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Updated: March 20, 2001 |
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ISTAG activities for 2001
ISTAG have completed their work on longer term scenario planning that was started during 2000 with the production of the report ". The report results from three expert workshops held during 2000 and has been supported by the Commission's DG Information Society and Joint Research Center in Seville (IPTS). The report is intended to stimulate debate and discussion about some of the key areas of research to pursue in the context of FP6.
Work in 2001 will focus on the preparations for FP6 as well as providing recommendations for the IST workprogramme for 2002.
In order to provide input to the Commission as they prepare the Framework level definition of FP6, ISTAG produced at the end of 2000 a short paper giving "interim" "ISTAG recommendations for FP6 - December 2000". Further recommendations can be expected during 2001.
The table below shows the calendar of ISTAG meetings for 2000. For meetings which have taken place the "Operational Conclusions" can be downloaded.
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ISTAG activities in 2000
In 2000, ISTAG set-up three working groups.
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The first working group has focussed on preparing ISTAG's recommendations for workprogramme 2001 and has worked closely with the Commission services and particularly with the IPPA report (integrated programme portfolio analysis). Interpreting IPPA and anticipating work which will be launched in 2000, ISTAG has identified a set of ten "Key Enabling Technologies" (KETs) which support the realisation of the vision. The executive summary of this report is provided in the panel below. The full report can be downloaded by following this link "Implementing the vision".
ISTAG's second working group for 2000, supports an activity which addresses a longer term horizon - beyond FP5. It will develop "scenarios" for a longer term vision of the challenges and opportunities for sustained global competitiveness of the European IST industry - circa 2010. The activity jointly organised by DG-INFSO, JRC-IPTS (building on the "Futures Project") and ISTAG. Initial scenarios will be developed during the summer and these will be explored and validated by groups of ~20 high-level experts in two workshops to be held in October and December 2000. The scenarios will represent possible outcomes of RTD work which could be undertaken in the context of FP6. The scenarios will be reported in February 2001 and are expected to be useful to politicians, business-people and technologists involved in the definitions of FP6.
A third working group, will prepare a response to the request contained in the eEurope Action Plan which was endorsed by the Feira Summit in June 2000. In the plan, the IST Committee and Advisory Group are invited to re-assess the priorities of the Information Society Technologies (IST) Programme. ISTAG will report on the synergies between IST and eEurope and to take account of what might lie beyond in the timeframe of FP6. A draft of this report "eEurope, ISTAG vision and FP6" will be discussed at ISTAG's September meeting.
The table below shows the calendar of ISTAG meetings for 2000. For meetings which have taken place the "Operational Conclusions" can be downloaded.
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ISTAG's 2000 Report Executive Summary ISTAG reminds the reader of the vision statement which was incorporated into the workprogramme 2000 :- "Start creating the ambient intelligence landscape for seamless delivery of services and applications in Europe relying also upon testbeds and open source software, develop user-friendliness, and develop and converge the networking infrastructure in Europe to world-class" ISTAG has identified ten "Key Enabling Technologies" (KETs) which support the realisation of this vision and has produced the following recommendations for WP2001.
ISTAG recognise that the eEurope Initiative and the IST programme have common goals, but work on different timescales. The IST programme is already contributing to eEurope objective particularly in the Action Lines and modalities (e.g. take-up measures) having output with relatively short lead times. ISTAG recommends that the contribution from IST to eEurope could be strengthened by measures such as increased clustering and accelerated dissemination of results within the current framework and the ISTAG vision. |
ISTAG activities in 1999
ISTAG held four meetings in 1999. Operational conclusions from these meetings are published and can be accessed through the links given in the table below.
ISTAG also organised three working groups which met during May and June. The output of these working groups were consolidated into a single report "Orientations for workprogramme 2000 and beyond". which was presented to the Commission in September 1999. The report presented a "vision" and a series of recommendations which were incorporated into workprogramme 2000 (link to WP2000). The executive summary of ISTAG's report is given in the panel below.
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ISTAG's 1999 Report "Orientations for WP2000 and beyond" Executive Summary The role of the IST Advisory Group (ISTAG) is to provide the Commission with independent advice concerning the content and direction of research work to be carried out under the IST Programme. In this context, ISTAG set up three working groups :-
....to explore key topics that could in combination bring additional focus into the annual revisions of the workprogramme. This report consolidates the findings of the three working groups. The report, by intention, does not elaborate full technical details but rather provides strategic orientations and a number of illustrative examples that are relevant to the preparation of Workprogramme 2000. The vision statement agreed by ISTAG members is to ….
