Future of Content

THE FUTURE OF
CONTENT
DISCUSSIONS ON THE FUTURE OF
EUROPEAN ELECTRONIC
PUBLISHING
VERSION I
- September 1997 -
i European Electronic Publishing Version I

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Produced under contract by TECHSERV, Boite Postale 1078, L-1010 Luxembourg
ii European Electronic Publishing Version I

EDITORS
Brian Oakley (UK)

Derek KUETER, Coopers & Lybrand (L)
Kieran O'HEA, Seagrange (IRL)
EDITORIAL BOARD
Brian OAKLEY, Chairman (UK)

Maurice SCHLUMBERGER, Cap Gemini Innovation (F)
Arnoud DE KEMP, Springer-Verlag (D)
Volker REIBLE, DeTeBerkom (D)
RAPPORTEURS
Dr. Christopher ADIE, Edinburgh University (UK)

Prof. Claudio CIBORRA, Theseus (I)
Professor Jan EKBERG, Finnish National Agency for Welfare and Health (FI)
Pier Giorgio MARCHETTI, European Space Agency (I)
Paul ORMEROD, Centre for Exploitation of Science and Technology (UK)
Dr. David PULLINGER, Nature (UK)
Geoffrey STEPHENSON, Knowledge Exchange Technologies (L)
Martin WHITE, TFPL (UK)
FEATURED CONTRIBUTORS
Hans-Jurgen BANGEN, Daimler Benz Aerospace-Dornier (D)

Tom BOSSER, Origin Nederland BV
Walter de BROUWER & Walter Van de VELDE, Riverland (B)
Peter DUSCHINSKY, IT World (UK)
Roger FRAMPTON, Superscape (UK)
Peter GREENAWAY (UK)
Peter KABEL, Kabel New Media (D)
Hans KLAUS & Christoph HUSER, GMD-IPSI (D)
Peter Z. LEGA, Tractor Internet Group (USA)
Peter LEYDEN, Wired (USA)
Randy MARCINKO, Information Canada (CAN)
M. Scott MARSHALL, TransOpen (NL)
Stephanie RACETTE, European Multimedia Forum (B)
Dr. David RAITT, European Space Agency - ESTEC (I)
Peter SCHWARTZ, Global Business Network (USA)
Dr. Erik STROMMEN, Microsoft (USA)
Additional contributors are listed in the appendix
iii European Electronic Publishing Version I

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword vii
Introduction 1
I VISION 7
I.1 Scenario: The Future of European Electronic Publishing 11

I.2 The Expanding Scope of Electronic Publishing 15
I.3 Applied Research with a Vision 17
II CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 29
II.1 Convergence Challenges 31

II.2 Dual Economies of Time and Attention 35
II.3 Specific Challenges: The Actors 36
II.4 Challenges of Media Integration 49
II.5 The Value Network 51

Creative Content Generation 52
Multimedia Content Management 55
Personalised Content Delivery 57
Transactional Content 62
II.6 Cross-Domain Issues 63

Advertising 64
Virtual Reality in Electronic Publishing 68
Legal Issues 74
Usability and Quality of Use 75
II.7 A Vital Role for the Commission 80
iv European Electronic Publishing Version I

III Actions 83
III.1 Types of Actions 83

III.2 Policy Actions 85
III.3 Pre-Project Actions 94
III.4 R&D Actions 96
Knowledge Publishing 98
STM Publishing 98
Business Information Publishing 104
Corporate Publishing 108
Entertainment & Lifestyle Publishing 109

Content Generation 111
Public Information & Publishing for the Citizen 115
Mass Market Publishing, Catalogues & Shopping 118
Digital Collections 126
III.4.3 Visionary Research and Enabling Technologies 128
Visionary Research 128

Management of Digital Content 131
Measuring the Optimum Mix of Media for
Efficient Conversion of Information into Knowledge 132
Enabling Technologies 133

Engineering: Building Blocks and Basics 133
Standards 145
III.5 Take-Up Actions 147

Dissemination/Transfer of Technology 147
Networks of Excellence 148
Standards & Interoperability 149
Market & Technology Watch 149
III.6 Market Take-Up Actions 152

“The Business Partners Program” 156
IV. Conclusions 159
Appendices
References
Contributors
v European Electronic Publishing Version I

Open letter from Brian
The world of human communication is changing very Oakley, Chairman of
fast, perhaps faster than ever before, except possibly the Editorial Board
in the years following the innovation of a method for casting letters by Peter
Schoffer in about 1447, with good take-up by the entrepreneur Johannes Gutenberg
and funded by the venture capitalist Johann Fust. The ability to communicate the
printed word over wires has been around for many years, longer indeed than 50
years of the so-called “incunabulum” during which printing spread rapidly across
Europe. But it is only now that that the spread of the use of the Internet, itself over
30 years old, is unleashing the revolution in publishing that the use of
telecommunications has enabled.
This document is designed to set out the

vision of that revolution as seen by some of The basic task of the European
those participating in it. We, the authors, Union's research and
are drawn from amongst printers, technological development
technologists, and the commercial, actions is to ensure that
industrial, and social end-users of this advances in knowledge and
publishing revolution. We wish to technologies serve the purposes
stimulate discussion from others who may of the Union and its policies.
be, or wish to be, involved in some aspect
of that revolution.
Our aim is to provide the Commission of the European Union with a document that
gathers, consolidates and articulates opinion in the hope that such ideas may help
those involved to accelerate the creation and capture of the new and evolving
markets in Europe that fall under the broad designation of publishing; and to enable
those involved to use Europe as a springboard for the markets of the world. But
perhaps even more important than this for the economic and social health of the
citizens of the Union is that the Commission should help to accelerate the ready
take-up of the new technology of communication so that everyone can benefit from
the easy access to information that the revolution has the potential to provide.
vii European Electronic Publishing Version I

This document was created in parallel with the Fifth Framework Programme and we
see it as being relevant to the “Creating a User-Friendly Information Society” theme
of that programme. But we are not restricting our suggestions to that R&D activity
alone, for we are well aware that there are other actions that the Commission, and
others elsewhere, might take which would be beneficial to the efficient acceleration
of this revolution in publishing.
Our sincere hope is that this document will stimulate you, the reader, to consider the
revolution in publishing that is, or could now be taking place around you, and to
provide us with your ideas and insights so that we can improve the case and make
more effective the use by the Commission in this field of our contribution as tax
payers.
dissemination that is both efficient and pleasurable to consume.
BRIAN OAKLEY
September 1997
Currently under
development, the Fifth
Framework Programme is a
large-scale research and
development programme
THE FIFTH which is expected to last for
FRAMEWORK five years 1998-2003. It
PROGRAMME aims to assist a transition
from research focusing
solely on technological
performance towards
research focusing on the
individual and the response
to economic and social
needs.
Believe It Or Not…
In July 1997, the country with the

largest number of hosts per
population is not the US, but
Finland, with 63 per 1,000
population
MATRIX INFORMATION DIRECTORY
SERVICES.
viii European Electronic Publishing Version I

By 2000, Internet use in Europe Believe It Or Not…
will grow from 9 million to 35
million. Global use will grow In 1995 in the US, more
from 45 million to 250 million in electronic mail messages
the same period. were sent than postal
NUA INTERNET SURVEYS mail messages!
HOW THIS DOCUMENT WAS PREPARED
The challenges and opportunities that will confront the electronic publishing
community provided an impetus for us
The European way towards the
to consult with experts from a wide
Information Society is based on a
variety of organisations and
profound societal dialogue, not
constituency. Throughout 1996 and
only with industry but also
1997, a series of open fora and
within society.
discussion groups, overseen by our
MARTIN BANGEMANN
editorial board, as well as
questionnaires, interactive Web site and Rather than being an end result, this publication
personal consultation resulted in opinion from industry
represents leaders,
a step content
in the ongoing providers,
process
users, researchers and many other types of players from small and medium-sized
described above. Your feedback is encouraged.
enterprises, larger firms, research centers, universities, public institutions,
governmental institutions, initiatives projects. By inviting outside ideas and opinions,
we aimed to chart a course that will provide a vision of the future that is both
stimulating and grounded in the real-world experiences of the contributors.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION…
EUROPEAN ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING

TechServ, B.P. 1078
L-1010 Luxembourg
content@ip.lu
http://elpub.ml.org
ix European Electronic Publishing Version I

Six Priorities for the Fifth RTD Framework Programme
These preliminary guidelines for the fifth research and technological

THE FIFTH development framework programme adopted today by the
FRAMEWORK Commission confirm the need for greater focusing of research efforts
PROGRAMME on a deliberately limited number of priorities which address societal
problems affecting people's everyday lives, namely:
1. unlocking the resources of the living world and the ecosystem: the aim will
be to study the fundamental mechanisms affecting human life and apply the
knowledge acquired to health and food. This topic also covers environmental
research (safeguarding and conserving natural resources, tackling pollution
problems and understanding global change phenomena, etc.)
2. creating a user-friendly information society: research into advanced

information and communication technologies should focus more on the content
and on the software which allows information to circulate rather than on the
infrastructure. The development of new tools will give people easier access to
information and education throughout their lives and preserve linguistic diversity
3. promoting competitive and sustainable growth: the aim is to develop new

design and production techniques, and techniques for the management of
complex systems (cf. space applications), in particular in the fields of energy
(where systems should be safe, comply with environmental standards and be
competitive), transport (with special emphasis on intermodality) and agriculture
4. enhancing human potential: the main aim is to improve the training and
mobility of research scientists, including those in industry and encourage them to
seek scientific research posts in Europe. The Commission also wants to raise the
profile of socio-economic research so as to acquire a better understanding of the
impact of new technologies on work, the economy, education and culture
5. innovation and involvement of SMEs: the aim is to give more SMEs easier access
to research and to research results by setting up a single, simplified
administrative framework for them and developing technology transfer
mechanisms
6. confirming the international role of European research: the Commission

advocates greater involvement of non-member countries, in particular the Central
and Eastern European countries, in the research programmes and the definition
of specific international scientific cooperation projects, for example with the
Mediterranean countries.
E FIFTH
MEWORK
OGRAMME
x European Electronic Publishing Version I

Introduction
In a publishing world that is changing very fast, this paper sets out the vision of the
revolution that is hitting the industry. It is prepared by some of those participating
in it, including printers, technologists, commercial, industrial, and social end-users
involved in the revolution. The aim is to stimulate discussion and input from others,
and to provide the European Commission with a document that helps them in
planning their future policy making, R&D programme, and work to encourage the
use of new technology. In particular we hope this document will be helpful in
planning the “Creating the User-Friendly Information Society” theme of the
Commission’s Fifth Framework Programme
(http://www.cordis.lu/fifth/home.html).
VISION
If it is difficult to see the future clearly. Nevertheless, it is clear that all concerned
see great changes coming and great opportunities in those changes. No one in this
“content” world doubts that multi-media will soon permeate all aspects, if it has not
done so already. The expansion of online commerce, especially on the Internet, is a
constant theme. Part of the excitement for Europe lies in the liberating impact
predicted to result from the wave of Telecoms privatizations promised for the next
few years. Another part of the excitement comes from the expected coming
together of the creative content people with the technologists whose creativity takes
a very different form. Predictions are made for automatic hand-writing recognition
and simultaneous translation by the year 2020. The rise of new players is predicted
as the retail world moves into cyberspace. A period of significant economic upswing
is predicted, based on the growth that characterises the communications and multi-
media explosion of the early 21st century. The strength of the European content
producers and media industry gives Europe the opportunity to build a position at the
top of the online commerce markets of the world. This vision foresees a key role for
the Commission to facilitate and enable this revolution.
1 European Electronic Publishing Version I

Introduction
TECHNICAL REQUIREMENTS
The expanding scope for electronic publishing is central to this vision. Multimedia
search by document content is one of the technologies needed to facilitate this
expansion. The need for fundamental research, for example on holographic stores
and quantum computing is recognised as essential. But more immediate applied
research remains a priority, for example for the handling of multi-media content, and
the problems of classifying, storing and retrieving digital content. Speed of
communication and accessibility to information become ever more important. Many
new technological developments and interdisciplinary interfaces will blur the role of
consumers, content publishers and content creators. As the electronic publishing
field becomes increasingly complex, these roles will converge both inside and outside
the traditional publishing industries. It should be noted that there is a responsibility
on those conducting R&D programmes to face the societal and economic problems
that their work can help to alleviate.
CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES
The advent of multimedia has altered the traditional boundaries of the publishing
industries. Examples are given, drawn from the software industry, music publishing,
and the museums world, where the old frontiers are blurring. This presents
challenges for the industries concerned and for their content producers. New
markets are opening up and new entrants are challenging the old incumbents.
Because much of the content material is essentially European there is a particular
challenge for Europe to expand on the basis of their content heritage. There is an
important role for the Commission in helping both the traditional publishers, and the
new entrepreneurial firms enter the new markets opening up throughout the world.
TIME PRESSURES
Another set of challenges arises from the new outlook on time and attention span.
The need to save time puts pressure on publishing systems to realise faster
production and delivery of the content to the user. The user's attention span is
likely to be even shorter than it has been in the past, so systems that attract and
hold attention are liable to be valuable, and content has to be modified to get the
message over in the minimum of time.

Introduction
THE MAIN PLAYERS
These challenges are examined from the viewpoint of some of the main players -
the Creators of Content, the Publishers, the Collection Holders, the Intermediaries
the Technologists, and the Users, both as professional users and as private citizens.
Their challenges and needs are collated and tabulated under the following headings:
Content Management, Content Delivery, Transactional, Socio-economic and
Standards. It is pointed out that unlike traditional multimedia formats, in the new
“digital content” media all components can be readily combined and integrated.
THE VALUE CHAIN
Emerging multi-media technologies have also produced a blurring of the content

itself. Networks allow and encourage the consumers to interact not only with the
content suppliers but also with the publishers and content creators. Bi-directional
(upstream from consumer to producer) and networked (all to all) content flows turn
the information chain into a value network. The various stages of this network are
considered in turn, under the classification of content flow: Creative Content
Generation, Multimedia Content Management, and Personalised Content Delivery.
Then certain cross-domain issues are considered, such as advertising and Virtual
Reality. Finally, the question of legal issues, and those of usability and quality are
considered since these permeate every part of the Value Chain.
A VITAL ROLE FOR THE COMMISSION
Having considered the way the publishing world is going to come under various
pressures for change, it becomes very clear that there is a vital role for the
Commission to orchestrate the emerging picture in Europe in order to give the
players time to adapt. The Commission can help the publishing industries to be
aware of the world scene, to adapt to the new technologies, and to help Europe to
produce new systems tailored for the European publishing world (and beyond). The
market and the content cultural heritage in Europe know no frontiers. The
Commission can help to ensure a commonality of approach across Europe. In
particular there are a number of policy issues that must be addressed on a European
wide basis. These issues are likely to hamper the speed of response of Europe to
the opportunities that are opening up. These roles for the Commission are
considered in more detail in the remainder of the paper under the title “Actions”.

Introduction
POLICY ACTIONS
Some of the Policy issues of most concern to the publishing community are
considered. Network pricing is both an issue that will impact on the rate of take up
of electronic methods and on the choice of communications technology. Security
and privacy remain issues where progress is being delayed by lack on policy
decisions. Methods of controlling quality on the Net are both policy and technical
issues. Property rights are always a matter of concern to the publishing industry
with new aspects being thrown up by the new methods and styles of publication. It
is hoped that the R&D community will be able to take an active part in the
discussions leading to decision making on these issues.
PRE-PROJECT ACTIONS
There is always a problem of making sure that all those who could potentially benefit
from subsidies are aware of the opportunities presented by participation in the R&D
Framework Programmes. This situation is made worse in the current publishing
scene for new players coming in, especially in the Creative Content Generation area.
The Commission is encouraged to reach out and attract these newcomers to
participate. It is proposed that a dedicated unit be formed to carry out a targeted
awareness programme and that it heavily leverages newer techniques and channels
applicable to this task, such as the World Wide Web, chat, alerts, agents, and
advanced profiling for search.
R&D IN KNOWLEDGE PUBLISHING
The introduction points out that there are a variety of approaches and aspects of
R&D Action that need to be adopted as appropriate. Then the R&D requirements of
two application domains of the publishing world are considered in some detail,
Knowledge Publishing and Content Generation. There is an emphasis on research in
information retrieval, providing improved access to existing material in a variety of
ways. Tools for automatic summary creation is another priority. Both of these
topics appear as priorities in many sectors of the publishing field and indeed
throughout the electronic media user community. Ready means of access to a
variety of databases appears as another priority topic. The need for setting
performance benchmarks for network service providers in order to improve the
quality of network service is seen as a priority for the Business community. More
work is required on pricing and payment methods for information access, again a
requirement for many parts of publishing.
One suggestion that is likely to attract widespread support is for work that would
enable automatic completion of many of the entries needed to complete a

Introduction
variety of government returns. One generic suggestion is for work on the automatic
capture of information in printed form. Though this requirement is posed in respect
of a particular reason, this work will be valuable to meet a range of needs.
R&D IN ENTERTAINMENT AND LIFESTYLE PUBLISHING
The other main category of publishing which is examined for R&D needs is called
“Entertainment and Lifestyle” Publishing. The two main domains that are examined
are Content Generation and Public Information & Publishing for the Citizen.
Integrated tool sets to enable the content generation teams to operate efficiently in
a digital culture are the main objective of the first group of R&D proposals.
Collaborative authoring tools, packaging and archiving tools are required to enable
shared-resource working to be carried out efficiently. Support for manipulating and
transforming content remains a requirement. Measuring user needs and capturing
feedback are included in the requirements. Reusable libraries are needed, leading to
the requirements for work on information indexing and retrieval that feature in so
many other areas.
The Publishing for the Citizen sector raises rather different requirements, many of
which are more in the nature of integrated applications systems. But the main
underlying requirements remain the same topics of easy information access and
retrieval, with a particular emphasis on the unskilled user. The problem of
information overload looms large in this user domain as in every other. Because of
the nature of the end user, the domain of the citizen presents special challenges and
opportunities for R&D covering many of the aspects already raised by the other
domains of more specialist users.
R&D FOR OTHER DOMAINS
Two other domains are considered briefly - Mass Market Publishing, and the
interesting emerging field of Publishing for Digital Collections such as museums.
More work is needed to establish the R&D priorities for these fields, but it is clear
that many of the requirements already raised by the other domains will apply here
too. The Digital Collections field will have a rather special set of requirements,
concerned with the conversion of artefacts to the digital form, and the effective
“publication” of that material in multimedia form. Virtual reality will have a
significant part to play in these system developments.

