise in filing applications for government funds. As this luxury eludes many start-ups, they find themselves unable to match more established competition.
The same paradox of assistance mechanisms hitting their intended beneficiaries can be seen at work in the current compensation for private copying, the so-called private copy levies. It is opaque, cumbersome and more user-friendly to mainstream right holders than to the new kid on the block. It has so far dismissed the opportunities presented by digital technology to trigger immediate and fair compensation. As a result of its inability to reform itself, the present system is crumbling under the weight of the heavy burdens imposed on consumers and young artists.

It is a matter of fact that digital natives operate at a different life speed. Time-honoured traditions in a digital light become self-serving and obsolete.  BEUC, the consumer organisation, observed in their article recently published in Europolitique: “The majority of consumers are not free-riders. 66% of users would be willing to pay for legal content at a price and of quality that corresponds to their expectations. They are willing to pay a fair price as long as they are given a right to private copying and as long as copyright levies correspond to economic harm.”
Has cultural diversity found its silver bullet?
In a world increasingly driven by intangibles, digital technology proves effective at fostering creation. Indeed, cultural diversity by decree is no match for cultural diversity in action in the digital age.  Digital technology spurs imagination by exposing the mind to continuous stimulation. It also enables instant, borderless distribution of creative works. Being thus the most effective catalyst of creativity, it has become the prime driver of genuine cultural diversity, the grassroots variety growing from the bottom up, not the one dictated by bureaucrats.
Consider distribution: French cinema buffs living miles away from theatres can enjoy their favourite entertainment as long as they have a decent connection and screen – provided that it is cleared for online distribution, that is. They can even do it at the time of their choice.
Digital technology has also driven marketing costs down. “The Blair Witch Project” (1999) was a trail-blazer in this respect: a forerunner of what is called viral marketing managed to keep this particular budget line close to zero while the film grossed in excess of $USD400m. With production costs under $USD50,000 this movie is remembered as the quintessential money-spinner.
Still, the digital revolution is most felt on the production side. Here, limitless cultural diversity mirrors a borderless internet. Anybody can create a song or a video footage and upload it onto the web. Only governments are bucking this trend towards affordable creation tools: indeed cameras or sound-recording equipment are still subject to copyright levies, which are an undue impediment to unfettered creation of content.

Unlocking the pent-up resources of the richest creative stream and formidable channels to market enabled by electronic devices, is critical. By tearing down all technical barriers to the production and distribution of creative content, the digital industry has spearheaded the cross-fertilization that genuine innovation is made of. It is time that European governments play their part and abolish the legal fragmentation that holds the European Union back from offering the single largest and most affluent market in the world for digital content.
Meanwhile, analogue-era impediments keep constraining the choice of the consumers in the digital era.  As BEUC remarks, they often end up paying levies to the copyright holder several times over for the same content. Think of a consumer who buys music from an online store: he/she pays for the content then saves on a device for which he/she has also paid private copy levies on when buying it.
Consumers are also levied even if they simply store personal content they’ve created by, without any intention of involving copyright protected content for private use. In the same vein, levies are applied to multifunctional devices, such as mobile phones and digital cameras, not meant primarily for doing private copies.Price differences hurt consumers and fly in the face of the Digital Single Market: for example, a €19 levy is raised on 64 GB iPods in Sweden vs a mere €1.42 in Latvia.
An invitation to join the digital world of the 21st century
Ignoring the digital age has serious economic and cultural consequences.  Digital natives are growing up fast, and are today voters. An invitation has already been extended to those living in the remotest places to become part of an integral, global, digital community – the borderless, blue sky digital world.

Sitting on the other side of the fence, digital immigrants – those policy makers born before CDs were the rage and before Mpegs were the norm,  those who still remember when mobile phones didn’t even exist,  let alone became ‘smart’ – have the power to ensure that the system plays catch up.

By Patrice Chazerand, Director Digital Economy and Trade Groups, DIGITALEUROPE

From the very outset of his first mandate at the helm of the European Commission, President José Manuel Barroso has focused on identifying and treading avenues for growth in Europe.  Even more importantly, as a true believer in a borderless Union, President Barroso is a visionary. He has for quite some time pointed to digital technology as being a major part of the solution to Europe’s current economic challenges.

