European Telework Development (ETD)
Introduction to ACTS Telework Chain
In Advanced Communications, Technologies and Services (ACTS) terminilogy
a 'chain' is a horizontal view of the programmes. One such view is that
of telework and telecooperation. The objectives of the Telework Chain are:
- To ensure that a variety of technology and service developments will
support the development of telework in a coherent way. Efforts will be concentrated
on the development of policy guidelines and recommendations to ACTS projects
and other (public and private) institutions and bodies representing key
players.
- To the preparation of the Commission's 5th Framework Programme. A
first step in this is an analysis of all the ACTS projects assessing strengths
and weaknesses in the way the subject is covered within ACTS, with a view
on threats and opportunities arising from "ACTS external developments
regarding telework and new ways of working.
Each project in the list below is hyperlinked to a short description. The
title in each description is in turn hyperlinked to the project's web page
supplied by the European Commission, these pages give a deeper description
of each project as well as contact details for the project organisers. Where
available details of additional web pages maintained by members of the project
itself are given.
The following projects are currently part of the chain:
- AVANTI - AC042
- Adaptive and Adaptable Interactions for Multimedia Telecommunications
Applications
- BOURBON - AC001
- BrOadband Urban Rural Based Open Networks
- DIANE - AC082
- Design, Implementation and operation of a Distributed Annotation Environment
- DIPLOMAT - AC222
- European Charter for Teleworking (to be confirmed)
- EIES - AC075
- European Information Exchange Service for the communication between
harbours
- EPRI-WATCH - AC079
- European Parliament Research Initiative Watch
- IBCoBN - AC-101
- Integrated Broadband Communication and Broadcast Networks
- IMMP -AC023
- Integrated Multimedia Project
- LEVERAGE - AC109
- Learn from Video Extensive Real ATM Gigabit Experiment
- MEMO - AC054
- Multimedia Environment for Mobiles
- MEDIAN - AC006
- Wireless Broadband CPN/LAN for Professional and Residential Multimedia
Applications
- MULTIMEDIATOR - AC096
- Multimedia Publishing Brokerage Service
- ONTHEMOVE - AC034
- Multimedia Information Services
- SICMA - AC071
- Scalable Interactive Continuous Media Server - Design and Application
- SMARTS - AC114
- SME and Regional Telecoms Support
- TEAM - AC070
- Team based European Automotive Manufacture
- TECODIS - AC064
- Teleworking in Co-operative Development of Industrial Software
- TEESURA - AC230
- Techno Economic Evaluation and Sectorial User Requirements (to be
confirmed)
- TELESHOPPE -AC099
- Teleshopping services using virtual reality and interactive multimedia
- TOBASCO - AC 028
- Towards Broadband Access Systems for CATV Optical networks
- USINACTS - AC224
- Usability in ACTS
BOURBON - AC001 BrOadband Urban Rural Based Open Networks
The BOURBON project seeks to address the issue of providing cost effective,
saleable access to ATM-based advanced services for SMEs in the wider context
of Europe and the Information Society. There are two parallel streams running
through the project, one technology-focused, demonstrating advanced features
of ATM-based networking, the other user-focused, with particular emphasis
on the needs of SMEs, both urban and rural. It is within the convergence
of these streams that the project will ultimately seek to define network
and service architectures taking into account present technology that will
support the move to higher bandwidth services whilst maintaining a realistic
view on what is required by SMEs and on the affordability of the services.
Within this framework, BOURBON plans to look at the link between ATM-induced
improvements in SME-internal logistics and in the value-added chain "suppliers-SME-distributors-customers/clients
of the SME,s product(s) on one side and the economic and social sustainability
of those new ways of working on the other.
MEDIAN
- AC006 Wireless Broadband CPN/LAN for Professional and Residential
Multimedia Applications
The MEDIAN project objective is to evaluate and implement a high speed wireless
customer premises local area network (WCPN/WLAN) pilot system for multimedia
applications, and to demonstrate the usability in a real -user trial. The
trial will be based on a wireless ATM LAN environment, where the MEDIAN
demonstrator provides the wireless access points.
The MEDIAN concept will very much
support the place independency of work by exploring the wireless LAN possibilities
in today,s and future systems. Therefore the contribution is in eliminating
technical barriers to place independency of the work place. The
project's home page on the WWW
IMMP
- AC023 Integrated MultiMedia Project
Main objective of the IMMP is the integration of services and service architecture
addressing both residential and business users, focusing on the overleaps
and synergy between the two. The project will run trials with selected services
to understand the key issues: technical, human and commercial, which will
effect the successful deployment and end user acceptance of such services.