Introduction
ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
Each main subsection of the Information Society theme of the Fifth Framework
programme will have its own R&D activities, and the examples summarised in the
previous paragraphs illustrate the type of work that will be covered in the Multimedia
Content theme. Of course, close liaison will be required with similar work in other
parts of the programme. In the areas of Visionary research and Enabling
Technologies, particular attention will be needed to sort out the overlap with the
other themes. There is a continuing need for more basic work for the publishing
world as for every other. Examples of the type of work are given in the paper, but
of course the nearer one gets to visionary research the more what should be
supported must depend upon what good work emerges in the proposals rather than
that proposed in advance.
TAKE UP ACTIONS
For the publishing community much R&D is required, but this is wasted if the
resulting systems are not taken up and used. So it will be important that a proper
balance is made between R&D work and work by other means to encourage the
application of what new systems already exist and are being developed.
A range of take up approaches is proposed, such as co-operative actions on

standards, and on the dissemination of information on new technology. For some
parts of the Publishing world the priority must be to have a programme that
encourages take-up, by awareness, demonstration, measurement, and specialised
training measures. Finally the paper turns to measures that are needed to encourage
market take up, with an emphasis on business and marketing planning, financing
and investment.

Introduction
VISION

Introduction
TIME PRESSURES

Introduction
THE MAIN PLAYERS
THE VALUE CHAIN


Introduction
POLICY ACTIONS

Introduction
many other areas.

Introduction
TAKE UP ACTIONS

and investment.

Introduction
VISION

Introduction
TIME PRESSURES

Introduction
THE MAIN PLAYERS
THE VALUE CHAIN


Introduction
POLICY ACTIONS

Introduction
many other areas.

Introduction
TAKE UP ACTIONS

and investment.

I. Vision
Far from the days of text-based

terminals, the products of the
electronic publishing industry
have become exciting,
compelling and fun. Well-known
figures, originating from both the
creative and technical ends of
the industry, illustrate…
“ It was government-funded “
research that gave the US its The Web is a valid, new,
20-year lead in computers and thriving medium for retail
the Net. commerce. It won’t wait for
STEWART BRAND you.
GLOBAL CONCEPTS
” ”
“ The Information Society will be driven by creative
people, who are highly selective about where they live.
The deciding factor when choosing where to locate new
businesses will not be economic factors but the simple
question of where people want to live and work. [It is]
changing the balance of advantage and disadvantage
between different regions and countries within Europe.
MARTIN BANGEMANN
7
”
European Electronic Publishing Version I
I. Vision
“ Multimedia has now almost run its

course. The application has grown to
the point where it is now an accepted
part of mainstream computing.
Computing without multimedia is no
longer feasible.
FROST & SULLIVAN
”
“ The popular mythos tells us that networks are powerful, global, fast,
and inexpensive. It's the place to meet friends and carry on business.
There, you'll find entertainment, expertise, and education. In short, it's
important to be online. It ain't necessarily so. Our networks can be
frustrating, expensive, unreliable connections that get in the way of
useful work. It is an overpromoted, hollow world, devoid of warmth and
human kindness. The heavily promoted information infrastructure
addresses few social needs or business concerns. At the same time, it
directly threatens precious parts of our society, including schools,
libraries, and social institutions. No birds sing. For all the promises of
virtual communities, it's more important to live a real life in a real
neighborhood."
CLIFFORD STOLL, SILICON SNAKE OIL
”
“ In the early 1970's, scientists sent out spaceships
to the edges of the universe, supposedly with a
payload that represented everything in the world.
It took you maybe from Bach to Beethoven to the
Beatles, but left out the gamelan orchestra."
PETER GREENAWAY

”
I. Vision
“ AI has been around for 40

years, and a lot of the
research hasn't produced
very practical results. I was
attracted [to MIT] because
“ Beauty has been confined to
the ghetto of museums and
churches,
the research was so compromised now that it
very pragmatic — building cannot be allowed into the
things that work instead of open. ―What needs to be
things that may work remembered is that without
someday. creativity there would be
PATTY MAES no entrepreneurialism, no
industry and no economy.
OLIVIERO TOSCANI
”
”
“ There's really no difference between composing for the computer
and composing conventionally. People often assume that music made
by guys in tuxedos with Stradivarius violins is warm and human, whilst
music made with buttons and wires is cold and clinical. Actually, the
opposite is often true. Orchestras are often programmed like bytes
in a computer, yet a computer, in the right hands, is a very soulful
instrument.
I hope to emerge…with a brand new musical instrument. It will run on
a computer and will not supplant the recording studio. It will work within
the confines of a desktop business computer but it will behave
more like a musical instrument - like a direct link between the music
that's in my imagination and sound waves that an audience can hear and enjoy.
I'd like to entice other artists into the fray…to become a magnet for willing,
creative minds".
THOMAS DOLBY

”
I. Vision
FORECASTS FROM AROUND THE

GLOBE
 Web advertising expenditure to reach $2.46 billion by
2000
 Intranet information sales to reach $5.4 billion by 2000
 Online sales of tangible goods to reach $4.27 billion by
2000
 Online ticket sales will reach $10 billion by 2001
 Personal computer penetration in the home will reach
55% by 2000
 Digital wireless cable to reach over 4 million subscribers
by 2001
 Small office/home office online users to become $2.5
billion market 2000
 DVD ROM software sales to reach $100 million by 1999
 Global leisure software market to exceed $30 billion by
1998
 There will be 74 million individual consumer Internet
accounts by the end of the decade
 The market for Business/Professional information is
expected to approach $70 billion by 2002
 Online services revenue forecast to reach $30.9 billion
by 2000
 There will be 4.6 million Intranet web servers by 2000,
with Intranets accounting for 20% of all IT spending
I’m Sorry, I’ll "640k should be enough for

Read That anybody"
Again… BILL GATES, 1981

I. Vision
I.1 ―AS WE MAY THINK II‖
THE FUTURE OF EUROPEAN

ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING
- by -
PETER SCHWARTZ [GLOBAL BUSINESS NETWORK]
PETER LEYDEN [WIRED]
DEREK KUETER[COOPERS & LYBRAND]
- 1-
Fundamental technological change in information technologies, coupled

with applications that leverage them, and increasing openness – both
inside Europe’s borders and globally – can be promoted and harnessed
to transform Europe into a seedbed of a culture and prosperity that will
blossom throughout the coming century.
Two developments had a profound impact for the European economy

and the economy of that world at large. In the 1980’s, personal
computers were steadily adopted by business. In the 1990’s, they
entered the home as the microprocessor is being embedded in many
other tools and
products, such as cars. See Vannevar Bush's 1945
By the turn of the article "As We May Think" at
century, with the power http://www.press.umich.edu/jep/works/vbush
of computer chips still
roughly doubling every 18 months, everything European comes with a
small, cheap silicon brain. In the first decade of the new century, tasks
like handwriting recognition become routine. In the second decade of
the new century, Europeans design and build a chip with a billion
transistors – 100 times the complexity of the most advanced integrated
circuits made in the late 1990’s. By 2020, European firms and research
organisations solve the problem of reliable simultaneous language
translation – with especially deep and immediate benefits for language-
rich European culture, commerce and politics, and for the rest of the
world.

I. Vision
-2–
THE EUROPEAN TELECOM BOOM
The trajectory for the European telecommunications wave follows

much the same arc. The late-90’s privatisation of the European
telecom monopolies triggers a frenzy of entrepreneurial activity as
nascent European companies like Libertel (The Netherlands) and
alliances like GlobalOne (France, Germany, USA) as well as non-
European players like TelPac (China, USA, Canada, Australia,
Indonesia) race to build fiber-optic networks across the continent and
connecting to the rest of the world.
Fuelling this trend is one that took Europe by surprise, a phenomenon

that seemed to come out of nowhere: the Internet, which finally took
the limelight in part thanks to the HTTP protocol, an invention
created in Europe by Europeans which resulted in an easy-to-program,
visually compelling way for anyone to publish. Computers and
communications are now inextricably linked, each feeding the
phenomenal growth of the other both in Europe and in the rest of the
world.
EUROPEAN WIRELESS AND SATELLITE: DUAL VICTORIES
By the turn of the century, thanks to another astoundingly successful,

European-made global standard - GSM - telecom goes wireless on a
large scale and becomes dramatically more affordable. Mobile phone
systems and all-purpose personal communications services arrive first
with vast antennae networks on the ground. Soon after, the big
satellite projects come online. By 2007, a consortium of Western
European, Eastern European and Russian companies begin operation
of its service with dozens of satellites already launched and more
scheduled. By 2011, another consortium, this time of European and
Chinese companies, follow. These projects, among others, allow
seamless connection to the information infrastructure anywhere on
the planet by early in the next century. At about the same time, high-
bandwidth connections that can easily move video have become
common in Europe and videophones finally catch on.

I. Vision
-3–
UNEXPECTED EUROPEAN ECONOMIC GROWTH
By 2000, chronic unemployment and mounting government deficits finally

force leaders in Europe to act. Despite widespread popular protests,
Europe goes through a painful economic restructuring much like the
United States did a decade before. As part of this perestroika, it retools
its economy using new information technologies and techniques. This
restructuring, both of corporations and governments, has much the same
effect it had on the US economy: the European economy begins to surge
and create many new jobs. By about 2005, Europe – particularly in the
UK, Germany and Scandinavia - has the beginnings of a serious labour
shortage as an ageing population retires in advance of the educational
system’s ability to churn out information workers. By now, with
unemployment problems diminished, Europeans and their governments
are much more willing to leverage the skills of information professionals
imported from the other leading information technology exporting regions:
India, China, the former Soviet Union, North America, Indonesia and
Taiwan.
The symbiotic relationship between technology sectors leads to a period of

significant economic upswing at the turn of the century, generally
attributed to the explosive growth of the Internet, immediately fuelling
economic expansion in the traditional sense of direct job creation but in
less direct ways as well. On the most obvious level, European hardware
and infrastructure companies experience exponential growth as building
the new information network becomes one of the great global business
opportunities around the turn of the century.
Alongside the migration of the traditional retail world into Eurocyberspace,

completely new types of work are created for Europeans. Many had
speculated that computer networks would lead to disintermediation – the
growing irrelevance of the middleman in commerce. Certainly, some of
the old-style go-betweens fall upon hard times, but new types of
intermediaries arise to connect buyers to sellers, offering advantages on a
scale never before possible, such as global reach to suppliers and
products, personalisation of all types, easy price and feature comparisons
and painless billing and payment. And with the friction taken out of the
distribution system, the savings can be channelled into new ventures,
which create new jobs.

I. Vision
-4–
THE EUROPEAN NEW MEDIA BATTLE
A new media industry also explodes onto the scene to take advantage of
the network’s unique capabilities, such as interactivity and individual
customisation. Fuelled by new stock markets such as EASD, La Nouveau
Marché and Commission-sponsored programs aimed at the venture capital
industry and post-project consumer take-up of subsidy-funded information
products and services, start-ups plunge into the field, enhancing the
offerings of the traditional media companies, but increasingly competing
directly with them. New European media companies, in alliance with
American players such as Microsoft and Talucent (created from the
acquisition of Apple Computer by CNN), compete fiercely with old guard
television networks in a monumental struggle over digital TV after the
European television deregulation process gathers momentum. After a few
years of ordered confusion, shortened with help from the European
Commission, the Internet becomes the main medium of the 21 st century.
EUROPE TAKES THE LEAD IN ONLINE COMMERCE
The development of online commerce quickly follows on new media’s

heels. First come the entrepreneurs who figure out how to encrypt
messages, conduct safe financial transactions in cyberspace and advertise
one to one. Electronic cash, a key milestone, gains acceptance at the turn
of the century with help from Commission efforts in three areas: 1) R&D
subsidies, 2) standards work, and 3) active collaboration with the business
and venture capital industries on post-project market take-up activities.
With an internal market far larger than the USA, and with connections
between the USA and the rest of the world choked at a few creaky and
overloaded American Network Access Points, Europe capitalises on the
opportunity to leapfrog the USA by providing the same content and
functionality from European-based servers. At the same time, with much-
needed assistance from the European Commission, which assumes its
place as representative of the European information industry to the
peoples and markets of the world, Europe takes advantage of its much
greater proximity to Eastern Europe, Russia, the Middle East and Africa to
become the dominant online commerce player in those regions, a position
that the geographically, culturally and linguistically isolated USA cannot
challenge for the next 10 years.
- END –

I. Vision
I.2 THE EXPANDED SCOPE OF ELECTRONIC

PUBLISHING
The phrase ―electronic publishing‖ is usually associated with things such as

scientific journals available online, a multimedia encyclopaedia accessible on CD-
ROM or perhaps a popular travel guidebook that has been adapted for
distribution via the World Wide Web. But electronic publishing encompasses
much more and is continuously growing in scope: up-to-the-minute feeds from
financial markets, internal company information provided via intranets,
immersive museums and galleries, and interactive performance spaces - all this
falls into the domain known as ―electronic publishing‖. The domain is rapidly
widening, evolving to encompass techniques, services, products and possibilities
you might not equate with electronic publishing. It is this larger realm that we
will address.
This expansion is both natural and created - it is reasonable, even expected, that
research and product development leverage "neighbour" technologies and
markets when seeking to move to the next level in content provision and access.
It is exhilarating to watch the domain widen, sometimes incrementally,
sometimes by revolution, but it is important to not bite off more than one can
chew. How wide a scope will we allow the word "publishing" in this document?
Without some limitations, the discussion becomes unwieldy. The challenge here
is not to artificially restrict the discussion for the sake of convenience, but to
choose the correct scope and have good reasons as to why a particular area was
included or not.
To illustrate: "telecollaboration", regardless of how purist a definition you use

for it, will unquestionably play a big role in future publishing systems. For
example, immersive and animated content authoring and development systems
could enable works to be developed collaboratively and in real-time over high-
speed networks by authors and designers in different countries. Is this type of
application suitable as a focus for electronic publishing R&D? It would be, if the
end product was destined for external delivery, such as to a bookstore or via
Web-based delivery.
However, using the same infrastructure, what if the content being created were
CAD models of aeroplane parts, only to be used internally and never supplied to
the end users (in this case, the aeroplane passengers). Is that "publishing"?
Some have argued that it is, some that it is not.

I. Vision
Part of the job now is to agree on whether the scope and supporting arguments
presented here are sensible, what R&D and "Staying current" means
other actions fall within its borders, and to knowing what "staying
constantly reevaluate our scope to see if it is current" means
still current. This has been the subject of
debate over the past 18 months which will
hopefully continue into the future.
Fig. I-1 Average Market Shares of Electronic

Publishing by 2000
EP2000 EP 1996
% = Percentage of total Publishing Volume

3000
15%
2500 6%
2000 5%
Million ECU
6%
1500
1000
15% 10%
500 1% 1% 3%
1%
1,5% 2%
0
r
es
te
t
na
ke
lis
e
ra
ap
in
tio
ar
po
ci
az
sp
kM
ca
pe
or
ag
ew
u
o
/S
C
M
Ed
Bo
N
M
ST
Source: ECSC-EC-EAEC, Brussels-Luxembourg, 1996
I’m Sorry, “There is no reason anyone

I’ll Read would want a computer in their
That Home”
Again… KEN OLSON
President, Chairman &
Founder
Digital Equipment
Corporation, 1977

I. Vision
I.3 APPLIED RESEARCH WITH A VISION
I.3.1 RESEARCH FOR THE FUTURE
Vertikal in
Content Creation Content Packaging

•
Collection of Processing Product / Service

"Basics"
• data • multimedia database design
• CD-ROM
• tables • catalogue functionalities • Online
• pictures • editorial systems •WWW-pages
• texts • screen design • Print media
• video • picture processing •catalogues
• sound •journals
•books
Focus: Focus:
Digitisation Re-Usability
Print
Important interfaces CD-ROM
Cross-Publishing
for
strategies
Current Problems:
• lack of standards (digital formats etc.)
• lack of interfaces between software tools
• need for specifications
Fig. I-2 The Content Driven Layer of the Competency Model

Graphics: Techno-Z FH R&D, 1997
Management of Digital Content
Despite all the work over the past 50 years, the problem of classifying, storing,
and retrieving digital content, regardless of media type, remains a major problem
for all but the most simple and structured of topics. Developments like
associative stores help but they are slow and require a set of relational links to
be specified at the time of storage. Multimedia search by document content is a
technology that has reached initial demonstration phase, but is still in its infancy.
There is, essentially, no mature method of storing for retrieval text, images, and
sounds (including speech and music) other than to use words, normally in the
key-word format.

I. Vision
 Measuring the Optimum Mix of Media for Efficient Conversion of

Information into Knowledge
It was difficult enough to measure the take-up of information from a publication

in the days when it was likely to be in a single size point print. Now that the
publication can be readily and cheaply delivered in a mix of media it is even
more important to determine which media to use and in what mixture. There is
much folk-law but little scientific measurement. Of course the answer will
depend upon the properties of the ―reader‖. Some will prefer reading, some
listening, and there are a host of variables to take into account. There are also
techniques arising from advanced work in brain scanning, and psychological
methods which make it possible to determine how effective the absorption of the
material is, as the experiment continues.
Parallel development of end user technologies

Source: Andersen Consulting (EC, 1996)
The role of application-oriented R&D
At one extreme, these topics are quite fundamental and fall into the category of
long range research. The way the brain seems to operate gives hope that ways
can be developed, perhaps based on unusual storage techniques, such as
holographic stores or quantum computation. Work is going on to develop
algorithms for using 3-state computation which seem to offer some promise.
Cognitive scientists, psychologists, materials scientists and others can all
contribute in a fundamental way.

I. Vision
But in the context of particular practical problems, progress can be made at an

applied research level. These problems are of such importance to the handling
of multimedia context, not least in the field of publishing and museums, that
basic R&D directed towards their solution is essential.
I.3.2 ROLE CONVERGENCE
Emerging multimedia technologies and techniques have produced a blurring not

only of the traditional of the various actors involved but of content itself.
Networks allow consumers to interact not only with content suppliers, but
directly with content aggregators, publishers, and even creators. Collaborative,
iterative development of multimedia works
The electronic publishing field is between customers and publishers to
becoming increasingly complex weaken the barriers implied by traditional
and essential to more and more roles comprising the old content chain and
areas of European life. its variants. The creative re-assembling
and repurposing of content resources turns
editor and producer into creator, while participants in teleconferencing and chat
environments create and consume content simultaneously. Commentary,
interaction, chat, rights acknowledgement and payment emerge as important
forms of content in their own right. Bidirectional (upstream) and networked
(all-to-all) content flows turn the information chain into a Value Network.
Aggregators:
Intermediaries in the value
network who gather and add
value to content and
information services as well
as to rights
acknowledgement, payment
or consumer feedback, or
any subset of these
categories.