Barroso’s letter to the European Council, “A Plan for Growth in Europe,” dated 27 February 2012, speaks volumes. We must step up our efforts to create a truly Digital Single Market by 2015. The digital economy is expanding rapidly, but cross-border trade remains low and creativity is stifled by a complex web of differing national copyright regimes, it points out.

Barroso is also right to point out to Heads of Government that: Throughout the crisis the European Commission has been working to do everything possible to ensure that the EU emerges stronger than ever from our current difficulties. The effort that has been mobilised by all of us is a very real expression of EU solidarity.

President Barroso’s letter demonstrates that the European Commission has held the right vision from the start. It has also charted priority areas wisely by drafting good policies that can harness the yet untapped growth potential. Take the example of the Digital Single Market: We have just published a study showing that a truly digital single market could boost EU GDP by as much as €110 billion a year,” the letter states.

DIGITALEUROPE throws out the question: do policy makers need a more cogent pointer to where to act at this time of deepening crisis?

DIGITALEUROPE believes that policy makers must today grab the opportunity of such a timely dialogue between the European Commission and Heads of State and Government. We support President Barroso’s call for immediate action to unleash the instant growth potential that a truly Digital Single Market in Europe will deliver.

Copyright is a sticking point that we have to get over. European consumers want to enjoy easy access to their favourite content anytime, anywhere, and on the platform of their choice. Meeting this demand will benefit both users and owners and publishers of content.

It is time to turn the patchwork of twenty seven individual markets into one very big seamless market; the single most affluent market in the world. Europe must do this to remain competitive in the global digital economy which is growing at an explosive speed.

Europe’s copyright regime - which is well past its use by date – is a massive road block to growth and jobs. Territory-specific, hardware-based private copy levies are irrelevant in the borderless digital age. Europe must establish an alternative system that delivers fair and effective compensation to artists, and gives consumers the same benefits of lower prices that people in the United States, for instance, enjoy.

A few enlightened member states have seen this potential and have responded. Member states have the power to be like the catapult crew who signal to pilots at the preparation stage of take-off.  They have the power to put momentum behind the European Commission, the European Council, and the European Parliament by demonstrating that we are serious about unleashing economic growth in Europe.

No European citizen or industry should have to accept hampered growth and fewer jobs. A common determination to get rid of obstacles to the Digital Single Market is the key. It is no accident that President Barroso has crafted his letter as a call for action on a well-charted battle ground: Now it’s time to be concrete. Now it’s time to decide.

We agree.

CLICK HERE TO KNOW MORE

Please contact,  Irena Bednarich, DIGITALEUROPE Vice Chair Digital Economy Group/ Chair of the Copyright Levies group for more information:  irena.bednarich at hp.com

A Response to the Letter from David Cameron and Eleven EU Leaders for a Growth Plan in Europe

By Patrice Chazerand, Director Digital Economy and Trade Groups, DIGITALEUROPE.

On 18 January 2012, David Cameron and Mario Monti issued a joint call on the upcoming European Council scheduled on 30 January to unleash the growth potential pent up in a fragmented market. French President Sarkozy was not amused: “There are clearly now two Europes: one that wants more solidarity and regulation between its members, and the other that is attached to the sole logic of the Single Market,” he commented.

On 20 February 2012, unrepentant David Cameron and Mario Monti were at it again: they convinced ten fellow prime ministers to call on the next European Council to focus on the “low hanging fruit” of European growth, starting with the Digital Single Market. Their reasoning, originated in the Monti Report of 2010, is impeccable. Though the other fifteen member states have yet to take sides, this initiative portends another rift within the EU, a family feud between Merkozy and Camonti, according to a creative journalist in a clear reference to the tragic Montaigu-Capulet wars of the Renaissance.

It shouldn’t be that way though. To be sure, the original European economic community (EEC) created more than fifty years ago was driven by the values of economic liberalism. But, it has gradually morphed into a more complex, one-of-a-kind political Union, whose incredible success was based on three key drivers: competition, cooperation, solidarity. At this juncture, the EU needs only more of each ingredient, or a catalyst to build them into a powerful mixture likely to get the EU economy out of the doldrums.