The project's home page on
the WWW
The outcomes of those trials can provide input to the guideline development
for the GAT chain.
TOBASCO
- AC 028 Towards Broadband Access Systems for CATV Optical networks
The aim of TOBASCO is to upgrade existing CATV networks with high splitting
counts, with broadband interactive services by applying High-Density Wavelength
Division Multiplexing in a cost effective way, and to demonstrate the viability
of the system in a field trial. Thus the project will advance the introduction
of interactive services in existing CATV networks. The
project's home page on the WWW
Interactive services on CATV networks will allow mass participation in applications
as telework and telelearning. The project will contribute to the promotion
of those applications.
ONTHEMOVE
- AC034 Multimedia Information Services
On The Move will develop and propose to standardise a mobile Application
Programme Interface to facilitate the use of multimedia applications. For
this it will develop an architecture to support both 'mobile aware' and
'non mobile aware' applications. The
project's home page on the WWW
By doing this the project will enhance the place independentness of work
by increasing the efficiency for mobile workers and by facilitating easier
access from isolated locations to broadband communications and applications.
AVANTI
- AC042 Adaptive and Adaptable Interactions for Multimedia Telecommunications
Applications
The main objective of this project is to demonstrate, through practical
testing, that it is possible to develop generic multimedia telecommunications
applications of important social impact and potential commercial value,
which are adapted and adaptive to the requirements of most potential users
(including e.g. disabled people, elderly people, occasional users, professionals),
in terms of communication means, information content and man-machine interface.
AVANTI is particularly interested in the social impact of advanced telecommunication
services on potential user groups. Therefore, some joint planning and conducting
of trials together with the project will take place. Originally, the prime
focus has been on the development of instruments for improving accessibility
of teleservices for people with specific needs. However, since their use
requires extensive training, the project will have to engage in trials with
different groups of handicapped and non-handicapped people to prepare for
new ways of working, including teamwork. The
project's home page on the WWW
MEMO
- AC054 Multimedia Environment for Mobiles
MEMO is the first project aimed at offering mobile multimedia services.
This will lead to improved working practice of construction engineers, journalists,
etc. and create new types of information and
entertainment services for end users. It involves the development, implementation
and pilot operation of multimedia broadcasting services with high data rate,
triggered by requirements of electronic publishing and building construction
industries. It will specifically address the problem
of handling large amounts of data: text/pictures and multimedia data sets
(e.g. construction plans) over mobile and portable terminals. Technology
used will be Digital Audio Broadcasting System (DAB: wide band system (1.5
MHz) with data rates up to 1.7 Mbit/s, (convolutional coding and OFDM modulation
for reliable mobile reception) for downloading. GSM will be used for the
return channel. Data terminals will be based on PCs/Laptops/PDA. Pilot demonstrations
will be done in the publishing and building construction industries.
TECODIS
- AC064 Teleworking in Co-operative Development of Industrial Software
Teleworking is now viewed as one possible means of achieving a more flexible
allocation of skilled people to time critical projects than is currently
possible within a centralised office environment. In this context the project
has two main objectives: Firstly, to demonstrate the use of teleworking
in the software development industrial area in the most realistic possible
way. Secondly, to demonstrate the viability of teleworking by developing
a teleworking support platform and demonstrating its practical use in a
large scale international engineering project.
TECODIS will be able to contribute to the future deployment of telework,
as well as to the development of guidelines, considerably. The project,s
contributions to be expected are the development of a Teleworking Model,
a Cost/Benefit evaluation based on real users, development of a teleworking
platform and in the area of dissemination and linkage to other programmes.
The project's home page on the
WWW
TEAM
- AC070 Team-based European Automotive Manufacture
The project aims at a virtual integration of the entire automotive supply
chain in a trial, demonstrating a variety of multimedia applications. Key
issues are the cultural aspects of including 2nd/3rd tier suppliers & SMEs,
integration of complex applications like CAD, the tariffs by PNOs for broadband
communications, confidentiality and security issues and the necessary training/skills
aspect.
The project will demonstrate tele-cooperation in the full meaning of the
word. Doing so it provides input to the development of guidelines on telework/tele-cooperation,
both in the sense of technical solutions as in overcoming cultural, financial
and confidentiality/security constraints. The
project's home page on the WWW
SICMA
- AC071 Scalable Interactive Continuous Media Server - Design and Application
SiCMA aims to design a scaleable server for the delivery of images, data
and continuous multimedia information. It will also demonstrate its efficiency
by applying it in a "Virtual Museum. A server to be used within various
testbeds serving a large number of users under various conditions.