I. Vision
Fig. I-3 Interactive Digital Media: The New Value Map

Informed Sources 1997
Market Access
Content Content Market
Fig. I-4 Content Creation Packaging Making
The two-layer
chain of
competencies Interface
Infrastructure Transport
Delivery
and
in the content Support
Services Systems
industry
Source: Andersen Consulting (EC, 1996)
I’m Sorry, “Everything that can be

I’ll Read invented has been invented”
That CHARLES H. DUELL
Again… Commissioner, U.S.
Office of Patents, 1899

I. Vision
The rapid movement of all publishing towards the electronic medium has already
started to blur some of the distinctions between primary and secondary
publishing, either by companies choosing vertical integration, or by practice in
the scientific community. Why is it changing? There are a number of reasons,
which can be illustrated by looking at the field of scientific, technical and medical
publishing:
 There is so much research and information that no single person can be

totally up-to-date with even quite a small sub-specialty. Linking content and
effective searching are therefore essential tools to be developed. One such
tool could provide linking from key research going forwards
in time, to reflect changes and additions to results.
 There is so much new data being

found that some researchers work on the
data found by others, for example in
“ The investigator is staggered
by the findings and
conclusions of thousands of
meteorological work, on gene sequences, other workers - conclusions
on astronomical data. In order to do this, which he cannot find time to
data from research is placed into grasp, much less to
databases freely available to researchers remember, as they appear.
and tools are being developed to enable -Vannevar Bush, 1945
them to use this as their raw data for
research.
 Speed of communication and accessibility to information becomes ever

more important as the exploitation of scientific and medical research is big
business (e.g. the pharmaceutical market).
”
 Access to historical records of research is essential to avoid duplication of
effort. There is a legacy of 300 years and the volume doubles every 15 years.
The requirement on a daily basis to consult old documents varies according to
subject; 2 years is sufficient for gene research, but 5 years is needed for
astronomy and 50 years for mathematics. Major breakthroughs are often
based on having access to complete records.
 Many new developments lie in interdisciplinary areas, for example the major
developments in materials science. Whether these are at the global scale
(understanding earth movement), the human scale (the development of new
materials for use in our technologies) or the microscale (nanotechnology both
for computing and medical technology), interdisciplinary research requires
new tools to help bridge differences in access to information, to terminology
and in communication to ensure others have access to it.

I. Vision
INFORMATION RETRIEVAL AND OVERLOAD
1. In a survey carried out in the UK in 1996 by the Deloitte and Touche

Consulting Group of senior managers 150 organisations in the public and
commercial sectors, among the issues and findings that emerged were :
1.
 About forty per cent of respondents had major difficulties in knowing
where to look for information.
 Almost a third of respondents felt that they had too many sources of
information. Although information usually arrives in time for it to be
useful, it is unlikely to be in the right form for decision making, and some
kind of reworking is required.
 Large organisations waste a lot of time re-inventing information rather

than retrieving it. The problem is compounded by the fact that they first
waste time searching for the information. Managers in thirty-eight per
cent of large organisations rarely have the right amount of information to
do their jobs properly.
2. A large scale survey has also been undertaken by Reuters, in which over
1300 telephone interviews were conducted in the UK, the USA, Australia,
Hong Kong and Singapore in March/April 1996 in order to assess the
extent of the problems of information overload. Among the relevant
findings of this survey were:
 Sixty-six per cent of all managers expect their job responsibilities will
make it necessary to accumulate more information.
 Seventy-eight per cent of managers gave increased internal

communications as a key reason for greater accumulation of information.
 Fifty-one per cent of respondents considered that very high levels of

information were required in order to keep up with customers and
competitors.
MARTIN WHITE

I. Vision
Traditional Telecommunications Industry (Telephony)

network and service operator equipment
80 % 20 %
Traditional Print Publishing Markets

creation content packaging printing distribution
10 % 30 % 40 % 20 %
Online Services / Electronic Services 2000

content creator content organiser service operator network operator equipm.
> 20 % > 30 % < 20 % < 20 % < 10 %
content delivery other
Fig. I-5 Changes of the value chain in the converging industries

Sources: EC (1996), Jahrbuch Telekommunikation und Gesellschaft (1997)
“…a blurring of the traditional roles of the various actors

involved.”
Fig. I-6 European broadband access

households, 1996-2000
broadband interactive service
8
Total Western European
7
housholds (m)
6 Broadband
5 online
4 services
3
2 Interactive
1 broadcasting
0
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Source: Datamonitor - Inside Multimedia Issue 139, 31 March 1997
“…speed of communication and accessibility to information

becomes ever more important.”

I. Vision
I.3.3 ADDRESSING SOCIETAL AND ECONOMIC ISSUES
There are various social and economic

issues and problems that R&D and
other actions can help address, such as
job creation, upgrading workforce
skills, supporting social cohesion,
competitiveness, and enabling
consumers and the commercial
process.
In order to ensure that Europe enters the 21 st century under the best possible
conditions, efforts in research, technological development and technology take-
up must directly address the universal issues that make up the world in which
they participate, including 1) employment, 2) the need for improved quality of
life and health 3) our increased demands on the environment, and 4) the
globalisation of trade coupled with the need for greater competitiveness
worldwide. Information industry R&D must also address issues of access, ease
of use, cost-effectiveness and interoperability of content resources.
“ We must simultaneously fight the scourge of unemployment

and put people back to work, make our businesses more
competitive, ensure we all have the best possible access to
health and healthcare, and set the stage for sustainable
economic development by encouraging efficient and
environmentally friendly modes of transport and production. A
large part of the response to these problems lies in improving
our level of knowledge and technology, which puts scientific
research at the forefront of our search for solutions.
-Edith Cresson, European Commissioner for Research,

Education and Training
”
I. Vision
The previous passage, a conglomeration of statements appearing in various

communications and brochures regarding the planning of the Fifth Framework
Programme1, summarises the European 1
Commission's overall attitude toward the benefits of Such as Towards the 5th
Framework Programme:
R&D for European society as a whole. Not Scientific and
surprisingly, there are benefits and disadvantages to Technological Objectives,
increasing the take-up of content both as knowledge European Commission
and for leisure purposes (see our section Lifestyle Directorate-General XII,
Publishing in chapter III). An exhaustive discussion 1997 and Inventing
Tomorrow: Europe's
of these pros and cons would be outside the scope Research at the Service of
of this particular document, but let's proceed its People, European
through an overview that includes some hopefully Commission Directorate-
new twists on some oft-cited emerging problems. General XII, 1997.
I.3.4 POSITIVE EFFECTS OF CONTENT TAKE-UP R&D
In the previous section, information technology R&D is proposed as one method

of attack against the grand challenges now facing Europe, such as
unemployment, decent health care for all, environmental degradation and
commercial competitiveness. This is already
an excellent start, and it is exhilarating to hear Content take-up R&D
the Commission speak about the benefits of deserves a key place on
this type of R&D in very positive tones and Europe's agenda and the
with a coordinated voice. Nobody now doubts support to match.
the usefulness of content take-up R&D in these
areas. The success of the information industry in creating products that provide
levels of power and convenience to users of all types is legendary and has gone
far beyond what anyone had any right to expect. But the story does not end
there.
EDUCATION Educators suffer from chronic underfunding, especially at the

primary and secondary levels. It is no coincidence that
schools have been leveraging advances in information technology since the
introduction of the Apple II, 20 years ago. Universities are huge users of and
contributors to public networks such as the Internet, both in content (e.g.
research results and courseware) and technologies (e.g. Mosaic, an early Web
browser(http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/SDG/Software/Mosaic/NCSAMosa
icHome.html) and CU-SeeMe, the original Internet videoconferencing
application).
Information, or the lack of it, permeates our lives and affects everything we do.
Much of what we do each day revolves around obtaining, handling, providing

I. Vision
and avoiding information. Office workers caught in rush hour traffic are
essentially chasing after information that, if available at home, could reduce the
individual and societal costs, in time, money and environmental damage, that
commuting to work incurs. Citizens spending time navigating the "phone filters"
of local, regional and national government offices incur a cost that can be
minimised, both for the citizen and the governmental office, via the products of
content take-up R&D.
REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT Besides lowering the "cost of

governing", advances in content
take-up methods promise greater access to governmental and public
information, more transparency in the administrative process and, perhaps most
dramatically, an improved debate, decision-making and electoral processes.
Information technologies can revive public debate and make the electoral
process fit the voters' needs, rather than the other way around, when voters are
able to vote online at any point during a campaign before a set deadline and
from any location they happen to be in, as opposed to having to appear in
person in their home community.
Decades ago, business recognised how

MAKE MONEY, SAVE MONEY information technology could make their
operations more efficient, and companies like IBM grew to staggering sizes as a
result. Now the focus is online commerce, with its money making possibilities.
Telephone calling is expensive, much more

MORE, BETTER AND CHEAPER
so than online chat, e-mail, voice over
COMMUNICATION
Internet (e.g.
http://www.vocaltec.com/) and Internet videoconferencing. Regardless of
how well fixed-rate access schemes will survive into the future, the newer
information technologies have given the consumer what the telecoms historically
have not: drastic price/performance improvements over a relatively short time.
The EU Fifth Framework Thematic

Programme Competitive and Sustainable
Growth addresses such issues as information
technologies for intelligent design and
manufacturing, simulation, and leveraging
THE FIFTH
THE FIFTH information technologies to make modern
FRAMEWORK
FRAMEWORK cities more habitable.
PROGRAMME
PROGRAMME

I. Vision
I.3.5 DISADVANTAGES: A BALANCE
The darker side of the information revolution is well chronicled in the

newspapers, with their stories of hacker attacks on corporations and
governments, and in Internet newsgroups such as comp.risks, alt.society.civil-
liberty and talk.politics.crypto (all available via
http://www.dejanews.com/home_bg.shtml). These problems are not to
be belittled in any way and it is a credit to the information society of today that
the same revolution that created these problems has also facilitated open debate
about them.
Each litre of fuel saved through telecommuting and each child receiving an
enhanced education through the application of educational multimedia is a real
benefit that stands apart from any unwanted side effects that accompany greater
take-up. But the side effects are there and cannot be ignored. A major source
of encouragement, however, can be found in the following observations: 1) in
many cases, where information technology has produced an unwanted side
effect, it has also produced a potential solution, and 2) some of the vaunted
drawbacks turn out to have positive effects.
INFORMATION OVERLOAD A serious problem (see Information

Retrieval and Overload earlier in this
chapter), it should be pointed out that improved searching mechanisms, such as
those based on automatic profiling or agent technologies, filtering, machine-
generated summaries and other tools provide a response for the inundated.
“COCOONING” It is said that the information society has encouraged the

growth of a subculture of people who lock themselves
away at home, talking endlessly with people who, themselves, are also hidden
away from any "real" human contact. In addition, teleworkers are being
deprived the joys of human interaction in the office. What is often not
mentioned is the following experience of some teleworkers: "Before teleworking,
after a day at the office, working with people who were pleasant enough, I
suppose - but let's face facts: most of my colleagues are people with whom I
would not socialise - I came home wanting to shut out the world at large,
usually doing nothing more than watching a bit of television. After a day of work
at home, in a comfortable setting and available to my family but still working
very hard, I felt energised and was in the mood to go out, mingle, enjoy some
time with my friends and to see some of the faces I had been telecommunicating
with all day".

I. Vision
Quality of content is key to

Virtual democracy
Democratic success of knowledge based
• New ways of interaction Impact society
between citizens and • Changes in learning
government / admin. • Provide orientation and
• Better access to information context ("knowledge")
Direct impact
Content Indirect impact
Industry
Industry is growth market by Influence onorganisation of
itself work in general
• Creation of new jobs • Re-engineering processes
• Growth of GDP Economic • Intranet
• International competition Impact • Electronic commerce
Fig. I-7 Democratic and economic impact of the content industry

Graphics: Techno-Z FH Research & Development (1997)
G7 INFORMATION SOCIETY PILOT PROJECTS
The G7 Ministerial Conference on the Information Society, held in

Brussels in February 1995, announced 11 pilot projects which offer
organisations and companies around the world the opportunity to
participate in and contribute to the development of the global
THE EUROPEAN Information Society. The implementation of these projects is now a
COMMISSION’S
key priority.
ROLE
The European Commission and in particular Martin Bangemann,
European Commissioner with responsibility for Information Society
issues, manages four of these pilot projects:
1. Global Marketplace for SMEs To encourage the development of co-

operation and trading services for the benefit of SME's;
2. The Global Inventory To create an inventory of information on
major projects relevant to the promotion of the global information
society;
3. MARIS - Maritime Information Systems Information Society
applications for the maritime sector.
4. Global Healthcare Applications To demonstrate the potential of
telematics technologies in the field of telemedicine in the fight
against major health problems.
DG III is responsible for the first three of these projects. Other

Commission services are involved as appropriate (e.g. DG VII, XIII,
XIV).

II. Challenges and Opportunities
Who are the players?

Who are the creators and users? Who will
profit?
Which issues lie inside the scope of this
document? Which do not, and why?
We paint a picture of these challenges,

followed immediately with general
suggestions for the European Commission's
role in these efforts and later, in chapter III:
Actions, with a much more detailed plan.
Throughout, a European "spin" is placed on
the discussion as the uniquely European
problems and opportunities are highlighted.
Europe has a potentially very bright future in electronic publishing owing to a

number of factors in its favour: a well-established printing industry, huge literary,
artistic and cultural heritage resources, a well-educated population with excellent
language skills, a long history of openness in thought and commerce, and a
strategic geographical position near Africa, the Middle East and Western Asia, to
name a few. The importance of the electronic publishing industry to Europe's
social and economic future should, by now, be unquestioned. This section will
describe the phenomenon known as convergence, both of technologies and of
the media channels they support, and give some illustrative examples from the
real world of publishing. It will also point out some of the opportunities that
have been created by technological advance.
However, the potential payoffs for

Europe are not without their costs. The
challenges to all actors populating the value
“ The growth of the audiovisual
market in the European Union is
estimated at close to 70% over the
network (later in this chapter); creators, next 10 years
publishers, content managers, professional
and leisure users and others are real and will -SPYRIDOS A PAPPAS, DIRECTOR, DG X
not go away by themselves. Moreover, the Audiovisual Eureka Newsletter, No.4, Summer 1997
emergence of a value network, as opposed

to the traditional value chain, complicates life in the electronic publishing world
considerably. No longer do authors just produce for publishers, who package for
stores who distribute to consumers. Authors now also disseminate, on a wide ”
scale, directly to consumers who provide direct feedback which is immediately

incorporated into the current version of the document. Publishers can much
more clearly see who is consuming which content, which results in marketing
opportunities, opportunity costs for opportunities forfeited due to lack of
expertise, funding or awareness. Consumers of all types demand more and
more content be accessible more and more easily, leading, for example,
scientists and researchers to bypass the peer review process via "single-point"
publishing on public networks such as the Web.
CROSS-DOMAIN ISSUES
These impact a wide variety of actors and are generally technology-independent,

resulting in an additional dimension of complexity. They are usually applicable in
some way to almost every application area. To make matters more difficult,
each application area has a set of requirements and problems in each of these
areas and they are often different, with a different "spin" for each area.
Advertising, Virtual Reality, legal issues and usability and quality of use are
discussed in section II.6.
Media Industry
content production transport enduser technologies

Until content packaging network operators hardware / software
1994/95
Media Telecom Computer
Convergence
Media
Telecommunications
Now
Computer
"Content Industry"
Fig. II-1 Media industry and content industry

Source: Techno-Z FH R&D, 19971

Content Content Industry
"Content", regarded in The content industry comprises

terms of the "content all businesses that aim at
industry", means all sorts of generating value by means of
information, entertainment, creating or delivering analogue
communication and or digitised texts, images, video
transaction services that are and/or sound based services to
made available to an an identifiable user group. This
identifiable user group. It includes media companies and
does not matter whether studios who focus on content
these services are created creation as well as tells,
to be sold (commercial hardware and software suppliers
services) or if they are and cable operators who deliver
available for free (e.g. contents to end users or provide
corporate publishing and those devices the users need in
advertising). order to access and use the
delivered services.
Source: Techno-Z FH R&D
Source: Techno-Z FH R&D
II.1 CONVERGENCE CHALLENGES
It is both a challenge to established industries, and a cause of confusion to those

who have not thought seriously about it, that the advent of multimedia
technology has altered the old boundaries of the publishing industries and
related endeavours.

Hot market zones

for EP and
Reading Multimedia Looking
Creation
At present: TV-based
At present: PC-based platforms platforms and cable/
and telecom transmission systems satellite transmission systems
(Text-)
Books Newspapers Online TV

CD-ROM
Magazines
(Traditional) "Publishing" "Programming"
At present:
At present:
Higher complexity, Convergence Focus on entertainment,
focus on information,
passive content consumption
mainly active content reception
Fig. II-2 Multimedia creation and the convergence of "reading" and "looking"
Source: Techno-Z FH R&D / Andersen Consulting (EC, 1996)
II.1.1 CONVERGENCE EXAMPLES
Consider the impact of technology on three examples:
A. SOFTWARE AND It has been a feature of

COMPUTER–AIDED
INSTRUCTION. the computer industry
from the earliest days that
the operating instruction manuals far exceeded the weight and bulk of the
software itself. It came to be accepted that software had to be packaged in a
way that gave prominence to the manual rather than to the actual software,
which has been delivered on an increasingly insignificant looking and
insubstantial disk. As the manual gained in weight, it also became increasingly
inscrutable. The software was clearly produced by the software industry and the
manual by professional writers and publishers, while the large software firms
became publishers in their own right. At the same time firms were being created
and developed to purvey the computer aided instruction material.
Today software usually comes with operating instructions or “Help”

information as part of the package provided on-line. This is not just a
matter of convenience. For very practical reasons , if the material is on-line,
the reader can use virtual buttons and hyper-links to help learn how to use
the new software. The publication has become part of the software, and
the software house has had to become expert at providing computer-aided
instruction.