The French presidency of the G8/G20 had a vision of what the prime tool is to address the perfect storm we are undergoing: the internet and the ecosystem that drives it.  Accordingly, they convened the first-ever ‘eG8’ prior to the G8 meeting in Deauville in May 2011. Unfortunately, our global leaders’ vision fell short of inspiring a communiqué bold enough to build upon the quintessential enabler of a borderless world, Information and Communication Technology (ICT). Simply because a healthy political European Union cannot do without a powerful economic engine, we can no longer afford to postpone the benefits of digital technology and its role in enabling a fully-fledged Digital Single Market.

The Monti Report, the Cameron-Monti joint statement, the “letter of the twelve” aimed to bring to fruition an endeavour launched decades ago under the watch of President Delors.  Indeed, by affording location-free access or experience, ICT is the ultimate border-buster: the world is at everybody’s fingertips. By driving down production, distribution and transaction costs, it enhances competitiveness: innovation feeds European business with leading-edge solutions that make it more competitive. By turning every user into a creator, every citizen into an active contributor to social life, it nurtures creativity, cultural diversity and commitment to the “polis”. In short, digital technology is the enabler we need to shore up the three drivers of the EU economy.

More competition:

Competition is embedded in human nature. Digital technology enhances competition by opening the world to European business and Europe to global business. It affords information ready for processing, commenting and spreading to others in a flow that bonds communities together across borders. For the EU twenty seven, research concludes that eliminating barriers to the expansion of the digital economy based on the free flow of information and knowledge could deliver 4% additional GDP growth over the next ten years, a gain of €500bn and similar in scale to the growth dividend achieved as a result of the EU’s historic Single Market program that culminated in 1992. Although this may look like the ‘big bazooka’ Mr Cameron used to dangle in front of his domestic constituencies as the ultimate crisis buster, it qualifies for a stream of pent-up growth that, together with his fellow prime ministers, he feels compelled to tap, simply because, “It is now time to show leadership and take bold decisions which will deliver the results that our people are demanding,” they write in a more sober fashion.

More cooperation:

When the internet morphed into Web 2.0, thorough mass-collaboration became possible instantly. Whether for experts working on research, game creators developing new software, architects designing a new project or designers shaping a new model, the virtual workplace feels at least as effective and less cumbersome as physical premises.

The digital paradigm creates entirely new forms of collaboration reflected in as many new business models which in turn generate new jobs. Global youth unemployment has reached its highest level on record, increasing from 11.9% in 2007 to 13% in 2009. Currently, it reaches as high as 49% in Spain: no wonder Madrid is among the twelve signatories. With an average of 21%, the EU should think twice before denying growth-based employment to its youth. Besieged by sluggish and seemingly jobless growth, unleashing the job-creating power of digital technology seems compelling indeed: it creates 2,6 new jobs for each it makes obsolete. As suggested by the Twelve, the EU should see to it that its services markets open up on the scale needed, simply because, “They now account for almost four fifths of our economy”.  Once presented with the opportunity of a Single Market for services, European business will appropriate the internet as effectively as citizens around the world have appropriated social networks.

More solidarity:

Beyond mass-collaboration, the internet is yet unparalleled to bring together individuals keen to share help, passion, entertainment, and political engagement. As ageing populations keep growing around the world, digital technology helps senior citizens to age better. In a different vein, oppressed minorities are able to vent their case in the open and promote democracy. In short, digital technology is great at bridging gaps between generations, countries, social classes. It turns each and every user into a citizen of the world who may empathize or work with communities throughout the globe. 73% of Europe’s 16-24 year olds are “digital natives”, born into the digital world over the past 20 years, while many emerging economies boast even higher ratios of youth and potentially digital natives. Those fast-growing digitally skilled generations are the quickest adopters of new consumer-empowering solutions and other digital tools which challenge the old economic and social order. Economic opportunities, employment and level of civic engagement of these generations will depend crucially on the ability of today’s leaders to put in place the policy and regulatory frameworks most prone to accelerate the digital transformation of our economies.