The vision for Ambient Intelligence arises from the convergence of three key technologies: "Ubiquitous Computing", "Ubiquitous Communication", and "Intelligent User-Friendly Interfaces". It proposes a laid-back mode of dialogue with an integrated service infrastructure in which one’s everyday surroundings become the Interface. This vision builds on European strengths in mobile communication. digital broadcasting, rich content and network infrastructures and provides a new impetus for rapid and complete convergence of fixed and mobile applications as well as synergies between broadcast and on-line services. It necessitates the resolution of many formidable technical and standardisation problems, relying on a continuing, rapid advance in key technologies and their aggregation and materialisation as competitive products and services. This should catalyse an expanse of business opportunities that capitalise on the growing appetite for added-value services packaged in ever more user-friendly formats. The report proposes a number of actions to orient the IST workprogramme 2000 towards the vision, and indicates a number of selected topics identified as priorities by the ISTAG working groups: Human Interfaces and Natural Interaction, Network Technology and System Architectures, Mobile Webtone and Next Generation Internet. The importance of the availability of test-beds and usability test laboratories is emphasised. It should also be realised that exploiting the vision does not mean that we have to do everything at once. The next operational step is to mobilise a broad constituency of IST programme participants from manufacturing and services industry and academia around the vision and its potential impact. There will be a continuous dialog between ISTAG and the Commission during the drafting of the WP 2000. |
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ISTAG Members in 2001
In March 2001 the Commission renewed the ISTAG mandate for a further two year period. A number of new members have been included to extend the areas of expertise of the group. The revised membership of ISTAG is listed in the table below......
| Angelo | Airaghi | Finmeccanica (Chairman) |
| Kiril | Boyanov | Bulgarian Academy of Sciences |
| Alain | Bravo | Alcatel |
| Tarja | Cronberg | University Oslo |
| Michel | Feneyrol | France Telecom |
| Paolo | Galuzzi | Florence Science Museum |
| Christos | Halkias | Intrasoft S.A. |
| Michael | Healy | Ashling Microsystems Ltd |
| Rosemary | Horwood | Consultant |
| Juhani | Kuusi | Nokia |
| Paul | Lagasse | University of Gent |
| Bernard | Larrouturou | INRIA |
| Wolfgang | Merker | Daimler Benz A.G. |
| Gregers | Mogensen | Consultant |
| Cesare | Mossotto | CSELT S.P.A. |
| Ann-Marie | Nilsson | The Swedish IT Companies Organisation |
| Ursula | Pachl | BEUC |
| Ian | Purves | Newcastle General Hospital |
| Martin | Schuurmans | Philips |
| Javier | Uceda | University of Madrid |
| Jacob | Vortman | Insight Therapeutics |
| Luc | Wagner | CLT-UFA |
| Hannes | Werthner | University of Vienna |
| Andrzej Piotr | Wierzbicki | Instytut Lacznosci (Poland) |
A number of ISTAG members have now retired from the group (see table below). The IST programme is particularly grateful for their contribution and advice and we would like to thank them and acknowledge their work.
| Claus | Weyrich | Siemens (former ISTAG Chairman) |
| Jose | Alves Marques | INESC |
| Romain | Bausch | Société Européenne des Satellites |
| Hans | Berthelsen | National Association of Local Authorities (Denmark) |
| Peter | Cochrane | British Telecom |
| Tarja | Cronberg | Regional Council of North Karelia (Finland) |
| John | Daniel | The Open University |
| Arnoud | De Kemp | Springer-Verlag GmbH |
| Paolo | Galuzzi | Florence Science Museum |
| Chris | Horn | Iona Technology Ltd |
| Rosemary | Horwood | Consultant |
| Bernard | Larrouturou | INRIA |
| Wolfgang | Merker | Daimler Benz A.G. |
| Cesare | Mossotto | CSELT S.P.A. |
| Ann-Marie | Nilsson | The Swedish IT Companies Organisation |
| Ursula | Pachl | BEUC |
| Martin | Schuurmans | Philips |
| Luc | Wagner | CLT-UFA |
If you have any comments then you can send them to the Commission's ISTAG mailbox (ISTAG@cec.eu.int) or the Commission's ISTAG secretariat (david.broster@cec.eu.int) - your comments will be forwarded to ISTAG.
