I’ve always been interested in space. Mysteries of the universe, space travel, black holes and all that. So it was a real pleasure to hear an 83-year-old Buzz Aldrin speak at a dinner in Brussels recently, and to discover that my dinner table neighbour worked for NASA. It got me comparing the challenges of getting [...]

Europe has been fertile ground for creative minds for centuries. Over the past two decades, the digital economy has taken this to a new level. The European Commission’s orientation debate on copyright, the lifeblood of creativity, therefore comes at just the right time. Those with the highest stakes in copyright have made their voice heard, [...]

When a technology proves disruptive and ubiquitous enough to power networks that attract 2.2 billion users – one third of the world’s population – daily, is it reasonable to pretend that nothing is happening and to support status quo? A variety of regulatory props have been designed to nurture creativity over the last five centuries. [...]

DIGITALEUROPE’s vision is of a Europe that nurtures and supports digital technology industries, and prospers from the jobs we provide, the innovation and economic benefits we deliver and the societal challenges we address.  So we are pleased to read, in the renewed EU Industrial Policy published on 10 October, with the telling subtitle “A Stronger [...]

The last couple of weeks have been improbably eventful and positive in Brussels on an issue notorious for moving slowly, if at all. 1. The Cloud strategy released on 27 September under the propitious title “Unleashing the Potential of Cloud Computing in Europe” combines a visionary layout of a successful migration to the cloud with [...]

John Steinbeck reportedly borrowed this title from a verse authored by Robert Burns: « The best laid schemes o’mice an’ men often go awry ». Arguably, times of crisis hold out as many opportunities as risks: in order to be fleet-footed enough to catch the former and ensure that they prevail over the latter, we need to [...]

Cyber security has become an imperative. Governments around the world are preoccupied by the possibility of targeted cyber-attacks and they rightly take initiatives to protect their citizens. To illustrate: security was selected as one of the priority topics for the European Commission’s Digital Agenda Assembly 2012 last week in Brussels, and many other events have [...]

Media seem to go by the unwritten dogma that only difference in opinion, not consensus, is worth the headlines. Regardless, agreeing common principles has always been a prerequisite to joint action or effective progress in the real world. This at least holds true for the European Union, this innovative construct of national governments whose collective [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]