At this time of turmoil in financial markets, aeronautic-style language swamps the headlines; entire regions are taking a nose-dive as a result of the economy stalling. Digital technology has a proven record of being powerful enough to rev up the economic engine and provide the world economy with the lift to get it out of the doldrums. Some of the world’s largest and most successful companies are spearheading the recovery on the other side of the ocean. A unified digtal Europe has the same capaicty.

On designing the EEC, Europe’s forefathers intended to put an end to recurrent wars between two leading nations. The EU that we as citizens enjoy today has grown well beyond their dream. Not only bringing peace but also prosperity to 500 million people and making our daily life as a community the envy of the world.

Those two leading nations cannot afford to ignore a call for growth and jobs and let a feud develop between the “Merkozy” and “Camonti” families that would prove as lethal as the wars they managed to eradicate thanks to the EU. The European Union is not a toy to be played with in fair weather and discarded when the riding gets rough.

More about the Author, Patrice Chazerand, may be found on the DIGITALEUROPE website.

In today’s digital world some ‘lucky’ children are practically born with touch-key knowledge. As a digital native, it is easy to imagine how over 200 billion people use the internet worldwide and millions more come online each year. But what about those people who have not been so lucky? According to data from Eurostat released in December of last year, only 25% of young people across the EU self-report having “high levels of basic internet skills” – high levels being defined as being able to carry out five or six tasks including: using a search engine to find information; sending an e-mail with attached files; posting messages to chat-rooms, newsgroups or any other online discussion forum; using the internet to make telephone calls; using peer-to-peer file sharing for exchanging movies, music; and creating a web page.

There is a constant percentage of young people in the EU who are not using the internet regularly, particularly those with low formal education – an average of 13% of young people have low formal education– increasing to 50% in some countries like Romania. (Eurostat)

There are some baby boomers, as well as those who are excluded from digital society (believe it or not, some people living in remote parts of Europe have no Broadband access), people living with disabilities, and even the ‘not so old folks’ of Generation X who somehow managed to get left behind by the digital gravy train and find themselves with limited career prospects. Those in ‘the know’ enjoy the benefits, while others born in the 1970s feel like they live démodé, Beaumarchais 1770s style.

Addressing the e-Skills gap is important.  One great example of a grass roots organisation that seeks to build a bridge to digital literacy is Telecentre-Europe – a digital hub for European citizens. “Get Online Week 2012” takes place between 26-30 March and is a partner of the European e-Skills Week 2012 Campaign. Public venues throughout the EU will be open for everyone to come and see how it feels to get online. Supported by the European Commission, Get Online Week seeks to promote online activity and e-Skills for everyone through a basic understand of ICT.  Showing people how ICT can open doors to new, exciting digital opportunities for social and professional interactions is one way to get Europeans excited about the future.

The European e-Skills Week 2012 Campaign is strongly supported by the European ICT Industry; it is being actively promoted by national contact points in the following member states: Austria (see a cool video here), Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Sweden and the UK,  in partnership with academics and education leaders from LSE, INSEAD and many others who are working together to engage and include all citizens in the e-Skills Week 2012.

One highlight of the 2012 e-Skills Week Campaign is Project Passion – a pan-European competition which seeks to engage young people in telling unique, interesting and quirky stories about how e-Skills can open up new career directions and opportunities to be entrepreneurial.

Imagining a new world where people are equipped to live, work and play in the digital age is the overarching vision of the e-Skills Week campaign. By making this vision a reality, e-Skills Week 2012 seeks to ensure that all generations of European citizens have the best opportunities for the future.

Watch this video for more inspiration!

This blog post was published by Colleen Wood, stagiaire, DIGITALEUROPE and the content supported by Natalia Kurop, Director of Communications-Marketing, DIGITALEUROPE

19 February 2012

To help Europe’s youth seize the best job opportunities generated through digital technology, the European Commission will deliver an awareness raising campaign from 26-30 March 2012. The European e-Skills Week seeks to address how we can reduce youth unemployment – which has peaked at over 40% in some member states and is generally at around 22% across the EU – through obtaining the right types of e-Skills for the digital economy.