It is relevant to add that the continued success of traditional manuals, now often
written and published by companies only loosely related to the software
producer, (notably the “Software for Dummies” series), suggests that the virtues
of on-line manuals can be over-played. Maybe there is a place for both the
software industry as on-line publisher and the traditional instruction manual
paperback publisher, or will one replace the other?
B. MUSIC PUBLISHING Music score publishing has been a respected

specialist part of the larger publishing industry,
going back to before the introduction of
printing, and perhaps reaching its hay-day in Victorian times when every self-
respecting home purchased musical scores for amateur performance. With the
growth of the recording media, like Edison's gramophone, a new “record”
publishing industry grew up, which fed the market for recorded music, and
occasionally provided printed scores along with its recordings.
Now the advanced score publisher will employ the CD-ROM medium, rather than
the printed page, and provide the consumer both with the music in audio and
with a score as a synchronously moving visual image. Will the music publisher
vanquish the score publisher? Or vice-versa? It seems likely that the two
markets will converge and in due course be supplied by one class of publisher
(e.g. The keyboard player Keith Emerson uses a computer screen with a moving
score to replace his normal music stand.).
Most museums provide catalogues and in

C. THE VIRTUAL MUSEUM
post-war years these have developed into
coffee-table volumes of considerable intrinsic
beauty – and weight. The wise museum catalogue publisher will adopt a CD-
ROM format so that his customers can have the benefit of moving images and
spoken descriptive material. Before long a new branch of publishing will emerge
providing virtual images of museum artefacts. This has already happened for
museums of art, normally called art galleries, where there are clear benefits, for
example, in being able to see statues in the round and from any aspect and
light. Will the museum become a publisher of virtual images or will the catalogue
publisher take over the market? (The example of Dorling Kindersley is
interesting in this context).

II.1.2 CONVERGENCE IN PRACTISE
These examples could easily be drawn from other fields such as the role of the
educational publisher in the on-line class-room, or the use of libraries as gate-
ways to the World Wide Web. This is a challenging time for those in the industry
who face the double challenge of mastering the new technology and at the same
time fighting off the new entrants to their traditional fields who may be better
equipped to tackle the perils of the new technology and new markets the new
technology has opened up. In practice, history suggests the brash new entrants
will make considerable impact on the traditional markets. Some of the traditional
publishers will fight back, and after, an era when the markets are dominated by
representatives formed by mergers of the two will gradually appear.
II.1.3. CONVERGENCE OPPORTUNITIES FOR EUROPE
Many of the traditional publishers, with world-wide markets, are European. The
diversity of language and the existence in Europe of much of the source material
gives the European industry a strong starting position. But it is an undeniable
fact that many of the new technologies are dominated by informatics and
modern media firms based outside Europe, notably on the West coast of the
USA. There would seem to be an important role for the Commission in helping
the traditional publishing industries of Europe to adapt to the new age. In
helping the entrepreneurial, new media firms in Europe could take their place in
the traditional and new markets of the multimedia world. Perhaps above all,
there is an important role for the Commission in bringing new partners together
to face the new world, and in providing early warning of the changing face of
those markets.
"The Content Industry"

Segmentation: production distribution access Segmentation:
Type of Content Media Sectors
Information Services Print publishers

Segmentation: Segmentation:
User Groups Language / Culture
Entertainment / Games Broadcasters
Business Northern Europe
Corporate Publishing Online Service Prov.

Consumer Southern Europe
Fig. II-3 The Content Industry - a highly fragmented market

Source: Techno-Z FH R&D, 1997

II.2 DUAL ECONOMIES OF TIME AND ATTENTION
II.2.1 AN ECONOMY OF TIME
Time is, as it has always been, the enemy. But today this enemy has grown to
the point where it is a dominating feature in the economics of the use of many
multimedia systems. In the modern world, globalisation and the high rate of
obsolescence of many artifacts, computers and cars as well as manuals and
memoranda, lead to the demand for systems that can cut down on the time to
market. Saving in time has replaced saving in cost as a driving force in the
investment in new computer-based design systems. If the manufacturing
process has been speeded up, it is the publication process that can be the
delaying element in time to market. This puts a price premium on systems that
enable widely dispersed workers to co-operate on a single design to speed up
the production cycle for a product to satisfy many markets. Publications that can
be delivered electronically, and so virtually instantaneously, to anywhere in the
world have an immediate advantage in this world where time is in such short
supply. Moreover, the updates and follow-on versions may be able to be
distributed on-line, giving the electronic version an immediate commercial
advantage.
So, savings in design time, and in delivery and update time, have become key
elements in the production process for many types of publication. The task for
Europe is to lead the world in the creation and use of publication systems that
cut time to market.
II.2.2 AN ECONOMY OF ATTENTION
Another unfortunate facet of the seemingly inevitable shortage of time in the

modern world is the attention span of the user - the reader, viewer, listener, or
consumer – has been reduced in the rush to become “efficient”. We live in an
electronic logjam dominated by the sound-bite, the attention-seeking
advertisement, and the flashy image that says it all. We must face the fact that
attention span is much reduced in these multimedia days. It may be regretted by
the older generation but it is a fact of life that has to be recognised by media
content producers of all types.

So the challenge is to get the essential content over rapidly and attractively. Aid
is at hand because modern multimedia presentation lends itself to such an
approach. The challenge is to modernise the style of presentation to make the
key information accessible with as little effort and time as possible. A great deal
of research and study is required to establish just what is the right mix of media
to convey a particular type of information. We have to learn to measure the
impact of our publications. There can be no doubt that we have a great deal to
learn from the advertising industry that has shown us the way in many aspects
of this challenge.
II.3 SPECIFIC CHALLENGES: THE ACTORS

The emerging information society brings with it challenges for the different
actors, a diverse collection of problems which must be addressed and needs
which must be fulfilled. It is a time of transition and
convergence but at the end of the journey lie many Participants from all
opportunities for those who can adapt. The table later in sectors have told us
this subsection presents a summary of these about the problems
opportunities for the main actors in the content chain. and challenges they
are facing
Success in this area will be indicated by increased
competitiveness in the European content industry and by a better-informed
citizenry. Electronic publishing R&D will address many of the challenges that will
have an impact on this target.
Paradigm Shifts in the Problems and Current The Value Chain of Changes in User
Media Industries Issues in the Digital the Interactive Digital Behaviour
Interactive Media Services Industry
Markets
Content is the key The content industry With regard to the In terms of user
driver and the most is in need of value chain of the behaviour, the
important asset in the satisfactory technical interactive digital convergence of media
new digital interactive solutions in the areas services industry, can be understood as
services industry. of media integration, "convergence" of a convergence of
"Content" thereby secure transaction industries means 'reading' and 'looking'
means a targeted systems, user friendly primarily convergence activities. Multimedia
bundle of information, end-user devices / of content driven skills services require from
communication and interfaces and faster and technology driven the user a
transaction services. network access at skills. combination of
affordable prices. different reception
modes in a hitherto
unknown way.
Source: Techno-Z FH R&D / Andersen Consulting

Fig. II-4 CHALLENGES IN DEVELOPING WEB APPLICATIONS
Move to Web Opps. 13.3%

Lack of Web Dev. Tool 16.8%
Support of Sr. Mgmt 17.5%
Network Traffic 19.5%
Performance 22.1%
Integrate to Web 23.3%
Cost Adv. Uncertain 24.3%
Lack of Training 32.6%
Security Concerns 55.0%
0.0% 10.0% 20.0% 30.0% 40.0% 50.0% 60.0%
% of respondents ranking items 1-3
Number of respondents: 389 Source: Strategic Focus 1996
We are rapidly approaching a situation

Effects on Business: where any person, at his or her
The Benefits of discretion, may be reachable or present
Pioneering at any place or time through a
combination of wireless communication
 Low Cost and virtual environments.
Information
Such developments have brought with
 Distribution them changes in information practice in
industry, government and everyday life.
 Increased Sales of There are now new ways to learn, to
Existing Products receive news, to buy and to sell goods
and services, and to work. New market
 Expanded Delivery players and “infopreneurs” are helping to
Channels foster a “digital culture”.
 Levelling Mechanism
 Global Exposure

EUROPEAN 1. Content: Unleashing the potential of the new

ELECTRONIC technologies for the content business.
PUBLISHING:
2. Business: Developing new business and
organisational models for publishing digital
5 KEY CHALLENGES
content.
3. Technical: Involving the user in driving the new
technological developments.
4. Social: Reaching an acceptable balance between
user privacy and customer access.
5. Market: Realising a critical mass of European
products in a global marketplace.
There is a need to take account of the issues affecting the main actors as they
strive to adapt and capitalise. On the surface, the scale is huge and the breadth
of issues which must be addressed immense. Breaking the big picture down into
cells which isolate the particular concerns of the different communities is the first
step to establishing a realistic research agenda for European electronic
publishing.
MAIN ACTORS MAIN ISSUES
 The Creators  Content generation

 The Publishers  Content management
 The Collection Holders  Content delivery
 The Professional Users  Socio-economic
 The Citizen/Consumer  Transactional

II.3.1 THE CREATORS
The creative community needs assistance to exploit new technologies for the
content business and in new media skills development. By creators, we mean
writers, artists, painters, performers, film-makers, musicians, designers,
animators, scientists, inventors and anyone involved in a creative process
whether that process involves a traditional medium (film, record) or new media
(virtual reality, computer games). Clearly the focus is on those who are already
working entirely in new media (which tend to be newer, more specialised
companies) and people who have established themselves in conventional media
but are experimenting with or are in transition to new media such as digital film
or Internet broadcasting. The challenge is to liberate creativity by providing
suitable multimedia authoring tools and to establish a European critical mass of
skills in new media production (authoring and editing, particularly in 3-D and VR)
which can be put at the disposal of Europe’s burgeoning new media industry.
MAIN ISSUES AND NEEDS: AUTHORS, CREATORS AND INNOVATORS

Content  Multimedia authoring tools.
Generation  Multimedia authoring and editing skills.
 Skills in animation, 3D and immersive VR.
 Interactive group authoring.
 Better links to publishers and technology providers.
Content  Consumer preferences in interactivity.

Delivery  Psycho/social effects.
 Usability testing.
Transactional  Ownership
 Royalties
 Accreditation
Socio-economic  Exploiting new technologies for the content business

 Skills development

II.3.2 THE PUBLISHERS
European publishers want to expand further into global and virtual marketplaces.
To do so, they realise the need for broadening their base of technology
competencies. They want to deliver an increased breadth and quality of services
to their customers, whether through business-to-business publishing (scientific-
medical-technical, corporate or business information) or mass-market publishing
(newspapers, magazines, catalogues, audio-visual publishing). New
opportunities, such as those presented by niche content marketing and push
delivery, demand a fast reaction from publishers, in order to meet unsatisfied
and even unarticulated knowledge and entertainment demands. Publishers are
confronted on the one hand with media convergence and on the other with
market fragmentation.
They need technical assistance in order to manage and exploit digital content,
and information which enables them to develop new business models. These
models must allow publishers to exchange and trade content using systems that
take account of ownership, accreditation, pricing (on which advertising will have
a big impact) and payment. They must meet the more sophisticated demands
from their customers for content that is relevant, personal and timely – and must
learn to make money doing it!

MAIN ISSUES AND NEEDS: BUSINESS-TO-BUSINESS AND MASS

MARKET PUBLISHERS
Content  Techniques for collaborative publishing.
Management  Moving content between one medium and another.
 Packaging multimedia in a more integrated way.
 Conversion of assets to digital form.
 Content acquisition over networks.
 Archiving, updating and linking of digital content.
 Cheaper digital storage.
 Fast retrieval from digital archives.
 Indexing and classification of images, video and sound.
 Quality control.
 Data integrity.
 Selectivity.
 Metrics for valuing information assets.
Content  More effective interfaces.

Delivery  New and more attractive ways of presenting content.
 Delivering a better experience for the user.
 Publishing scientific information in more simplified ways.
 Push publishing techniques.
 Customer profiling.
 User support.
 Feedback channels: methods for describing user
behaviour and customer satisfaction.
 Quality assessment.
 Delivery platforms
Transactional  Ownership.
 Pricing policy.
 Payment mechanisms. IPR/piracy.
 New models for advertising.
 Open and trusted transaction schemes.
Socio-economic  Change from mass market to customised publishing.

 Lack of information for setting up business models.
 Market fragmentation.
 Media convergence.
 Dealing with new competition.
 Meeting more sophisticated intellectual demand.
 Encouraging users to buy.
 Dealing with linguistic and cultural diversity.

II.3.3 THE COLLECTION HOLDERS
Three categories of collection holder have emerged: corporate, cultural and

entertainment. Corporate collection holders are concerned with issues such as
managing tacit information, informing management thinking and customer
service. Many of the concerns of corporate publishing therefore, apart from those
of the professional user, are included in this category. Cultural collection holders
are concerned with networking of collections, exposing a larger selection of their
artefacts to a wider audience and enriching the cultural experience. They include
museums, galleries, music and image archives and cultural centres. Holders of
entertainment content want to give their audience wider choice, added value and
more scope for interaction. Television companies, for example, provide Internet
broadcasts and run user polls through their web sites. Entertainment companies
face many of the same issues facing publishers: how to store and retrieve audio-
visual content, how to exploit their content in different ways, how to move from
mass-market to niche delivery.
Paradigm Shifts in the Media & Communications Industries
Industrial Convergence
Media
Content Industry
TC Computer
Content Convergence
Products: Commerce Commerce
Communi- Info Service
cation Infor- Communic.
mation
Service Customisation
Community
Mass products Customisation Community
Community
individuals
Fig. II-5 Paradigm Shifts in the Media and Communications Industries

Source: Techno-Z FH R&D / Andersen

MAIN ISSUES AND NEEDS: CORPORATE, CULTURAL AND

ENTERTAINMENT COLLECTION HOLDERS
Content  Innovative approaches to data processing including
Management visualisation and scenario development.
 Better ways to integrate different media.
 Better ways to integrate different collections.
 Metrics for valuing information assets.
 Data warehousing integrating access control
mechanisms.
 Faster conversion to digital form.
 Cheaper digital storage.
 Faster retrieval from digital archives.
 Better archiving, updating and linking.
 Networking of collections.
 Indexing and classification of images, video and sound.
 Packaging cultural and business knowledge of a tacit
nature.
 Asset management.
Content  New and more attractive ways of presenting content.

Delivery  Delivering a better experience for the user.
 Tailoring.
 User support.
 Feedback.
 Quality assessment.
 Delivery platforms.
Transactional  Pricing policy.

 Ownership.
 IPR/piracy.
 Payment mechanisms.
 Open and trusted transaction schemes.
Socio-economic  Dealing with linguistic and cultural diversity.

 Meeting more sophisticated intellectual demand.

II.3.4 PROFESSIONAL INFORMATION USERS
Industry has recognised the value of intellectual capital, including tacit corporate
knowledge, and of secondary content such as customer feedback and
consumption patterns. To focus on customer excellence and improve
productivity, industry needs information management systems which can
harness, process and extract value from these assets. Non-proprietary systems
to inform management thinking and which take account of differences in
corporate culture across the global professional information world are essential.
Professionals are a wide category of user, as their role can range from publisher,
to consumer, to information user. An information manager in a company may
use the new information tools described above to publish information to the
workforce. Corporate employees are the intended recipients of that information,
and as such are information users.
Active
Knowledge "Professional "PC-
Workers Knowledge Seekers" "Browsen aus Neugier" Enthusiasts"
Attractors Attractors
• structured information • global content sources
• comprehensive index • international chat groups
• automatic search tools Users
Users • technophiles, early adopters
• academics, researchers • students
• marketing analysts Price Sensitivity
Price Sensitivity • high
• low, but limited advertising • advertising accepted
Rational Emotional
"Fast Comprehension" "Awakening Couch Potatoes"
Attractors
Attractors
• high value added info
• image and video rich content
• packaged, personalised
• pre-programmed
• fast overview, drill down
Users
Users
• average TV consumer
• executives
Price Sensitivity
• managers
• medium / high
• medical, law
• advertising accepted
Price Sensitivity
"Time • low "Leisure
Constrained" • limited advertising Seekers"
Passive
Fig. II-6 Basic types of user behaviour and their needs

Source: Andersen Consulting, Techno-Z FH Research & Development

They may however integrate that information into their own work processes and
in effect republish it in new forms. Professional users are also often involved in
making or influencing corporate purchase decisions. Statistics show that while
more people browse the Internet at home than at work, the reverse is true when
it comes to making purchases. Professional users often therefore find themselves
put in the role of consumers as targets of vendor advertising.
MAIN ISSUES AND NEEDS: PROFESSIONAL CONTENT USERS

Content  Managing multimedia information delivered to the
Management desktop.
Content  Easy access to business knowledge.

Delivery  Diversity of access media (viewers, browsers).
 Increased speed and convenience.
 Increased user-friendliness.
 Improved filtering.
 Intelligent and adaptive profiling.
 Intuitive multimedia browsers.
 Multi-lingual access.
 Speech interfaces.
 Intelligent agents.
 Navigation and retrieval aids.
 Deep content analysis, understanding and meaning
extraction.
 Combating overload.
 Interactive feedback options.
 Adaptive training packages.
 Delivery platforms.
Transactional  Motivation to buy.

 Integrity of material.
 Better sense of value.
 Trust in online commerce.
 Ownership.
 Privacy.
 Downloading/copying.
Socio-economic  Cultural and linguistic diversity.

 Life long learning and skills development.

II.3.5 THE CITIZEN/CONSUMER
Every citizen is a consumer, and citizen/consumer buy-in is essential if the

Information Society is going to be realised. Lifestyle, culture and tradition stem
from the community. Validating telematics applications with closed user groups
(a feature of the European Commission’s 4 th Framework Programme) is only a
start and the next step is to integrate community trials and pilots in the home.
There have of course been technological revolutions before but these have
largely gone unnoticed by the domestic community. Now however there are
promising signs that citizens will immerse themselves in the information
revolution as it unfolds. We now have a new generation of consumers
(teenagers) who have grown up with computers. The impact of computers in the
workplace has influenced their adoption in the home. Everyday we are informed
by newspapers and television that the information revolution is happening. So
the citizens are definitely aware and they have high expectations.
Challenges in Content Industries
Media integration
Reusability of content / cross publishing
Customisation of contents and services

Competency
End user requirements: interfaces etc.
needed
High level interactivity
Transaction systems / data security
Fast access / database structures
technical solutions
will enable / encourage
veritable markets
Fig. II-7 Content Industry Challenges

Source: Techno-Z FH R&D / Andersen

MAIN ISSUES AND NEEDS: CITIZENS AND CONSUMERS

Content  Easy access to lifestyle information.
Delivery  Diversity of access media (viewers, browsers).
 More compelling content.
 Increased levels of satisfaction.
 Increased speed and convenience.
 Increased user-friendliness.
 Improved filtering.
 Intelligent and adaptive profiling.
 Intuitive multimedia browsers.
 Multi-lingual access.
 Speech interfaces.
 Intelligent agents.
 Navigation and retrieval aids.
 Combating overload.
 Interactive feedback options.
 Adaptive training packages
 Delivery platforms
Transactional  Motivation to buy.

