Yvo Volman

1
European Content for the Global networksINFO
2000 and beyond Milano, 10-4-2000

• Yvo Volman

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European Content for the Global Networks
Agenda

• Content in the EU economic and social
  implications
• INFO2000 what impact ?
• The year 2000 and beyond

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The EU view on the Information Society
The Prodi Commission

• The key to the future of our Continent is in the
  hands of hi-tech, knowledge-based industries, at
  the cutting edge of research.
• Just think of the Internet. It can change the
  whole organisation of production, reducing stocks
  and creating virtual products.
• Modern economies are increasingly
  knowledge-based, and this is an area where we
  have a competitive advantage at world level

Romano Prodi, European Parliament, 1999
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The emerging Information Society
Which would you choose?

• Cost (US) Time
• Air mail 7.40 5 days
• Courier 26.25 24 hours
• Fax 28.83 31 minutes
• E-mail 0.095 2 minutes

From either or to and and
Source Northern River Ventures, quoted in ITU
Challenges to the Network Telecoms and the
Internet, 1997
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Shift in Importance of Success Factors in the
Multimedia Market
Bertelsmann Multimedia
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The Economic Challenge
What is the economic weight of content ?

• Sheer size
• 376 billion - or 5 of the EU GDP
• 4 million employees
• Growth rate
• Can be up to 20 per year
• Job creation engine up to 1 million new jobs by
  2005
• Indirect effects
• driver and tradable good in e-commerce
• pushes ICT goods and services demand

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The Social Implications
Content fulfils important social functions

• Skills
• New needs for content creation
• Improving workers employability
• Culture
• An underexploited asset
• Language diversity
• Equal access to the Information Society
• Export opportunities
• Wider implications
• Healthcare, elderly, environment
• Enlargement

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The marketplace
A turbulent marketplace

• Demand side
• Internet users
• 275 million (February 2000, NUA, IE)
• Mobile Telephony
• 120 million mobile subscribers in the EU
• Supply side, changing structures
• Convergence
• Mergers and take-overs

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Europe versus US

• Infrastructure
• Europes multimedia structure lags behind, but
  Europe leads in mobile communication
• Telecommunication costs
• 5 times higher in EU than in US (source
  Forrester Research, quoted by NUA internet
  services)
• Content
• Europe leads in professional information, but
  lags in entertainment
• Users
• Europe as a whole lags, but some European
  countries do very well

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Europe versus US
Opportunities in Content

• Rich content base
• public sector information
• World ranking players
• Long publishing tradition
• Chances in linguistic and cultural customisation
• but
• Lagging in electronic publishing

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The Content Industries
Global market share print publishing
Global market share Electronic publishing
Are we losing this battle ?
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Catalysing the transformation
Encouraging Experimentation
Growing emphasis on content
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The IST Programme
Independent and interdependent
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INFO2000 Operational Impact
Job creation

• Multimedia Projects
• More than 50 have indicated that they have
  created jobs as a direct or indirect result of
  their respective projects
• Job creation ranges from 0.5 to 15 persons per
  project, and up to 45 person years
• Public Sector Information projects
• Projects under way 50 of the projects claim
  they will generate jobs

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How is INFO2000 perceived ?
Multimedia Projects Survey
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INFO2000 from scribe to screen
Strategic Impact

• Strategic Studies
• Strategic Developments for the European
  Publishing Industry towards the Year 2000 (1996)
• Content and Commerce Driven Strategies in Global
  Networks (1998)
• Green Paper on Public Sector Information
• Improving access to information throughout Europe
• Facilitating exploitation of public sector
  content resources

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Green Paper published 20 January 1999Events
throughout EuropeDiscussions with various
institutionsNumerous replies
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European Content for the Global Networks

• CONDRINET Study
• INFO2000 Mid-term evaluation
• It is essential to instill a great sense of
  urgency and to give priority to initiatives that
  increase the pace of market development and
  penetration
• Informal consultation round with industry
• Having the content is a huge comparative
  advantage
• Who will be able to capture the value of the
  customer relationships?
• The window of opportunity is still open for new
  entrants

A continued dialogue with the real world
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Proposal follow-on INFO2000/MLIS
Three Action lines

• Supporting Europe wide investments Access to
  capital for Internet start-ups
• Expanding the information supply Exploitation of
  Public Sector Information
• Tailoring Information Content Linguistic and
  Cultural customisation
• Support Measures

Applying / Tailoring available technology
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Access to Capital
Europes great weakness in the communications
revolution has been a lack of bright young
entrepreneurs and of venture capitalists to back
them. The best way for Europe to exploit its lead
is to start thinking of schools and universities
as breeding-grounds not of more jobless youths
but of new business start-ups
The Economist, October 23, 1999
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Access to capital
The problem

• Non-mature risk culture in Europe
• Assets based
• Severed links between industry and university
• Problems for start-ups
• Great regional differences in the EU
• No cross-border fertilisation
• For each 1 of high-tech investment in the EU 14
  are invested in the US

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Exploitation of public sector information
Whats at stake

• Digital content is central to the Information
  Society development
• Public sector information is a prime content
  resource huge opportunities
• Barriers at European level prevent improved
  access and better exploitation

Government online a real challenge for Europe
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Public Sector Information extensive potential
for exploitation
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Linguistic and cultural customisation
Background

• Towards a Barrier-free Information Society
• overcome exclusion factors
• Internet is increasingly Multilingual
• 50 of online content in languages other than
  English
• bi- and multi-lingual web sites becoming the norm
• E-commmerce provides instant access toGlobal
  Markets
• business must speak the language of the customer

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Barriers and Losses
Perception of the business community
Findings of the European Study "ELUCIDATE"
(Leonardo programme)
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Preparatory actions for the year 2000

• 10 MEUR in 2000
• call for proposals April 2000

• Ensure political continuity
• Enable focus on actual problems
• Prepare ground for mainstream programme
• Keep interest alive in the community

Rationale