Communications, journalism and audio visual students or recent graduates from universities across the EU are invited to participate in the European e-Skills Week Project Passion Competition. Project Passion is a fun and potentially career launching initiative designed to inspire young people to create exciting communications on a theme that is top of mind amongst all young graduates in Europe – how to win a job.

We are inviting leading schools in the communications and audio visual domains to send entries which will be judged by a panel of experts from INSEAD, London School of Economics and the Sorbonne and a panel of industry leaders including the Chairmain of TBWA Worldwide, EuroNews, Cisco, Nokia, Google and Microsoft. Prizes include cash for the winner and runners up in each category, and the opportunity to win internships in leading global companies.

All you need to enter Project Passion is excellent content in one of three categoriees outlined below. You need to show in a creative, innovative, quirky or humourous way how young people can find jobs through selecting technology oriented careers.

The e-Skills Week Project Passion Competition is open to all final year students and recent graduates from across Europe who have studied communication, media, design, journalism or digital technology. We are seeking creative novel and cool communications campaigns based on the theme of the European e-Skills 2012 campaign – e-Skills: there is a job waiting for you.

The e-skills Week Project Passion Competition presents an extraordinary opportunity for students to demonstrate their skill in the creation of cutting edge messages that build the profile and visibility of the European e-Skills Week campaign. It also offers students the opportunity to build their own professional visibility with the biggest and best companies in the world.

To know more about how to enter or to share this information with your network check out our website where you can download the competition information and pass on the news !

Wishing you all a very merry holiday season from DIGITALEUROPE and the #eskills2012 campaign organisers

In a bid to help Europe – and most especially Europe’s youth – seize the best opportunities for jobs generated through digital technologies, DIGITALEUROPE and European Schoolnet have joined forces with the European Commission – DG Enterprise and Industry – to organise a European e-Skills Week in 2012 on 26-30 March 2012.

Youth unemployment, has peaked at over 40%, and is a worrying trend. Meanwhile opportunities created through science, information and communication technology, engineering and maths are critical to building a modern workforce. The European e-Skills week 2012 is a grass roots campaign focused on showing people how to get jobs and e-skills for life in the digital age.

Industry partners – including leading ICT companies such as Nokia, Microsoft, Cisco, Intel and numerous SMEs across Europe – in partnership with education bodies and public authorities, will deliver a large and diverse programme of events and activities in more than 30 European countries. Ministries of Education have embraced the importance of ICT and are working with industry to deliver an exciting choice of options for people looking for work, and for young people thinking about what career options are open to them.

“SMEs can only grow through employing highly skilled people,” outlined Dr Erkki Ormala, DIGITALEUROPE President. “The right skills encourage innovation and entrepreneurship. We cannot over-estimate the role of digital technology in job generation,” he said.

“The European e-Skills Week is a great initiative for you to get involved in to learn more about the skills you need to find a job,” said Marc Durando, Executive Director of European Schoolnet. “ICT is not just programming; there are so many options to be had from using technology creatively. Some of the greatest jobs can be found through technology – imagine the world without Twitter or Facebook, which were built out of a passion for technology,” said Mr. Durando.

Industry research from IDC estimates that 90% of all jobs will involve basic level of e-skills by 2015. Addressing this key challenge – skills for jobs for growth over the next few years – is a critical issue. Public-private partnerships with large companies have recognised the importance of having more people involved in a digital life, both for pleasure and for work.

The first European e-Skills week delivered hundreds events and activities in March 2010 that raised awareness amongst 65 million citizens in 35 countries of the importance of gaining e-Skills for jobs and for life.

Preparatory work for the European e-Skills Week 2012 will commence in December 2011 and activities will continue up until May 2012. Options for education, training, and opportunities for jobs and growth will be a highlight, and will demonstrate why ICT is so important for any new job.

To join the fight against unemployment citizens, companies and governments are invited engage in the European e-Skills Week 2012. To help deliver e-skills for jobs and for life check out http://eskills-week.ec.europa.eu and find ways to build our digital future together.