 Integrity of material.
 Better sense of value.
 Trust in online commerce.
 Ownership.
 Privacy and decency.
 Downloading/copying.
Socio-economic  Cultural and linguistic diversity.

 Life long learning.

AUTHORS PUBLISHERS COLLECTION HOLDERS PROFESSIONAL USERS CONSUMERS & CITIZENS

 Wider range of channels  Speeding up peer review,  Making a larger percentage  Delivery of multimedia  Receiving information
of publication, more editorial and production of cultural artefacts information to the from diverse sources in a
opportunities to exploit work and distribution. accessible to the public. desktop. personalised format.
works.
 Presenting scientific  Finding new ways to make  Working in stimulating  Receiving information in a
 Opportunities to learn information in more searching in large volumes co-operative and form that matches the
new skills and new ways simplified ways for non- of multimedia data less interactive environments. users technical
to express creativity. specialised audience. daunting for users. capabilities.
 More informed
 Opportunities to present  Exploiting volatile content  Abolition of local constraint management thinking.  Using virtual reality to
content in new forms not as a competitive tool. for access through travel and to live out
derived from other decentralised electronic  Extracting benefit from cultural and
media.  Expanding into global and access. business knowledge that entertainment
virtual marketplaces and is of a tacit nature. experiences.
 Generation of content accessing a globally  Scope for integrating
that is more appealing to dispersed user community. separate collections with  More effective ways for  Accessing reliable
basic human needs (more common content (grouping SMEs to access and information, which
visual, interactive).  Capitalising on the installed by interest area). integrate information. facilitates a better
base of multimedia delivery informed choice.
 Better opportunities for platforms.  Possibility to buy,  Better integration of
collaborative working. exchange, loan, sell or business processes such  Gaining the confidence to
 Choice of media for duplicate individual assets as design, documentation buy and sell over
 Better integration with different markets and or entire collections. and training. networks in a secure and
technical and publishing publications. protected environment.
processes.  Improved management  Increased interactivity
 More personalised and control of business with suppliers and  Taking knowledge and
 Liberating creativity. publishing and better user through data warehousing. customers leading to pleasure from compelling
profiling. better designed and more applications, which are
desirable products. cost effective and easy-
 Creating a profitable new to-use.
trading environment.
Opportunities in Interactive Electronic Publishing

II.4 CHALLENGES OF MEDIA INTEGRATION
The basic idea of multimedia, as defined by the name itself, is the combination of
text, image, video and sound into one medium. The difference to traditional
analogue "multimedia" formats (e.g. TV) is that in the new media all components
are combined and integrated in digitised form. This has important strategic
consequences, both for the supply side as well as for the demand side.
 For content providers, digital media integration is a new opportunity but also
a challenge. Costs for content creation (programming) for high-end
multimedia titles are extremely high. As a consequence, companies that
create digital content have a great interest in re-using the same content as
many times as possible and in as many media as possible without having to
pay "first copy" costs again. This is the idea of cross publishing: Pay content
creation once, re-use it for free.
 From the demand perspective, the question is "how much" multimedia do

users actually want. The demand for multimedia services in the consumer
market has gained momentum, but certainly not yet reached the level that
was hoped or expected by the industry. Obviously, technical impediments
(difficult to use end user devices, still no plug-and-play with PC based CD-
ROMs etc.) and high cost for infrastructure are strong arguments against
purchase of multimedia services.
The diversification and digitisation of the media industries gives content

providers more opportunities in their choice of the ideal media to deliver their
services. Many companies have an interest in using the same content for several
media, e.g. for a print catalogue and for a hybrid CD-ROM. To find solutions for a
multiple and sustainable usage of digitised content is one of the challenges for
technical engineers in the digital media age.

Cross media publishing is a logical Cross Media Publishing means

development, considering the economies of using the same content for
digital media production. While the first copy publication in several different
costs remain high (or may even be higher media and guarantee re-
than in the analogue media industry, due to usability by exploiting the
higher expectations), the costs for re-using opportunities of digitisation
content in other media formats than the and relating authoring tools.
original one has rapidly decreased. As a The strategic goal of cross
consequence, many companies have an publishing is to diversify
interest in having their content published in content distribution channels
multiple media by exploiting the economies at minimal marginal cost.
of digitisation.
The boom in digital media, creating new outlets for content, has triggered a
boom in software development for digital content processing (authoring tools).
Professional media production software is a most important asset in the whole
computer industry, probably having more impact on market success than
hardware issues. Also, professional skills in using these tools for content creation
and processing are a key competence needed in order to generate added value
with digital media.
Optimising the re-usability of content for various formats is fundamental.

Currently, cross publishing concepts are facing problems with lacking standards.
It will be a task for Information Engineers
 to define success criteria for optimising the cost-usage benefit of cross

publishing opportunities
 to make suggestions concerning standards for document portability between
different systems
This task demands a comprehensive and systematic guideline of how to process
what sort of information with regard to specific requirements of digitization and
publication. This guideline can be regarded as sort of media technology
landscape, giving recommendations on standards and formats.
With regard to the value chain, there are two points where cross publishing
demands strategic planning. The first one occurs when the basic content that
shall be processed is transformed into digital formats. Decisions have to be made
which platforms and software to use (e.g. about the word processing software,
what sort of database structure and software etc.) in order to allow minimal
effort for multiple usage later on. The second important step is the process of
transforming this digitised raw material into products and services. Again, the
choice of appropriate working environment and formats decides the economy of
re-usage.

II.5 THE VALUE NETWORK
Emerging multimedia technologies and

techniques have produced a blurring,
not only of the roles of various Commentary,
traditional actors involved, but of interaction, chat, rights
content itself. Networks allow acknowledgement and
consumers to interact not only with payment emerge as
content suppliers, but directly with important forms of
content aggregators, publishers, and content
even creators. in their own right.
Collaborative, iterative development of

multimedia works between customers
and publishers weaken the barriers
implied by the traditional roles
comprising the old content chain and
its variants. The creative re-assembling
and repurposing of content resources
turns editor and producer into creator,
while participants in teleconferencing
and chat environments create and
consume content simultaneously.
Commentary, interaction, chat, rights

acknowledgement and payment
emerge as important forms of content
in their own right. Bidirectional
(upstream) and networked (all-to-all)
content flows turn the information
chain into a value network.

II.5.1 CREATIVE CONTENT GENERATION
CREATE
Advanced interactive publishing calls for intelligent
publishing platforms with which to acquire, create and
integrate content resources of all sorts – not just books,
magazines, CD-ROMs and Web sites, but films, music, 3D
animated models and immersive environments,
simulations, visualisations, virtual presence environments,
broadcast programmes, multi-player games and worlds,
cultural presentations, tours, performances, maps and
much more. It demands tools and environments that
enable productivity and workflow among the creative
content generator – the author, artist, editor, peer
reviewer, critic, journalist, producer, director, inventor,
designer, or curator - to tele-collaborate, regardless of
location, in the co-creative process of making composite
content works, regardless of the format of the component
information resources.
The first phase of the Information Age has been

characterised by two quite different developments in so
far as content is concerned. Interactive video games have
been a large scale commercial success, and the content
has been new, imaginative, and generated largely by
entirely new market entrants. Problems of bandwidth and
computer power have been by-passed by the use of
special purpose hardware. On the other hand, almost all
other content creation that has tried to leverage existing
text and photographic material, and to use existing
infrastructure, has failed to be imaginative, and has to a
large extent been commercially unsuccessful.
Europe is strong in the video games market, particularly in the content creation
area. A major difference between video games creation and other types of
electronic publishing lies in the 'digital culture' it embodies. Video games are
based on interactivity, animation, 3D-graphics, sound effects, and all at the high-
quality, high-tech end of the market. In contrast, much of the rest of electronic
publishing (including much of the World Wide Web) has the image of attempting
to re-sell book and magazine material with little attempt to provide any added
value to the consumer. This criticism applies even more to the professional and
corporate sector than to the general public interest market.

The next phase of development will see the progressive transfer of this new
digital culture into all forms of content creation. It will emphasise high quality of
experience, not only in the visual dimension but in interactivity, sound integration,
and narrative (expressiveness). The focus of action on content generation in the
Fifth Framework Programme will be to support the growth of this digital culture
throughout the Information Society.
EU PROJECTS AND ACTIONS SHOULD HELP TO…
 MIX CREATIVE GROUPS from the digital culture with technical

groups building support systems (work-flow, asset repositories,
THE integrators, distribution management, interoperability
EUROPEAN designers) and 'publishers' with a need to communicate
COMMISSION‟S information, in order to generate skill (culture) transfer and
ROLE improved tools for team working.
 TRANSFER STATE-OF-THE-ART KNOWLEDGE between working

groups.
 BOOST DEMAND for the new content skills among

publishers/distributors - end users already demand high quality,
but intermediaries are unfocussed and there is a skill shortage
in the high quality end of the creative market. The take-up of
these skills by the advertising market and the impact on
consumers shows where we are going.
 CREATE REAL DEMAND for content creation from many small

companies. There is a significant threat of a drift of creative
talent to the US if there is not a market for the skills and
encouragement of innovative ideas.
 COORDINATE OPEN STANDARDS that enable content creators

to maximise their market potential (platform independence).
 REVEAL PATTERNS IN CONSUMER PREFERENCES in

interactivity and related psycho-social issues such as user-
centred design.
 DEVELOP ENTIRELY NEW CONTENT CREATION SKILLS and

related tools, such as content design/creation over long
distances from within immersive VR environments.

COMPUTER GAMES : A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE INDUSTRY
Playing games on home computers is a fairly recent phenomenon. The popularity

of video games began in the mid 1970‟s with Atari‟s Pong and achieved
momentum with the introduction of Space Invaders into amusement arcades in
1979.
Annual retail sales in the
Home computers emerged in the early 1980‟s global leisure software
with BBC computers, Sinclair ZX range and market is estimated to be
the Commodore C64; and games charts were currently in excess of $20
created, mirroring the popular music billion.
industry. By the mid 1980‟s the games Growth is forecast to exceed
market had split into two distinct sectors: $30 billion by 1998.
dedicated games consoles and programmable
home computers. The most influential console was the Nintendo Entertainment
System (NES) while home computer users favoured the Commodore Amiga and
the Atari ST. By this time multinational communications giants had already
recognised the potential of games/multimedia applications as evidenced by the
take-over of Atari games by Warner Communications in the late eighties.
By the early 1990‟s the split between the console and computer markets had
been even more pronounced and, although the different machines (platforms)
had some common titles in issue, the consoles were aimed at the 9-17 age
group, with emphasis on arcade style games and conversions, while computer
games were aimed at a more mature
Computer game technology
audience.
is now at the forefront of
technological innovation and
The console market is now dominated by two
invaluable to
Japanese firms, Sega and Nintendo, which
the world‟s leisure and
share 97% of the console market and 70%
information providers.
of the total world electronic games turnover
(by machine). There are now two groups
emerging in the console market; the dedicated games only cartridge based
machines and the new multimedia CD based machines - playing games, music
CDs and feature films on a single machine.
DURLACHER MULTIMEDIA

II.5.2 MULTIMEDIA CONTENT MANAGEMENT
The digital media manager is responsible for the indexing,
MANAGE
storing, re-accessing, re-assembling, repurposing and securing
content works. Multipurposing allows content resources to
produce products for various media, (print, Web, CD, film,
broadcast, videotape, DVD, etc.) and product types
(newspapers, books, movies, albums, television shows,
Internet services, etc.).
Mastering new challenges for collection holders
Information has become one of the most precious assets in

today's economies. Collecting and distributing information
offers a whole new range of business opportunities. Still,
owning information does not guarantee economic success.
Companies who want to be part of these fast growing
business sectors have to meet the challenge of delivering their
content to the customer's front door at the right time.
It is the context which gives value to information. To the

uninterested user an archive is not a pool of information but
bits and pieces of unrelated data. For a researcher the same
texts, pictures, graphs and videos can be a valuable source of
information. Therefore, information always has to be
presented in relation to the information need of the potential
customer.
Meeting the expectations and needs of the customer is even

more important considering the information overload of the
average media user. Especially those users who haven't
acquired a special competence or have tools at hand for
accessing and filtering information. This majority might have
access to a variety of information while not being able to
handle and process it. Therefore, supporting "information
ecology“ is a must for everybody who deals with information.
We all need the right information rather than just more.

To deliver information at the right time and the right place is not easy, especially
when the owner of information is not a renowned publisher. Take the example of
owning an international hotel database. In order to get potential customers to
use it you have to know more about them. Ideally, you offer your information
right at the point when they need it. For example, after having purchased a
ticket you could present them with special offers for accommodation. At this
point the information will have its maximum impact and value - and you can
charge for it. If you yourself are not a publisher, getting in contact with your
potential customer will prove difficult. Therefore finding partners becomes a
crucial point in your strategy.
Teaming up with publishers or other companies who are dealing with potential
customers directly (i.e. dealers of goods and services) has far-reaching
implications on how you have to organise your content. First of all, you have to
be open with your business. Information owners have to understand themselves
as part of a broad information network. You either have to find somebody who is
already offering information related to the same topic (i.e. as an owner of a hotel
database you could cooperate with a travel agency), or you can look for partners
with content which you can integrate in your own service offering. But opening
up also has some technical aspects. It means caring for platform compatible
storage with interfaces to different media as well as creating packages of content
already wrapped in valuable context (meta-information) you can offer to
potential partners.
Information packages designed for new media do not necessarily have to include
visuals though. Contrary to common belief new media are not a mere extension
of traditional, visually oriented media. The prototype of networked interactive
Media known as the Internet is not attractive because it delivers more pictures
and video, but because of the mix and integration of content you can combine.
Visual information requires all of a users attention; whereas audio files or
promising technologies like personal agents on the other hand might transport
the same information value and are at the same time handier and less time
consuming to use.
Information owners who are willing and able to understand the nature of the
information business are the only ones who will gain real profit from the market.
They are the real front-men and potential winners of the information age.

II.5.3 PERSONALISED CONTENT DELIVERY
DELIVER
Deliverers of personalised content will enable complex
content, such as audiovisual content, immersive
engineering and design environments or virtual worlds
populated by a variety of cultural artefacts, to provide
user benefit in an easy, cost-effective and efficient
manner that avoids problems of information overload.
Non-textual access, such as multimedia search by
document content on still images, moving images or
sound, will enable the navigation of the continuously
expanding set of rich content available. Personal
actor/assistants will be tasked with performing chores of
varying complexity, leaving their human controllers to
specialise on higher-level work.
Traditional models of publishing view dissemination as the

last step in publishing process. After dissemination the
published media are available to the market, waiting to be
picked up by whoever is interested in them. With
electronic publishing this model needs to be totally re-
engineered. One must look beyond dissemination as
merely making information available. Retrieval,
assimilation, evaluation and actual use of the information
are also of critical importance for effective dissemination.
Publishers and other actors must actively contribute to
greater effectiveness of these activities, which have
traditionally been the responsibility of the user-consumer.
On the World Wide Web, dissemination is easy in one

sense, difficult in another. On the one hand it is easy to
make information available on the net. Creating pages in
HTML, the preferred WWW file format, is easy, and
maintaining a WWW server or renting some space on one
is no challenge either. On the other hand it is more
difficult to disseminate in a targeted manner. The
information provided must rely on the users to find and
retrieve the information. Information dissemination must
be complemented with information retrieval strategies.
Given the growing amount of information that is available,
the burden on retrieval methods becomes higher as well.

Search and indexing engines are one type of solution

CUSTOMISATION AND
to deal with the massive network. Lycos, AltaVista or
PERSONALISATION
InfoSeek, are well known examples. Such tools make
an index of the information that is available on the A content provider's
World Wide Web. This is done, typically, by tracing effort to adapt and
on an almost permanent basis, hyperlinks and specify interactive
parsing the pages that these point to. The pages' digital products and
addresses (URLs) are then maintained as entries in services for highly
the global index tables that these agents create, so specific target markets
that they can be easily retrieved in reply to a is termed
particular search request. customisation. Thus,
customisation is a
Whereas search and indexing engines propose to supply side product
solve the problem of finding information, information strategy.
filters are one solution to the problem of information
overload by automatically delivering a subset or pre- On the other hand, a
processed synthesis of relevant information. To user‟s interactive
achieve this they use profiles of individual users or modification of a
categories of users to filter ongoing information service for his/her
streams (e.g. news, mailing lists, ...). individual purposes is
defined as
In both cases it is essentially the user that pulls the personalisation.
information in, either by formulating queries or based Personalisation is a
on a profile. Other lines of research are moving into demand side activity.
a direction of information push: rather than relying Customisation and
on the initiative of the users to get some information, personalisation have
the information will be actively pushed to the user. considerable impact on
Clearly, to make this work systems need a precise product development
idea of what information might be needed at what in the content industry.
time and in what context or situation of the user.
From personalisation to situated-ness
Current personalised information delivery systems work almost exclusively with

user profiling. They are unaware of minute-to-minute information needs of a
user, which depend not only on the personal profile but more so on his or her
current activity, goals, surroundings. One moves from personalised content
delivery to situated content delivery by taking into account more and more of the
actual situation of the user. Rather than delivering information that the user is
interested in, a radical information push model must deliver the information that
the user needs at that time.

