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ETD News - March 1998 Page 3 Of 4 The European IT Conference 97 'Convergence: Creating the future' was the theme of the European IT Conference, EITC 97, that took place in Brussels between 24-26 November, 1997. The convergence is that of the telecommunications, broadcasting, IT, and publishing industries. In a mix of plenary and parallel sessions, workshops and an exhibition, participants discussed new ways to work, learn and do business. Other topics included intellectual property rights, multilingualaism and cultural diversity. Speakers highlighted the impact of digitalisation and of mobility. Wireless networks handling both voice and data, for instance, will play a significant role in giving business people and consumers timely access to information, wherever they are. The second day of the three day conference was both web casted and broadcasted via satellite throughout Europe, the Middle East and Africa. European IT Prizes Another feature of EITC97 was the award of the European IT Prizes in a ceremony chaired by the President of the European Commission, Jacques Santer. The prize, jointly awarded by Esprit and Euro-CASE (European Council of Applied Sciences and Engineering), is given for innovative IT products that show excellent market promise. Winners, from a field of over 300 entries, were Applied Spectral Imaging (Israel), Hyperwave (Germany) and LCI Computer Group (the Netherlands). They received a trophy and an award of 200,000 ECU. http://www.cordis.lu/esprit/src/eitc97.htm The 1998 European IT Prize "Novel products with a high IT content and evident market potential" is the theme for the 1998 prize. There are up to three large awards of 200.000 ECU each and 25 prizes 5,000 ECU each. Submissions should be for a product that has reached a demonstrable prototype or has entered the market since June 1st, 1996. Submissions will be assessed on technical excellence, innovative content, the potential for improving competitiveness, the capacity to generate employment and anticipated societal benefits. The deadline for applications is April 28th, 1998. ETD National Coordinators Respond To Green Paper During October 1997, the ETD project national co-ordinators collaborated to prepare a submission to DGV's green paper 'Partnership for a New Organisation of Work'. As noted in the last edition of ETD News (page 18), the green paper asked for comment on 18 teleworking issues, ranging from contractual status to environmental impact. ETD's national co-ordinators were ideally placed to respond, having been recruited for their practical knowledge of teleworking in each of the member states. Many also run national telework associations. The resulting document, based on questions proposed in the original consultative paper, was collated by Imogen Bertin, who works with the Communications Workers Union in Ireland. She comments: "We were very pleased to see the original DGV paper, but the usual consultation processes with the social partners in each member state often omit telework practitioners because they are not necessarily represented by employers organisations or trade unions. Through the ETD network of coordinators we felt we could provide DGV with the grass roots views in different member states - the real problems faced by practising teleworkers, both those who are self employed and those in the conventional PAYE sector. We provided an agreed answer for each point, but also room for additional comments from those coordinators who had other issues to raise." The comments from each country were collated by email using an ETD discussion list, and submitted to DGV for the November 31st deadline. Statistics - Fact or Fiction? One of the observations made in the European Telework Status report 1997 (see http://www.eto.org.uk/twork/tw97eto/ ) was the wide variation in reported telework statistics: "Different ways of collecting telework statistics are being followed in different countries making direct comparisons extremely difficult". When Alan Denbigh, ETD National Coordinator in the UK read an article that reported: "Only 125,000 people telework in the UK...." (Tim Phillips, Guardian OnLine 11/12/97), he immediately checked other sources. As he reported in Teleworker, the magazine of the UK teleworkers association: "The latest UK government figures suggest he is seriously underestimating the phenomenon. The Department for Employment and Education's Labour Force Survey of Spring 1997 show 987,000 teleworkers in the UK." As reported in earlier editions, ETD is supporting the collection of pan-European teleworking figures on a comparable basis, which it hopes to feature in a future version of EITO (the European Information Technology Observatory). In preliminary work, ETD has been compiling a base set of standard statistics covering basic economic indicators, telecommunications penetration, computers and ISDN, Internet access and the relative prices of telecommunications. These will be found at: http://www.eto.org.uk/eustats/index.htm EITO97 can be ordered through ETD at: http://www.eto.org.uk/eito/eito_o.cfm Transnational Telecentre Network Rainer Pollmann, ETD National Coordinator, Germany (Email: rainer.pollmann@ta-telearbeit.de) The reputation and usage of telecentres in Germany is not as widespread as in the UK, Ireland or France. Many employers and employees seem sceptical about teleworking. There is also insufficient information on telecentres, and no easy answers to how an employer or an employee could benefit from using them. Questions that need answering include: Where are the telecentres in Germany (and all over Europe) located? Which services do they offer? What are the costs to use a telecentre work place? How can I manage the technological and organisational integration of such work places into the business processes? Hence the project, TELWEB, which will be conducted over the next two years by TA Telearbeit GmbH in Geilenkirchen, as part of a transnational project called TEAM, involving a further 6 international partners. A transnational telecentre network, that will connect existing and planned telecentres across Europe, will be set up within the European ADAPT initiative, part of the European Social Fund Community Initiative designed to help European employers and workers anticipate industrial change and deal with its effects. TELWEB will provide information about telecentres, the services they offer, and transfer know-how. It will also establish a virtual network of telework employment agencies, that will help qualified people get the opportunity to telework for employers and customers all over Europe. For further information on how to take part as a telecentre provider, employer, employee or freelancer feel please free to contact TELWEB's project manager: Jochen Schuchardt Email: jochen.schuchardt@ta-telearbeit.de Phone:: +49 2451 718 171 WWW: http://www.ta-telearbeit.de Information Society disAbilities Challenge Gains Momentum The Information Society disAbilities Challenge (ISdAC), which emerged from discussion at the European Telework Online web site (http://www.eto.org.uk) is moving forward rapidly and seems to be something for which "the time is ripe". ISdAC promoted the idea that we can make the Information Society a better place for everyone by active steps to empower people with disabilities to play a full part in its planning, development and evolution. Following its success in gaining a European Telework Award as the most innovative contribution to the development of telework in Europe in 1997, ISdAC has now gained tangible support from the Periphera project and established its own independent web site (http://www.isdac.org/). Carlos Velasco (Spain) has been nominated as chairman of ISdAC. Although having severe physical constraints himself he is a leading European online activist and leader. Around his leadership ISdAC is gathering a strong multi-talented team of both disabled and non-disabled people, including the project managers of several important European Information Society projects, politicians and government officials, all contributing in small and large ways to the exciting ISdAC vision. ISdAC proposes a strong economic rationale for action as well as the obvious social benefits. Carlos says: "With the right support, Europe can move at least a million people with disabilities out of dependency and empower them to make a strong intellectual and economic contribution to our future. In our "old society" a very few people with disabilities have, through quite immense personal effort, demonstrated that a wheelchair can camouflage tremendous skills and just the kind of brainpower we need. Let's build the new society in a way that optimises on the competence of all our citizens and provides the support they need to play a full rather than a partial role." You can help ISdAC, simply by adding your own name to the growing list of people who have left a message of support and endorsement at the web site (or by email to etd-isdac-support@eto.org.uk). If you want to help in a more tangible way, visit the web site and complete the registration of interest form. ISdAC is at: http://www.isdac.org/ GAT Chain Releases Guidelines The ACTS General Access - Telework (GAT) Chain has launched two draft guidelines: GAT-G1: First-time interoperability across "Extranets"; developing European competence and confidence - proposed by ETD GAT-G5: Implementation of telework for multi-site development - proposed by TECODIS The guidelines are published in full in The European Journal of Teleworking, Vol. 5, No. 2 (Autumn 1997) or can be read at: http://www.eto.org.uk/gat/ Read The Next Page Return To Contents List