The design of scaleable interactive media servers will have a strong impact
on the cost of on-line services, and will, therefor, contribute to the place
independentness of work. The
project's home page on the WWW
EIES
- AC075
European Information Exchange Service for the communication between harbours
EIES aims at defining, implementing and experimenting an advanced communication
service to support routine and non-routine communication between harbour
authorities, ship owners, customs, fire brigade etc. within harbour areas.
To do so a demonstrator will be put into place and be used on a platform
based on several technologies, amongst which ATM broadband. Link to Telework/Tele-cooperation
Will provide input on guidelines on telecooperation and telework by exploring
implementation of AC in-depth in a specific environment. The
project's home page on the WWW
EPRI-WATCH
- AC079 European Parliament Research Initiative Watch
The project's main objective is to stimulate information exchange between
those involved with technology development/trials in ACTS, and those involved
in policy debates on Information Society issues in European, national and
regional parliaments and policy making bodies. Seminars and workshops on
fields of common interest combined with video events and distributed seminars
and presentations of ACTS trials and demonstrations will be held to generate
better awareness of the policy concerns relating to technology developments.
The main trial will involve the use of advanced telecommunications by parliamentarians
themselves and by their support staff and will generate valuable feedback
for the Commission,s research programmes from an important user group.
EPRI-WATCH can play an important role in the development of guidelines on
a political level, by providing assistance in communication with the political
community. The project's home page on the
WWW
DIANE
- AC082 Design, Implementation and operation of a Distributed Annotation
Environment
Distributed multimedia services envisaged today in most cases distinguish
sharply between service and content provider on one side and consuming users
on the other side. Only a few applications have been realised strengthening
the role of end users both as content provider and consumer. Existing multimedia
authoring systems are either application-specific or allow solely combinations
of media generated entirely by a user, as is the case for multimedia mail.
The goal of the project is to develop a multimedia service removing these
deficits. DIANE is conceived as a service allowing users to create, exchange
and consume multimedia data easily. As trial applications, DIANE has decided
to develop and test annotation services for two different settings: (1)
teleradiology and (2) a computing center providing annotated, support to
its users for interacting with complex computer applications.
An annotation service is of considerable value in a tele-cooperation/telework
environment. The trial is expected to explore the added value of the services
to be developed to telework/telecooperation. The
project's home page on the WWW
MULTIMEDIATOR
- AC096 Multimedia Publishing Brokerage Service
The project will demonstrate the use of an intelligent multimedia brokerage
service for pan-European customers and suppliers in the publishing area.
Services offered will include specialised video-on-demand, hypervideo, and
conventional publishing services. Existing technology and project developments
will be integrated for this purpose. Amongst the key issues are a whiteboard
for multimedia document production and communication APIs for several communication
protocols.
The trial is expected to explore the added value of the services to be developed
to telework/telecooperation. The
project's home page on the WWW
TELESHOPPE
- AC099 Teleshopping services using virtual reality and interactive
multimedia
The main objectives of TELESHOPPE are to investigate how the use of advanced
multimedia technologies and virtual reality can stimulate the "touch
and feel of physical shopping in a telepresence shopping experience, and
to incorporate this research in a series of demonstrators and field trials
using broadband ISDN and ATM networks.
The key issues involve multi-disciplinary collaboration ranging from software
engineering, virtual reality, interactive coded video, speech technology,
spoken dialogues, video production and programming, user interface engineering
and marketing. This will obviously provide input to the products of the
telework chain.
IBCoBN
- AC101 Integrated Broadband Communication and Broadcast Networks
The main objective of the project is to identify the broadband communication
needs of residential users and key residential applications. It also aims
to initiate longer term R&D into the IBC needs of the CATV sector and to
create a centre of excellence (Euro Cable Labs) to take over the identification
of future requirements for local and regional cable networks. IBCoBN will
be running trials in several CATV sites in Belgium, the Netherlands, Portugal,
UK, Russia and possibly Spain.