An economy of attention  Research into understanding the

economy of attention, and the
realization of adapted
Whereas new models of publishing focus on techniques for information
understanding the economy of information, in access and presentation.
addition, an economy of attention must be
understood. The user's attention is limited,  Projects that demonstrate
and personalised content delivery must focus degrees of situation-awareness
in close-to-market applications
on optimising it. The challenge here is to (e.g. electronic shopping,
come up with models of competition for entertainment).
attention that are sensitive to the current
needs of the user and avoid a 'winner take all'  Research into contextual
trap. Such techniques must be focussed on information presentation, which
is aimed at rendering
offering the user a limited set of options that information with a form and
are justified in terms of their content and focus adapted to the user's
relevance for the user at that moment. The needs (e.g. summarization,
percentage scores of current search engines vocabulary selection).
are, for this purpose, totally inadequate.
Customisation
• adapt content for small target Supply Side
groups
• new customers
• "target group of 1"
• new publishing
• special interest, special user
skills
behaviour
Supply Side
- service providers output expected
Product / Service
Demand Side
- users
- advertisers
Personalisation
User Market Advertising Market
• filters and options for
personal service design • value added • quality / narrow
• "personal newspaper" compared to profile target
• "information on demand" traditional media groups for
• trend towards advertisers
individual life • new media: best
styles applied to environment for
media services 1:1 marketing
Fig. II-8 Trends in product strategies: customisation and personalisation

Graphics: Techno-Z FH Research & Development, 1997

Software agents as representatives
Software agents are a step in the

direction of personalised interactions with  Research into large scale agent
the user. They are mostly known as societies, to investigate the benefits
personal assistants in dealing with and problems of interacting personal
assistants, and probe scalability of the
complex applications or large amounts of technology.
information. The technology shares many
of the concerns that motivate information  Research on new HCI technologies that
push models. Software agents must be integrate aware interaction devices in
developed that function as "aware", the daily activities of users, professional
and home users alike (e.g. personal
"pro-active "and "learning personal assistant, aware portable book or
representatives "(and not just assistants). newspaper).
For this, mechanisms of delegation must
be understood and supported. Such  Situation profiling standards that
representatives serve user's information extend current user profiling standards
and meta-information vocabularies.
interests, but also a variety of socio- Sector specific situation profiling.
economical business interests. Socio-
economic processes therefore need to be  Embedding in long-term social
understood in terms of inter-related interaction schemes (e.g. negotiation,
interests, and agents must be project planning, real-estate
acquisition, and so on).
empowered to function within these.

billing...) for feeding to situation aware delivery devices.
Awareness
New ways of delivering information require advances in HCI (human-computer

interaction). Current systems are unaware of the user's context. Advances are
needed that enable interfaces to be aware of the user situation, goals and
activities. This requires, firstly, to broaden the bandwidth of communication from
user to systems, which is currently mostly limited by keyboard and mouse
communication. Secondly, it requires to integrate interfaces into the day-to-day
activities of people, so that the actual situations of information need are directly
available. Here radically new HCI devices are needed, that, in a sense, add an
extra control loop to a person. For example a batch-mounted camera could keep
track of what objects are in the neighbourhood, alerting the user when some of
these could represent danger (e.g. electric wire). The users behaviour is
influenced by feedback, for example through speech or eye-glass projections. A
tight integration of human and artificial forms of perception can be achieved,
either at the cognitive level or, even by direct action on the user's sensory
channels (bio-implants).

 Research, awareness actions and

training to foster the take-up of issues
in situated information use in all
phases of the publishing chain,
including content creation and
management.
 Research on media creation tools that

take into account the context of their
use (e.g. camera that knows where it
is).
 Research on techniques and support

measures to guarantee privacy and
IPR issues in systems with situation
awareness (personal assistant must be
really personal).
 Research on and demonstration of

'real-time publishing' services
(technology, business model)
average bandwidth
available to
households Full interactive
Broadband
1 Mbs
VoD
100 kbs Real Video
Real Audio
10 kbs
WWW Basic Internet Services

1 kbs textbased
500 bs Internet
1990 1995 2000 2003
Fig. II-9 Timeline of services development and required carrier capacity

Graphics: Techno-Z FH Research & Development, 1997

II.5.4 TRANSACTIONAL CONTENT
The rise in importance of Transactional Electronic commerce is about

Content: payment, commentary, doing business electronically and
interaction, rights acknowledgement, encompasses many diverse
authentication, etc., has been a key activities both in the business-to-
factor in the transition from information business market and in the
chain to value network. Techniques and business-to-consumer market.
tools enabling fair and efficient rights Activities include electronic trading
acknowledgement, encompassing of goods and services, online
copyright and trademark issues, are delivery of digital content,
essential for information age commerce electronic fund transfers, electronic
that rewards and protects creators, share trading, commercial
aggregators and consumers. Payment is auctions, collaborative design and
a form of acknowledgement and is an engineering, online sourcing, public
engine of a sustainable content procurement, direct consumer
infrastructure. Ways of addressing marketing, and after-sales service.
quality issues, including the rating of It involves both products (e.g.
content according to various criteria, will consumer goods) and services
be based on traditional methods of (e.g. information services, financial
critique, peer review, collecting and and legal services).
branding.
The issue here is the feed-back from the user to the information provider. This
feed-back can take several forms, monetary or not, conscious or not, some of
which being:
 financial: the user pays for the information / service received, the content
provider is enriched directly
 feed-back: the user returns some information / comment linked to what was
received, the content is enriched indirectly (some more work is needed first)
 profile: the system acquires data on the user‟s characteristics, the service
provider is enriched indirectly
Two issues are at stake: is the feed-back voluntary? This is specially of

importance as this feed-back is in fact a transaction, where both sides should
know the « rules », and more generally, is the transaction fair? If this is not the
case, this type of transaction will not last. Side issues include topics which are
made possible by the transaction, but that do not have a direct influence on it or

its outcome. These could be: regulatory issues, such as VAT or customs
payments on transactions, « sales » of items that are not modified by the sale,
which is an issue that is not part of the current legal and psychological corpus.
This is linked to the eventual financial recognition of the value of knowledge, and
its potential uniqueness... should users that provide feed-back be rewarded for
this?
On top of the above specified topics, other issues can include: quality
assessment by users (how much can you believe what they say?) and, more
generally how do you increase the value of the service by taking into account the
feed-back from the users? How do you encourage users to feed-back?
II.6 CROSS-DOMAIN ISSUES
Advertising has now come to electronic publishing in a big way and has proved
to be one of the few successful business models on near-free networks such as
the Web.
Virtual Reality promises immersive, interactive, real- With the blush on the
time, three-dimensional graphics with sensory previous phase of the
enhancement with a critical extension: the ability to information revolution
not simply see what an animator chose to animate, a dulled by "shovelware",
programmer chose to pre-determine, or a cameraman poor user interfaces
chose to film, but to experience what you choose from and disappointing CD-
the angle, height or distance you choose. ROM sales, usability
and quality of use is as
Legal issues represent some of the most intractable important to industry as
problems, with the rate of technological change easily it is to the users
outstripping the pace at which regulators and themselves.
lawmakers can adapt.

II.6.1 ADVERTISING
One of the most intriguing issues

In January 1997, Web advertising
of the Information Revolution is
revenue was up 295% from $6.0 million
advertising. What other area
in January 1996. Revenues are expected
encapsulates so many of the
to reach $2.46 billion by 2000.
challenges? Creativity, content,
NUA INTERNET SURVEYS
delivery, personalisation,
interaction, reaction, metering,
even privacy are all issues in advertising. Advertising also holds the greatest
promise of any of the revenue sources in the interactive electronic publishing
market. It presents a great challenge to all concerned to develop viable business
models for advertising on public networks such as the Internet.
Advertising has three major desirable affects for advertisers:
 Stimulates a purchase
 Stimulates a response
 Creates brand awareness
As with all media, the greater the advertising revenue, the lower the cost to
subscribers. Online advertising is no different. Without advertising revenue or
sponsorship, services that have a commitment to keeping access free or at a low
cost to their users cannot survive in the long-term. The pioneering early days of
the Internet, when users were happy with basic services, which were either free
or cheaply maintained, have gone.
Fig. II-10 Projected Web banner advertising, 1995-2000
2500
2000
Other ad targets
1500
$m.
Top four navigation

1000
services
500
0
1,995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
Source: Datamonitor - Inside Multimedia Issue 142, 12 May 1997

Competitive pressure and increasingly sophisticated demands from users mean

that providing an effective „net presence‟ has become a very expensive business.
But advertisers are currently not sympathetic. The advertising industry has
grown so large based on traditional media that companies are entitled to ask
themselves:
 Why change a winning model?

 Who‟s out there any way?
According to the recent ELPUB2 study (Strategic Developments for the European
Publishing Industry Towards 2000 - Andersen Consulting) 1-3% of total
advertising spend is online. Considering the personal targeting achievable online,
it is particularly ironic that advertisers put so much trust (over $30 billion per
year worth) in US television
Total online ad revenues outside the
advertising which is largely based on
USA will be $25 million in 1997 and
the tried-and-trusted, though not
$704 million in 2000. Germany and
particularly well tailored, Nielsen
Japan will lead non-US markets with
rating system. They basically place
$200 million ad spend, it predicts, with
their trust in metrics, which bodes
Britain, Australia/New Zealand and
well for online advertising as soon as
Scandinavia coming next with $50
standards for measurement of
million ad spend each.
advertising effectiveness and site
JUPITER COMMUNICATIONS
traffic are established.
Of course in the US, the television audience is effectively the entire population.
Computers still have a long way to go to reach this level of penetration in any
other community worldwide and television is still the accepted medium for
delivery of mass-market visual information including advertising. So hesitancy is
understandable. But there are different reasons for hesitancy.
 Hesitancy about the technology

 Hesitancy about the market
 Hesitancy about the content
Two parties influence the choice of an advertising medium: the client and the
agency. Agencies have their own reasons for being hesitant. Many TV adverts
cost more to broadcast than to produce, so agencies make profit by charging
commission on the broadcast fee and absorbing the production cost. This model
will not work online, where the cost of transmission is virtually nil. Agencies are
also concerned that their role will diminish as companies employ in-house staff to
create Web sites and advertise/sell directly (Dell Computers, for example, sells
$2 million of PC‟s a day online).

Personalising information delivery and interaction also turn established models

on their head. In place of the traditional model of advertising one feature to suit
many people (a magazine photo of a car‟s engine for example), interactive
advertising will enable instantaneous on-demand advertising of many features to
one person (a car‟s engine, interior, hi-fi system etc.). Agencies can react to
these challenges by offering brokering to their clients, finding the best sites to
advertise on, initially for a fee but eventually from commission on directly
attributable market success.
Efforts must be made to develop the models and standards that will establish
online advertising. New business and presentation models are urgently needed.
Suitable business models must be developed which satisfy the interests of the
agency and the client because without both of these there will not be an
effective transition. Companies want to improve their image and position in the
market-place by increasing business and learning more about their customers.
Agencies provide a combined creative-strategic service that cannot practically be
integrated into individual companies. So the role of the agency in interactive
advertising must be made clear.
New presentation models are essential. Pre-conceptions about advertising must

be put aside. Interactive advertising is not about television advertising on a
computer. Banner advertising is de rigor now but will not last. The user‟s
tolerance of such intrusions will diminish. Viewers actually enjoy advertising, if it
tells them about something they need or gives them some other form of useful
information. If all television advertising stopped in the morning, people would
miss it. So also is there a place for advertising on the net, but not obtrusively.
Developing new presentation models is a green-field opportunity for designers,

psychologists, technologists and marketers alike. Some ideas are discussed
below.
Product Merchandising in Stores
Advertising doesn‟t stop when the buyer enters the store! The huge range of
choice available to consumers means that often buyers change their mind about
which brand to choose while in the store. Bar codes on packaging already allow
shoppers to check prices electronically while browsing – they could also be used
to view product Web sites and aid purchase decisions.

The Interactive Equivalent of Product Placement
As the users scrolls documents, views images or video, he/or she can click on a
background link or image (e.g. a cola can on a desk) and be whisked off to that
companies Web site.
Lifestyle Advertising
The ability to differentiate between and target more accurately communities that
exhibit different lifestyle tendencies (the young, the elderly, the upwardly
mobile) and have accordingly different needs. Irish companies, for example,
have used the net to target and reach millions of Irish emigrants living around
the world.
Decency and privacy are important societal issues and are no less relevant in
interactive advertising. The absence of regulation of content on the Internet is
evidently contributing to hesitancy among advertisers. There is a fear that their
products will become either directly or indirectly associated with undesirable or
unreliable content. On television and in magazines, advertisers know more or
less what type of programme or editorial content their products will be
associated with. It is less clear on the net. Does a surfer who moves between a
pornographic site and the McDonald‟s site retain some damaging subliminal
image of the latter? What is to stop someone who operates a propaganda site
providing a link to the Coca-Cola site because it happens to be his favourite
drink?
Privacy is an issue which limits the freedom that agencies and companies have to
profile their audience. This is one of the most important features affecting the
growth of electronic commerce. Profiling is certainly possible and provides a
much more accurate indication of user preferences than does the
aforementioned Nielsen system on which so much advertising investment is
based. Users are however entitled to object to such profiling, on the basis that it
represents an intrusion or that it might eventually compromise them. However
companies will tell you that that they are interested in group behaviour, not
individual behaviour and that personal privacy is not threatened. This debate
looks set to continue until a compromise is reached. Quite a lot of the resistance
might diminish if advertisers offered users a practical benefit for allowing their
usage to be monitored, such as subsidised usage or purchase discounts. The
cost to the advertiser would be recouped through better profiling and more

effective use of advertising budget, while the user would be more likely to co-
operate if some form of tangible reward were offered.
Fig. II-11 Internet advertising in Germany 1995-2003

(DM million)
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003
Updated investment New investment
Source: MGM MediaGruppe – Digital Publishing Strategies, March 1997
II.6.2 VIRTUAL REALITY IN ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING
Consider how VR in publishing may be defined: interactive, real-time, three-

dimensional graphics with sensory enhancement. It is multimedia with one
critical extension: the ability to view an object within a virtual world
(synonymous with application or
environment) from an infinite number Virtual Reality (VR) will be part of the
of perspectives of choice. With VR the future of publishing: not, perhaps, as
viewer observes, or participates, it is known today, but using the
within the virtual world from the technologies and techniques which are
viewpoint of interest to them. They do currently emerging and evolving.
not see what an animator chose to
animate, a programmer chose to pre-determine, or a cameraman chose to film:
they see what they choose from the angle, height or distance they choose.
The presentation of VR is not restricted to the "single-user immersive" systems

popularised in games arcades. VR projected onto walls, ceilings and floors,
enhanced with sensory stimulations, is well proven in commerce and industry as

well as in the location based entertainment (LBE) centres found in theme parks
and leisure complexes. It is, however, "flat-screen", also known as "fish-bowl" VR
which is and will be for the foreseeable future the least expensive and most
popular manifestation of VR. This latter form of VR is already being experienced
by literally millions of PC and workstation users with access to the Internet.
Freedom of movement requires VR to be interactive. Computer community

hyperbole has devalued the word "interactive" to be understood as "point, click
and make something happen". Interactivity in VR allows the user to operate
machines, "walk" or "fly" through or around a room, building, plaza, city. It
makes it possible to chose which doors to pass through, which windows to look
through, which buttons to push, levers to pull - how and when to bring static
objects to life. On a different scale it allows us to move freely inside machines as
big as an aeroplane, or as small as a Personal Computer, or smaller still. VR can,
but does not always, attempt to recreate photo-realistic actuality - real life.
With the upward curve of the performance of the Personal Computer (PC), the
term "real-time" has taken on new, again arguably devalued, definitions.
Real-time in the computer graphics market has come to mean "fast enough to
satisfy (if not deceive) the human eye." Frame rates inside Head Mounted
Displays (HMDs) or on monitors as fast as 22 frames per second are sufficient for
most VR applications to be acceptable while rates as slow as seven frames per
second may be adequate for many publishing and commercial
requirements.
The future of electronic publishing will be based upon three-dimensional

graphics because it can. Users will demand it. Exclusively text-based
material, with its dependence on language which must be foreign to some
major market, is already becoming a thing of the past. If a "picture is
worth a thousand words", how many words is a graphic worth if they are not
in the viewers mother tongue? Even icon and illustration enhanced material
will become as acceptable as the monochrome set in the television showroom.
It is fortunate for those experienced in computing that VR breaks no new

ground in terms of processes. Just as with all information systems, VR
requires data to be input, stored, processed and output. Virtual world and
object specifications of shape, size, colour, texture, attributes and
behaviour are held in a database to be accessed by a user, or users, to
cause and experience change. Some of the peripheral devices employed for
input and output are not yet commonplace and are still improving in respect

of the performance they deliver and reducing in their purchase price. But
all of the basic principles of computing apply.
Graphics are not alone in enriching the experience provided by VR. Sound is
of considerable importance in enhancing the virtual world and it is almost
impossible now to buy a new PC which does not feature in built or plug-in
speakers and the means to use them. Peripheral devices to add tactile
sensation to VR are still at the early adopter stage and the better quality
devices are currently expensive on the scale of most PC add-ons. As the
market grows for haptic gloves, as an example, so will investment and their
price will fall as their quality rises. The feeling of "virtual wind" has
already been introduced to a virtual exercise bicycle; the faster you
cycle, the stronger the wind in your face. And as long ago as the
mid-1950s, it was possible to take a virtual motorcycle ride through New
York and smell the different aromas of the city's various boroughs.
Distributing the Medium
Whether on grounds of efficiency, economy or ecology, the Internet, or its

successors, will be the medium by which information will massively be
distributed in future - even more massively than is the case today.
The specification of the interactive device, the users client to the

content providers server, is not yet determined. It may be a derivative of
the PC, or some kind of Network Computer (NC), or even an interactive
version of what we currently know as television. The merits of the PC with
its local processing and storage capabilities versus the lower capital cost
and control of the NC are well debated elsewhere. The arguments in favour
of one approach or another do not apply to VR any more than any other
information technology. The market will decide which platform to adopt
based upon affordability and performance. What is not in question is that a
network of networks, the Internet or something comparable, will play a
major role in distributing software and data to VR users.
VR and the Internet present two significant issues for the content
provider: first, how to write files small enough for transmission and
downloading in acceptable timescales and, second, how to make an acceptable
return on investment - how to make money from the Web.

