There is a move in the EU priorities from the eEurope/i2020 programme with it’s focus on broadband and being more social than competitive (Dang Nguyen & Maya Jollès) to the Digital Agenda with it’s overall aims of “The overall aim of the Digital Agenda is to deliver sustainable economic and social benefits from a digital single market based on fast and ultra fast internet and interoperable applications.”.
The report – User-Created-Content: Supporting a participative Information Society is a good overview of user created content (UCC) and what role the EU should play in this arena, from developing policy to supporting and advising businesses. There is a recognition that the economic value is not only financial but also valuable in the exchange of knowledge for example medical, educational and agricultural and that “There is a growing awareness that the real financial value of UCC is often not in the content itself but in the services surrounding the content”.
The report makes policy recommendations for the EU in:
The report – User-Created-Content: Supporting a participative Information Society is a good overview of user created content (UCC) and what role the EU should play in this arena, from developing policy to supporting and advising businesses. There is a recognition that the economic value is not only financial but also valuable in the exchange of knowledge for example medical, educational and agricultural and that “There is a growing awareness that the real financial value of UCC is often not in the content itself but in the services surrounding the content”.
The report makes policy recommendations for the EU in:
- access – broadband affordability, ease of use etc.
- interoperability – developing standards such as the universal mobile phone charger
- quality – education of users as to the quality requirements needed in different areas
- legal issues – such as privacy and artistic rights.
- socio-cultural issues – UCC can support EU policy in other areas such as Media Literacy in the school curricula.
Interoperability seems to become a particularly central theme for the European digital agenda. (http://www.euractiv.com/en/infosociety/kroes-interoperability-heart-digital-agenda-interview-495525)
ReplyDelete"Open standards are vital to deploy interoperability between data, devices, services and networks. Internet is the best example of the power of interoperability. Its open architecture has given billions of people around the world access to devices and applications which talk to one another."
With the increase of mobile internet and applications, interoperability is becoming even more vital.