The universal IBC service planned by the project addresses the communication
needs of residential users including older and disadvantaged people, as
well as the needs of businesses (with emphasis on SMEs and freelancers/portfolio
workers) and of the public sector (in particular health, education and local
government). By verifying high speed applications which are desirable and
affordable. The project expressed their interest to play a major role within
the Telework Chain, as telework is seen as a major application to support
by residential broadband. The
project's home page on the WWW
LEVERAGE
- AC109 - Learn From Video Extensive Real ATM Gigabit
LEVERAGE demonstrates how communication between learners in cross-linguistic
situation can be supported and improved very effectively by multimedia broadband
technology. The basic LEVERAGE paradigm is that a learner in one country
makes contact with a learner in another, and that they agree to assist each
other in the performance of a mutual task, alternatively playing the
role of tutor (own native language) and learner (second language). It involves
development, implementation, and a field trial of a complete multimedia
network infrastructure to support joint work between three sites. The infrastructure
will include a high-speed optical backbone, true ATM
switching, network management and advanced signalling capabilities and linking
the sites through Public Network Operators ATM Pilot schemes via ACTS National
Hosts. Users are provided with multimedia terminals giving access to data
resources, high quality audio and video, multimedia
courseware, videoconferencing. The trials will evaluate the how the broadband
communications facilities offered support the pedagogical framework proposed.
SMARTS
- AC114 SME and Regional Telecoms Support
The strategic objective of SMARTS is to increase the participation of small
and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) in the work of and exploitation of results
from the ACTS programme. In this project participation is defined as:
- full partnership or subcontractor in a new or established ACTS project,
- triggered use of broadband technologies and services in their own
proprietary technology base
- attendance at ACTS events,
- use of broadband products and services by non-technically based SMEs
(e.g. in tourism),
- engineers and scientists from SMEs joining ACTS projects and trials
as guest researchers.
In the second phase of the ACTS programme SMARTS will focus on the opportunities
provided by the emerging electronic market and by the diversification and
improvement of electronic commerce software, for SMEs and their partners
(suppliers, clients, distributors).
SMARTS will contribute particularly in the area of telecooperation, whereas
the overlap with the electronic commerce environment can be substantial.
ETD (10081) - European Telework Development ETD addresses the AC80 task,
focusing on telework:
- stimulating early and effective take up of telework,
- developing common and concerted actions at both European and national
level, using professional outreach methods to reach selected target audiences,
- removing barriers to take up by developing a clear vision and perspective
of telework, and sharing this with the parties concerned,
- stimulate and support early and widespread use of the technologies
of telework through a European network of telework websites and associated
on-line services.
ETD will support and co-ordinate Chain activities, and work with chain participants
to optimise the match between user needs and emergent technologies and services
and promote awareness of telework related developments and trials
DIPLOMAT
- AC222 European Charter for Teleworking (to be confirmed)
DIPLOMAT comprises two main actions:
- To create a comprehensive European Charter for Telework, identifying
applications for ACTS and other technologies, and to obtain agreement on
that charter.
- To contact up to 2000 influential organisations in the process of
discussions and of obtaining agreement, in order to solicit their views
and inform them about teleworking, ACTS Technologies and the Information
Society, stimulate telework trials and usage of ACTS technologies.
DIPLOMAT will use input from ACTS projects in general, and, more specific,
from GAT Chain projects, in developing the guidelines.
TEESURA
- AC230 Techno Economic Evaluation and Sectorial User Requirements (to be
confirmed)
The target of this project is the development of an ACTS Solution Provider
in order to translate enduser application requirements into technical solutions.
Basically, the TEESURA service is to compare ICT user requirements with
system functionalities of already existing applications and services. It
will also offer the possibility to Telecom Operators and Service Providers
to carry out different market survey studies to define different emerging
scenarios considering end-user needs. Thus TEESURA will support ACTS projects
by giving feedback whether their technical ICT solution goes conform with
a broader end-user needs context.
The Solution Provider could contribute to the development of ACTS Telework
Guidelines by supporting the development of different scenarios following
a specific set of guidelines.
USINACTS
- AC224 USability IN ACTS
The function of USINACTS is to identify, characterise, document and disseminate
examples of the successful application of usability principles from ACTS
usage trials, and from industry. The objective is to show that the application
of usability principles delivers tangible benefits, through promoting services
better adapted and configured to the requirements of users.
The project will produce a number of deliverables, culminating in the production
of a book relating the experiences of the projects in adopting usability
principles in design. The book will include guidelines for future projects
within the Framework V programme on how to design future telecommunications
systems and services with the user in mind, This information being drawn
from the successes and pitfalls that have existed within existing projects.
The opportunity to provide the Book on CD-ROM and/or the web to allow the
inclusion of video clips and interactive demos will be sought. The
project's own website.
To be fully informed of developments in telework world wide
and especially of activities of the ETD initiative, please join the eto
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European Telework Development Initiative
(ETD) Index Page
ETD is supported by the European Commission
(DGXIII) as part of the Advanced Communications Technologies and Services
(ACTS) programme. ETD's central web pages are hosted at the European
Telework Online website.
Page address http://www.eto.org.uk/gat/gat-proj.htm
This page last updated 12 May 1997
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