Crucial to distributing VR electronically are issues fundamental to the

Internet and World Wide Web (WWW) itself. The Internet belongs to nobody.
It is essentially anarchic, yet for it to develop, to improve, it requires
investment. Users want higher communications bandwidth for better
performance at the same time as lower transmission, or connect time, cost.
The aspirations of users and suppliers of Internet services may well lead
both to new Internet-like services for closed, subscription-based groups as
well as new approaches to delivering existing-style services for open,
near-free groups of users. The former, paying audience will be attracted to
content which overcomes the shortcomings which currently receive most
criticism from users - the accuracy of information, its presentation, its delivery
speed and the sheer volume of out-of-date data held on
the WWW.
The next generation of Internet services will address the revenue

requirements of service and content providers in a number of ways. One of
them will be a move towards "application development software rental" on a
"pay-as-you-use" basis (a commercial approach likely to find most favour
with protagonists of the NC) as a diametrically opposed approach from
"shareware". A second trend will build on the current Internet and PC
culture where demonstrations will be freely available while enhancing
content, or extended interactivity in the case of VR, will be paid for. The
chargeable element of software or content may be delivered electronically,
or, more likely in the short term, will address connect time issues by being
provided on magnetic media. Examples of this latter approach are already
demonstrable. In one instance, a "virtual night-club" is downloaded by the
user from the WWW and enhanced by video and sound read locally from CD-
ROM. The user can visit the club for free and see if they want to experience it.
But for the "real, virtual thing", they need the paid-for, value-adding
content of film and music.
Making money from the Web as it exists today is a trick only a few have
mastered and poses the question: "Why do people build and maintain
Web sites"? Some Internet users create Web sites for a personal learning
experience. Others build them as demonstrations of their skills for friends
and family. But neither of these do it in expectation of profit.

Those in hope, or expectation, of profit from the Web face competition for
attention from the massive volume of the not commissioned, not-for-profit,
site builders: a further reason in support of next generation Internet
services which meet the requirements of buyers and suppliers. Advertisers,
whether in search of direct sales or awareness, compete among not only
existing Web sites, but against those being added all the time - one
estimate puts the figure at 20,000 a month. No figures are available on
sites removed from the Web due to lack of interest or being out-of-date or
discredited on grounds of accuracy - another argument in support of closed,
quality assured services. Web sites will grow in number not least because
of the development toolkits which become easier to use and less expensive
to buy.
How can the Web site builder stand out and achieve their aspirations for
visitors? Research indicates a visitor to a "good" Web site may return and
will probably recommend the site to friends and colleagues. If, on a second
visit, the site remains unchanged, there will probably be no third visit.
It is, therefore, essential for the Web site builder who wants their work
to be seen by the optimum number of people, to be able to, and actually,
change their site, or the experience of it, on a regular basis. One way to
have a constantly changing Web site it to include movement and an infinite
number of viewing opportunities - which brings us back to VR, the
technology which delivers these characteristics.
A Common Platform
To assist content providers generate VR which may be viewed and experienced

by users irrespective of their hardware platform, operating system or
physical location, an international standard, the graphical equivalent of
the Internet's HyperText Markup Language (HTML), is evolving in the
specification of Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML). In its early
stages of development and in its environment of current telecommunications
bandwidth, VRML can be disappointing. But, as communications speeds
increase and compression techniques improve, it is offering the "de facto"
as well as de jure answer to those in search of a non-proprietary
authoring and viewing standard. It must be remembered, VRML is a standard,
not a product.

Compared with comparable precedents, VRML emerged as a specification, a

draft standard, in a very short period of time. Those driving the
specification recognised there was only a short period of opportunity to
draft a standard before a plethora of proprietary authoring and viewing
products flooded and confused the market. The speed at which VRML reached
the stage for publishing as an international standard may have been
responsible for the inevitable level of compromise, of consensus, in its
drafting, but the work undertaken by those responsible has proven
sufficiently robust and acceptable for the majority of participants in the
"VR via the Internet" community.
Conclusion
The world will "go VR" because it is attractive, enjoyable and enriching
thanks to the true interactivity it adds to multimedia. For the time being,
VR will use metaphors rather than attempt photo-realism in order to keep
file sizes to an acceptable minimum. In the short term, local magnetic
media will be used to save downloading time-consuming audio and video
files.
In the longer term, VR will be universally adopted because it is the

closest thing we can get to electronic actual reality and because it will
allow us to experience events which would otherwise be unattainable on
grounds of cost, time or safety.
In terms of the automobile industry, we are, perhaps, not yet at the Model
T Ford stage. We are in the era of the early adopter user and in advance of
the mass production manufacturer. Our highway, the Internet, is not yet
capable of handling the volume of traffic we are expecting. The pioneers
will not only enjoy "the golden age" of electronic publishing, they will
acquire valuable experience and expertise which will position them to take
advantage of a business which, unlike the automobile industry, will rapidly
develop.

II.6.3 LEGAL ISSUES
Legal issues arise throughout the publishing domain. Many are old issues made
more acute by the new technological changes. And some are totally new issues
arising from the different nature of the electronic world. Some of these issues
are outlined here. Many of them were considered by the governments of the EU
countries at the Bonn conference in July 1997. Some of these new issues are
considered in more detail under the heading "Policy Issues" in the next chapter.
INTEGRITY OF PRODUCT A user should have a sense that what he

receives corresponds to what he expects to
receive. There are various ways of achieving this. One is branding, where the
brands themselves offer some level of confidence toward the "integrity of
material" sold, (what is the actual difference between brand X and Y of sugar, for
example?). You now see in many newsprint stalls huge headlines defaming
electronic commerce. The issue here is the same as that faced earlier (and still in
part) by mail order companies and credit card firms:
- will my money disappear before the end of the transaction?

- now that they have access somehow to my purse how can I be sure that they
only take what I allowed them to take?
- will the good be delivered?
- will the delivered good be what I expected?
- what can I do if things don't pan out?
OWNERSHIP This is a real issue, as there is currently very little way of

knowing who owns what in the online world. One way is to
add signatures or water-marks to information products. Yet perhaps transactions
on the Internet, for example, go so fast that the issue is not to claim ownership,
but to trace transfers of ownership or at least of rights. How to handle this is
the subject of debate currently.
The desire for others not to know your business is widely

PRIVACY
respected in social settings and many say should be in the
world of electronic content as well. The latest intrusions, applets, Active- objects,
cookies and others can be a threat in this area. This is also a very interesting
systems architecture issue.

II.6.4 USABILITY AND QUALITY OF USE
Many enterprises see a great future in electronic publishing for entertainment,

business communication, professional information, advertising and other
application domains. Interactive media can be a
motor for economic growth in Europe, Making electronic
improvement of quality of life, and the publishing productions a
development of the information and knowledge success with users
economy. However, we do not yet know how fast
this will happen. There may be impediments
which we do not anticipate, and some known problems may be harder to solve
than expected. Even if we are sure of the direction, the form products will take in
the end may be very different from what we are expecting now.
The industry will take off when producers present products which users and
customers desire, buy and use. It is always good to remember that the history of
technology presents us with many examples of failed concepts and expectations.
We should look at the history of BTX, CBT and CD-I.
What determines success of electronic publishing products?
The customer looks at a complete package and assesses the total quality,
including cost, innovative features, productivity enhancement expected, and
many others. An important factor is what we call Quality of Use, (the term
usability is also often used): QoU is the degree of successful interaction of the
user with the product, and it is essential - users derive no benefit from an
unusable product, are likely to regret having bought it, or will not buy and use it
at all.
Content creators are located close to users in the value chain. Their products
must meet customer demand since their revenue usually depends on market
success. Content creators use technology and often assets from other sources,
but they create the product, and therefore are responsible for its quality. Their
success depends entirely on their ability to create products which are successful
with users, including:

 quality of the content (images, story, text, information)

 attractive, pleasant image
 interaction quality: dialogue and visualisation which make the product
efficient and pleasant to use
Often it is useful to differentiate between minimum quality, i.e. properties which

are essential, and without which a product does not stand much of a chance to
succeed, and
competitive advantage. A product with better total quality is, in the electronic
publishing market, often likely to win the bulk of the market share.
Specific user requirements of the electronic publishing domain
A persistent problem is that the right information is hard to find. Users do not
just need the right to access information, they must be enabled to access the
information serving their needs in practice. Structure, information and access
mechanisms (search engines, user interfaces, visualisation) must go hand in
hand to achieve this goal. The WWW is an example of the rapid growth possible
in the information market. But even though users as well as providers have high
expectations of the utility of WWW services, a stable basis has not been reached.
In a user test reported recently of 10 users, not a single one managed to find the
target information in a realistic task. Under realistic market conditions this will
not be acceptable.
Every participant in the information industry must be aware of the fact that the
risks are considerable, and that successful producers must contain the risk and
assure that products meet user requirements and needs.
Why is Quality of Use not a simple problem?
There are a number of reasons why it is not easy to provide Quality of Use:
 The users need for entirely new services can, at best, be only partly
anticipated.
 The needs and expectations rise as the level of quality in competitive
products increases.

 There are no ready-made solutions. It is not possible to select hardware,

software and tools, and to be assured of success.
 Quality of Use is not one single feature - in the same way that a perfect car
or a good book are not made by one feature - but users have different goals
and tasks they want to use information for, different knowledge, different
preferences and cultural backgrounds.
 Quality of use is the quality of the complex interaction between users and
products, not just a single feature of the product.
How is quality of use achieved?
Quality of Use is the result of a process, i.e. the right approach to develop
information products to which all disciplines and stakeholders contribute. The
competencies required include at least design, technical expertise, contents and
application domain knowledge.
One decisive factor is cooperation and focus within the development team. This
is achieved by managing a project with the right goals and criteria in everyone‟s
mind.
The second, essential factor is user-centred development. It is always good to

remember that the users determine
success, and the only way to influence users is through the quality of the
product. No one can be sure to predict what the user wants at that time when he
is confronted with the product. It is therefore necessary to use the right
approach to obtain feedback about the quality of use of the product as early in
the development process as possible, and as often as required. There are proven
techniques and experts who can enable a user-centred development project,
taking budget and time constraints into account.
Recommendations for successful development are:
 a team with state of the art knowledge and an organisation enabling effective
cooperation, the definition of roles including a user representative, who takes
the responsibility to assure that the result is what the users need.
 project planning with user tests from the beginning, including market
analysis, analysis of user tasks and preferences, and user validation.

 state-of-the-art methods to integrate user and customer feedback into the

process in such a way that a good result is achieved. This requires choosing
the best methods and approaches, such that the maximum benefit for
product quality is achieved.
In the past 15 years usability engineering for IT systems has grown into a
mature scientific and professional discipline. The specific weight on content
creates some additional demands, and the IE program and others in the
Framework programmes have stimulated research activities in this field. The
production of products where not the functionality (as in IT products), but where
the content determines the value, are an important issue and receive further
attention, especially in providing support and help to content creators to build up
their own capabilities, and to use the best state-of-the-art methods and
approaches.
A trend to take into account
Interaction technology and the range of assets which can be used will grow
further. The technical trends, based on more storage capacity and more
processing power will enable use of video and 3D data and presentation, and
consequently new interaction techniques will have to be considered as options.
Also, there are some peculiarities to the information and contents market. Many
content oriented products are in specific markets where many offers exist, but
where the ones most attractive to customers take most of the market share
(winner takes all). This is also true for parts of the software market, and will be
an increasing feature of the information and knowledge economy of the future.
Who should act, and who should take the responsibility for quality
of Use?
Unusable products waste the producer and customers' money and time, bind
creative capacity, disappoint users and customers and damage the reputation
and brand image of authors, producers and publishers. Nobody gains from failed
and unusable projects and products, but everyone concerned benefits when
economic growth and quality of life is achieved through successful products. Still,
since the costs for quality of use occur up front, and the benefits are reaped later
in the product life cycle, who must take the responsibility and the initiative? The
understanding of what the quality of their product is so close to the core
competence of any organisation that every author, producer and publisher must
make it part of his/her competence to anticipate what the quality desired by the
user is, and how to achieve it. Consequently support is better directed towards
training and competence development, and not towards taking over this
responsibility from the user. All those on the producing side optimise their
competitive situation by being proactive in developing towards quality of use.
The biggest problem with electronic information is not that it

still requires so many different tools or helpers: i.e. browsers,
viewers, players, display software, and sound blasters for too
many different official and industry standards. The real problem
is still its totally digital and no longer physical character. In our
cultures we still refer to hard copies or photocopies. The whole
process of refereeing and citing is based on the public record.
A book or journal is a hard copy of a master. Electronic

documents are something else and they can be transmitted
everywhere as a clone of something that has existed or still
exists somewhere. We cannot know since no references are
made. Nobody can check its originality, integrity or authenticity
anymore, unless we encrypt the information. Fraud and misuse
already take place in the printed world.
These developments will have a lot of impact on the so-called

information chain as a whole, up to and including archiving,
preservation and conservation. Lending between libraries or
borrowing then become definitions from the past. National
copyright and intellectual property laws need to be changed and
become global.
How do we handle interactive books and dynamic articles?

Living documents? We not only need new typologies, but also
new rules in our global information society. This goes beyond
information technologies and the networking of information and
must be taken up as a general task for society.
ARNOUD DE KEMP
SPRINGER-VERLAG

II.7 A VITAL ROLE FOR THE COMMISSION
Publishing is one of the largest industries in Europe, with ramifications for every
concern, industry, commerce, government and private organizations of all sizes.
The spread of desktop publishing has extended the range by making small
activities economically viable. In Europe the overall turnover of the content-
related industries is said to be larger than that for telecommunications or
information technology. The spread of electronic publishing has presented a
challenge to the paper publishers, but has also extended the scope with
boundaries with other activities and organizations breaking down. The
multimedia version of the traditional catalogue about some museum artifacts
converges with the virtual reality version of the museum itself. Is the dynamic
music score combined with the music sound itself a publication or an
entertainment record?
The opportunities created by multimedia publishing is vast. Electronic publishing

is expected to take up a significant proportion of the print publishing market by
the year 2000. The danger is that what had been a European activity will slip
away into the hands of more active
A superb opportunity for
entrepreneurs outside Europe, notably in the
the European Commission
USA. Despite the positive trends the take-up is
to provide support
slower in Europe than in the USA. By May 1996
more than 1100 newspapers world-wide had on-line editions; more than half of
these are US based, and only one quarter are European. It is difficult to remove
the birth-right of Europe represented by the physical evidence of its history
accumulated in its art galleries and museums. But it is all too easy for the
publication rights to slip away to the media moguls of the West. If attendance at
the site of the physical object is to be replaced by accessing the virtual image,
then it behooves Europe to take steps to control the images of the artefacts that
it owns. Conversely, Europe has a great opportunity to create a new export
market and boost an old one, based on the extension of the publishing world
deeper into the world of cultural and scientific education.
The challenge facing the publishing industries of the European Union, with the
help of the Commission, is to become aware of the opportunities created by the
new technology of computing and communication; to invest in the new
technology for “publishing” their assets, and to support the development of the
new systems that will enable them to adapt modern computer and network
technologies to the particular needs of the modern publishing world. If these
cultural industries can wake up to the new market possibilities before the
overseas competition, then they will be able to retain the European market, and
use that as a launching pad on the markets of the world. But time is short if the
traditional markets of these activities in Europe are not to be taken over by
operators from elsewhere who move faster to take advantage of the
opportunities created by the new technology.
The challenge for the Commission is to help to orchestrate the activities in

Europe so as to give the traditional actions time to learn how to meet the
challenge. In the first place the Commission has to give a lead in handling some
of the major policy issues in a way that, while taking account of the activities
elsewhere, places Europe in an advantageous position. Consider how the GSM
standard enabled the European cellular phone firms to conquer the markets of
Europe and then to use that market as a launching pad for approaching the
markets of the world.
The parallel with the cellular radio challenge can be developed further, for the
challenge for those setting the GSM standard was that radio waves did not
respect frontiers. It was obvious to all that Europe had to have a common
standard when so many of the population are visiting and working in other
countries within Europe. In the same way, the interest in the cultures of the
past and present may have a national bias, but is essentially common to all of
us. Few parts of Europe were untouched by the heritage from Athens and
Rome. The renaissance may have started in one country but the paintings and
sculptures are spread around the continent in all countries. The culture of
Europe may differ from country to country, but it is essentially one when
compared with that of, say, China, India, or even the USA.
It is that commonality of market and approach that demands action by the

Commission on behalf of each government of Europe. Separately, their actions
can do little to help their countries when the market knows no frontiers and the
history and culture of Europe is not seen in purely national terms. Some
countries may have had a greater cause to celebrate the anniversary of the birth
of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, but we all have cause to celebrate a great
European talent that knows no boundaries.
If the new publishing industries of Europe are to flourish, the Commission has to
give a lead on the policy issues that are holding up progress. Then the
Commission has to ensure that progress is not held up for lack of standards.
Then there is the challenge to mobilise the talent of Europe to develop the new
technology, and especially the systems technology that has a particularly

European nature. And perhaps above all, the Commission has to draw the old
industries' and cultural bodies' attention to the challenges and opportunities that
face them, to enable them to be retrained readily and cheaply, to set up
demonstration centres, and to orchestrate activities that cross the national
boundaries.
EU ADDED VALUE
Clearly, industrial and academic actors are accomplishing

much on their own and great strides are being made at the
national level. However, the EU can offer unique added
THE value due to existing and emerging factors in these domains:
THE EUROPEAN
EUROPEAN COMMISSION‟S
COMMISSION‟S ROLE  as a federator of diverse efforts, the EU can act as a
ROLE conduit for communication, assist in avoiding the
“reinventing of the wheel”, reduce administrative
compartmentalisation, and oversee standards processes;
 reducing the time required to deliver European
information products and services to the market;
 the trans-border nature of content, and international
issues such as the breaking down of technical barriers to
the global commerce in content;
 the development of the European economic area being
transnational by definition, requiring a critical mass of
traditional and new skills from all European actors, as well
as the sensitivity to maintaining cultural identity that
trans-European teams can provide;
 the convergence of technologies and research domains,
both within and without the fields constituting the content
technology field, demanding that researchers from a wide
range of disciplines cooperate closely;
 EU-wide efforts ensure a greater audience for
demonstration efforts, maximising the cross-fertilisation of
ideas and the propagation of robust best practice
techniques.


III. Actions
III.I TYPES OF ACTIONS
This section sets out to propose the various actions that the Commission might
take to help the publishing and content industries, in all their modern forms, to
take advantage of the new market opportunities that are opening up in this
multimedia world. Some of the proposed actions are to help the users to take
the plunge into the new world, and some are to help both the old-established
industries and the new entrants to experiment with digital interactive media.
Fig. III-1
CD and Print
CD-ROM
European Media 6%
and Publishing Video & Cinema
7% 8
Market Volume 10 Newspapers
32
(1996) Audiovisual 22%
TV & Radio
b ECU
24% 35
21 Magazines
15%
13 24
Corporate Books
9% 17%
Total Market (1996): 143 billion ECU
Estimate based on data by EC (EL PUB 2 Study), KPMG, DMMV
Source: EITO (1997)

III. Actions
Fig. III-2 Hardware

18%
Infrastructure
European ICT
58
Market Volume
(1996) TC Services 8
Office Equipment
3%
43% 138
b ECU 31 Software
10%
15
29 HW Maintenance
5%
Services
37
TC Equipment
9%
IT Services
12%
Total Market (1996): 315 billion ECU
Source: EITO (1997)
The first paragraphs of this section deal with POLICY ACTIONS. This is because
R&D support is not enough, indeed may be a wasted investment, if the policy
environment in which the systems and services resulting from the R&D
programme are to find their markets is not first made receptive by important
policy decisions. Many of these are ones involving joint decision-making by the
nations of the European Union. It is inevitable that if the Commission seeks the
views of senior representatives of the industries and their users that such policy
issues will be raised, even though the consultation is carried out to elicit help in
planning an R&D programme. Many of the issues have a technical dimension
that makes the contribution of the R&D community uniquely valuable.
There will only be healthy participation in the R&D programme if the target
communities are primed in advance. They must be made aware that the
programme has been developed in their interests and that participation will be
beneficial and complementary to their business objectives. This process is
particularly necessary to capture the attention and support of the creative
community. The issue of priming the target communities is considered in the
following section, PRE-PROJECT ACTIONS.

III. Actions
The R&D ACTIONS can take many forms and the examples given are purely
illustrative of what is required to develop the new and innovative applications
and to exploit the current market situation. The field is considered in the three
overlapping domains of application projects where the market goal can be
defined and what is needed is system development and integration based on
existing technology; where innovative new technologies are required to open up
a range of potential market domains; and visionary research where the target is
clearly in the publishing field but new ground must be broken if a solution is to
be found.
The TAKE-UP ACTIONS are, in a sense, an alternative to new technology

development, in fields where new technology exits and it is largely a matter of
encouraging its application. To accelerate the development of the market, by
demonstrator projects, quality raising actions or by user personnel training
activities. Under this heading are included activities to stimulate the community
to come together by personnel networks and standards activities.
Finally, this section deals with POST-PROJECT ACTIONS related to inserting a

technological development into a specific business environment. The problem is
often the failure of the technical community to understand the business
development aspects of their work; in particular those related to the financial
aspects of building a successful company.
III.2 POLICY ACTIONS
It is inevitable in a fast developing technological world, where the advent of new

technology is changing the face of governmental, commercial, industrial and
private transactions, that new policy issues will arise that require the attention of
governments and the European Union. The resolution of these issues reacts on
the technological solutions and systems that are acceptable to the market, and
so impacts on the technological community. Many of the policy issues are so
intertwined with the technology that it is both desirable and inevitable that the
technological community takes a direct interest and part in their resolution. So it
is inevitable that in planning a future programme these major policy issues
should surface and be discussed.

III. Actions
In some cases, EU programmes can help with their eventual resolution by

providing technological solutions to some of the problems thrown up, and by
testing some aspects of the solutions being proposed. This testing may be a
purely technological matter, but is likely to involve some degree of market
testing, some evaluation of the reaction of bodies and individuals to the
employment of systems that might emerge. This section of the “White paper”
outlines some of these issues where they have been raised in the planning
discussions, and, where ever practical, makes suggestions on how aspects of the
issues might be explored under key action III of the 5th Framework programme.
LEONARDO SOCRATES
Education
Training
Policy
Integrated Policy
programme in RAPHAËL
SME Cultural
favor Policy Policy
of SMEs and
the CRAFT
sector Audiovisual
Policy MEDIA II
Research Television
Policy Regulatory without
IT
Policy frontiers
ACTS Telecom
TELEMATICS
Policy
Infrastructure
Liberalization IPR
Standardization Privacy Conditional access rules
Interconnection Encryption
Interoperability Tariffs Security Media ownership
adjustment and Competition
universal service
Source: European Commission
FIG. III-3 INFORMATION CONTENT POLICY IN RELATION TO OTHER

INFORMATION SOCIETY POLICIES

III. Actions
It is, of course, for other parts of the Commission than those who, like DG XIII,
will be administering the Framework programme to take the lead in resolving the
policy issues. But it is to be hoped, and indeed expected, that the Framework
administration directorates will have an input to this policy making, and so giving
the interested technical community access to the policy
makers through these directorates, if not directly. On The Bonn Ministerial
6-8 July the Ministers of the European Union met to Conference
discuss policy issues in Bonn. Many of the issues that
affect Electronic Publishing were raised there. Though the meeting was not a
decision making meeting, it is good to see that these issues are getting
examined at the Ministerial level.
NETWORK PRICING If only because of the traffic overload, content

pricing policy, particularly on the Internet, is
under discussion. It has been suggested that the current policy of flat rate
charging, irrespective of the length of the message or the time of actual message
carrying use, is encouraging irresponsible use and network overload. In the
USA, it is normal not to charge the customer for local calls. Since most content
consumers can access Internet content via a local call, there is no charging
constraint on users simply opening their lines to their server and leaving them
open, irrespective of whether they are using them or not. Plainly this is an
uneconomic result of current charging policies. It would be costly to the local
exchange carriers (LECs) to introduce local charging because of the
administrative cost for little return from normal customers, but free local access
is believed to be diminishing in the USA. Internet service providers (ISPs) may
have to introduce time-usage related charging policies which are common in
Europe.
The LECs and the ISPs are likely to be the key players in the pricing debate, but
it will inevitably become an international governmental issue if only because of
the part that governments play in paying for much of the academic network
usage. (Deregulation still has a long way to go before it becomes universal or
even as common in Europe as elsewhere). In practice the issue of pricing was
only indirectly addressed at Bonn. The eight guiding
“Core Principles” laid down by the G7 Brussels The G7 Conference,
Brussels
conference in February 1995 include providing
“universal provision of and access to services”, which implies low-cost access at
least for those less favored economically or geographically. The measures to
encourage trade in IT products, such as the elimination of trade tariffs by the
year 2000, and the decision to liberalize the telecommunications markets of
Europe should ensure that pricing becomes competitive.

III. Actions
European Union activities in the area of research and technological

development (RTD) are driven by the need to improve the scientific
and technological basis of Community businesses to enable them to
compete in the global market. Far from seeking to replace national
initiatives and powers, the principal role of EU action is to extend,
EUROPEAN complement and enhance the research activities of the Member
EUROPEAN
UNION States in order to address the three major weaknesses of European
UNION
R&DR&D RTD vis-à-vis its competitors:
 A proportionately lower level of investment in RTD;

 A lack of coordination at the various levels of the research and
technological development activities, programmes and strategies
in Europe;
 A comparatively limited capacity to convert scientific
breakthroughs and technological achievements into industrial and
commercial successes.
It is not obvious that the technological community has much to offer that directly
addresses this topic. However, technological developments, such as Voice Over
Internet, free Web pages and free e-mail accounts, and the associated changes
in users' content uptake, have a way of forcing the hand of industry and
regulatory bodies. Charging policies could have a profound impact on network
usage, just as the advent of the standard postal charge did on snail-mail.
Many of the more advanced applications One of the objectives of EU

demand significant network resources. It is programmes must be to
accepted that the barriers to usage should be prevent the online world from
minimized and that access should be open to further widening the gap
all. But charging policies could become a between the wealthier and the
major deterrent to the less well-off part of poorer parts of the
the Community. It is already clear that line Community.
cost charges in Europe, which are far higher
than in the USA, can be a deterrent to certain classes of user. So certain types
of network use that multimedia content programmes are trying to encourage
could become, at worst, uneconomic, or more realistically, have only restricted
usage by the less well-off users. One of the objectives of EU programmes must
be to prevent the online world from further widening the gap between the
wealthier and the poorer parts of the Community. This objective was implicit in
the Bonn Ministerial discussions.

III. Actions
A major constraint on the use of the Network has

SECURITY & PRIVACY
become the lack of an agreed security policy for
the encryption of material on the Net. This has a direct economic impact
because it is delaying the introduction of commercial transactions over the Net.
The issue is closely related to the privacy issue because some privacy
requirements will be required, for example, on certain personal information to be
encrypted. Part of the problem may be a matter of perception rather than any
real increased risk of loss of privacy or security compared with other means of
communication. But that does not remove the problem of lack of an agreed
policy delaying the implementation of desirable systems. Much of the discussion
at the Bonn conference was devoted to this topic, both in the context of
“Building Confidence” through providing confidentiality of information and in the
discussions on the ways of facilitating electronic commerce where the issue of
electronic signature figured prominently.
The technical problems of encryption have

Encryption technology is far
been well explored, and the solutions are
more mature than
known. The problem is to obtain international
encryption policy
agreement on what may be used. There may
be user trial type work to be done, for example
exploring the alternative approaches to electronic signatures. But in general
there is little technical work for the programme to explore at this point, since
the technology in this area is far more mature than the policy.
There is explicit reference to network security, including the technical means for
authentication and the protection of integrity and intellectual property, and
privacy enhancing technologies in various documents concerning online
commerce-related key actions in the Fifth Framework Programme. However,
the programme is involved with usage, which can only proceed beyond the
experimental stage when these policy issues are resolved. Again, the R&D
community involved in the Framework programme is in a strong position to
advise on the impact of security and privacy policy proposals, and it will certainly
be or become an issue of major concern to many of those involved in the
programme.

III. Actions
The technical problems of ENCRYPTION AND SIGNATURE have been well

explored, and the solutions are known; the problem is to obtain international
agreement on what may be used. There may be user trial type work to be done,
for example exploring the alternative approaches to electronic signatures. But
in general there is little technical work for the programme to explore. There is an
explicit reference to network security “including the technical means for
authentication and the protection of integrity and intellectual property” and
“privacy enhancing technologies” in the outline task description for key task II
“New methods of work and electronic trading”. However, the programme is
involved with usage, which can only proceed beyond the experimental stage
when these policy issues are resolved. Again, the community involved in the
Framework programme is in a strong position to advise on the impact of security
and privacy policy proposals, and it will certainly be or become an issue of major
concern to many of those involved in the programme.
Fig. III-4 Most Important Issue split by Location
35
30
25
All
20
Percent
USA
15 Europe
10
5
0 Don't
Censorship Privacy Navigation Other Taxes Encryption Culture Language
Know
All 33.58 26.17 13.14 9.14 8.11 5.18 3.07 1.15 0.46
USA 34.1 27.94 12.11 9.06 8.34 5.05 2.98 0.78 0.22
Europe 32.19 17.33 17.48 9.19 9.11 6.42 3.73 2.84 1.72
Source: Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 Georgia Tech Research Corporation. All rights
Reserved. Source: GVU's WWW User Survey www.gvu.gatech.edu/user_surveys

III. Actions
NETWORK MATERIAL QUALITY, The material on the Net is of widely

FILTERING AND CENSORSHIP varying quality, certainly much wider
ISSUES than is the case for normal print
published material because of the low cost of publication on the Net. However,
there are recognised techniques for determining the quality of material in print.
For example, the peer reviewed journals may suppress some potential articles
that they should carry, but in general they can be trusted to act as a filter to cut
out poor quality or unreliable papers. The reader does not have to rely on them
as his only source of information, but he can certainly expect to reduce his
information overload burden for most purposes by concentrating on the peer
reviewed journals. Another example might be the publications of certain
membership organisations which are unlikely to include articles that contradict
the ethical professional or health and safety standards of the members. A similar
system of quality classification is required for material on the Net. This would
enable the user to restrict the amount of content with which he is deluged, and
to filter out certain categories of unwanted information.
The scientific community has, in times past, given a lead to PEER REVIEW
CLASSIFICATON . There are moves, initiated in the USA, to introduce a form
of peer review for certain classes of scientific information. There are
opportunities for the Commission to encourage these developments. Technically
the development of Network filters does not require much new R&D work but
there are standards issue that will need the leadership of the Programme. There
is an explicit reference to the need for work on the filtering and analyzing of
information in the outline description of the role of key task III. It is interesting
to note that these issues were extensively discussed at Bonn under the title of
“Empowering the User
There has been much discussion about the use of FILTERS to classify
undesirable material on the Net so that it can be removed by those who wish to
filter it out. This is an example of the classification of material on the Net,
enabling those who wish to filter it out to do so, and those who wish to see it to
select it. It is not censorship. The variable that needs attention is the
composition of the body that carries out the classification, a point of some
importance for all types of classification.

III. Actions
PROPERTY RIGHTS The issue of copyright on the Net was raised

PROTECTION ON PUBLIC at the Geneva WIPO Diplomatic Conference
NETWORKS SUCH AS THE in February 1996, when it was confirmed
INTERNET that the fundamental principles of the Bern
Convention for the protection of “Literary
and Artistic Works” applied to new media such as the Net. That conference
also adopted a Treaty on the rights of performers and producers of
phonograms, and provided for a protocol on the rights of performers and
producers of “audio-visual fixations” to be added not later than 1998. A follow-
up to the Commission Green Paper on Copyright was presented to the
European Union Council in November 1998. Never-the-less problems do
remain. For example the use of fragments of information owned by third
parties on the Net is growing as the medium lends itself to such extracts, an
example is short snippets of film.
The problems of valuing and paying for such property in an efficient manner
remains a difficulty. And again, the development of pan-European multimedia
content raises issues of using material covered by rights holders in various
countries. The Bonn conference recognised that “effective and efficient
mechanisms for trading rights in multimedia content are therefore essential for
the development of the European multimedia content industry”. However,
though it is excellent that the issue is now being recognised at Ministerial level,
it is one thing to discuss it, and quite another thing to reach a solution,
especially if that involves giving more power to the Commission to act on the
issue at a European, as distinct from the current national level.
NETWORK DEVELOPMENT The development of the network

infrastructure in Europe has been a challenge
for the Commission and will remain so. In this case the process of aiding the
interconnection of the national networks has fallen to Framework programme
administrators, at first the ESPRIT team and more recently the Telematics
Applications Programme team. It appears in the outline of the 5 th Framework as
a function of key action IV. In particular reference is made to the need to
support the research infrastructure needed for the advanced Internet-2.
No doubt responsibility for Network policy issues will be divided between this
team and the policy teams elsewhere in the Commission, for example in DG III
and XIII. It may be expected that the participants in the 5 th Framework, and in
particular those in the User-Friendly Information Society theme will wish to exert
an influence over the Network developments, and at least in this case this should
be facilitated by the work in progress elsewhere in the technical directorates of
the Commission.

III. Actions
THE COMMISSION’S ACTION PLAN FOR THE INFORMATION SOCIETY
In July 1994, the European Commission adopted an action plan which

concentrated the EU's work on four areas:
THE Developing a regulatory and legal framework - information-carrying networks

EUROPEAN are the basic building blocks of the information society. The EU's strategy
COMMISSION’S opens up traditional national telecommunications monopolies to competition in
ROLE both the supply of infrastructure and the provision of services. Member States
have agreed that services and infrastructures will be opened to competition
from 1 January 1998, except in a small number of countries which have
requested more time to prepare.
The EU's regulatory framework aims to ensure that all national networks are
capable of operating as a single network of networks. This means that there
has to be a seamless interconnection and that services and applications which
use the different networks should be able to work together (interoperability).
Open norms and standards are being established to achieve technical

interoperability together with regulations to protect secrecy, databases and
intellectual property rights. Stimulating applications of information and
communication technologies - the Union is taking initiatives across a broad
canvas which embraces the development of information-carrying networks
(telephone, satellites and cables), basic services (e.g. electronic mail,
interactive video), which allow people to use the network, and applications (e.g.
distance learning, teleworking) offering specific solutions for groups of users. In
addition, the EU is anxious to stimulate information providers to adapt their
skills and products so as to exploit fully the new technologies. This work
programme also includes promoting broadband technologies needed for
multimedia applications. About 30% of the programmes in the fourth
framework programme for research and technological development are directly
linked to the information society.
Monitoring and analyzing the societal, social and cultural impacts of the
Information Society - anxious to exploit in a full and balanced way all of the
opportunities offered by the new technologies, the Commission is taking steps
to evaluate the emergence of the information society with the aim of ensuring
that all citizens enjoy its expected benefits. Its analytical work is focusing on
the impact of the information society on employment, the organization of work
and social legislation, regions and cities, and on how to adapt educational
systems and healthcare to take the best advantages of the new technologies.
Promotion of the information society - the Commission is doing much to raise

III. Actions
III.3 PRE-PROJECT ACTIONS
The success of European Commission intervention in areas such as Interactive

Electronic Publishing is largely measured in participation. Despite the best
intentions of the Commission, programmes are sometimes either under-
subscribed or fail to attract the innovative applications originally anticipated.
Particularly in the area of Interactive Electronic Publishing, the Commission
must practice what it preaches by ensuring that the contents of its workplans
are themselves compelling, accessible and relevant to the targeted
communities.
The changes in the content world around us – rapidly developing markets, new
business strategies, the emergence of new players – requires a new approach
to ensure that the opportunities presented by a European
action in Interactive Electronic Publishing are exploited. Encouraging
Specific programmes of awareness and targeting are needed participation
to ensure that all would-be constituents are well informed
about the possibilities. Particularly in the area of Creative Content Generation,
where participation is essential, steps must be taken to inform members of that
community that there is now a European research action catering specifically
for them.
Companies without a background in European research often perceive such

programmes to be intended only for researchers, academics and industrial
entities. They believe that if they do join such a programme they will be
confined to a laboratory environment. They think „yes, we may get some
money, but not for what interests us‟. Even the very application procedure
itself is daunting. Companies are often small, highly specialized and extremely
busy. Do they have the right impression? Based on the facts that are easily at
their disposal, yes. But they are not prejudiced. On the contrary, they will be
quite excited to hear that there is now a programme that covers their interests,
recognizes their needs and is user-friendly.

III. Actions
The Commission cannot continue to say „we are here, come and find us‟. These
companies will not take the time. They are moving ahead anyway and it will be
Europe‟s loss if their expertise is not harnessed in a coordinated way for the
benefit of the continent as a whole. They will find empathy with foreign business
cultures and markets that are more in-tune with their needs and capabilities. To
sell anything, you must be prepared to make your customer comfortable in your
environment. Familiarity breeds buy-in. The Commission is selling its content
programme to the content community. To attract this community,
“
the Commission‟s workplans must reach out and grab their audience,
it must hold targeted awareness events
which can compete with the best media The participation of the
events, it must have web-sites which are eye- creative community in EU
catching and compelling, it must have terms content-related R&D
of participation which make good business programmes is essential. They
sense. In short, it must create “the buzz”. have jumped with both feet
into the digital age and are
moving ahead rapidly. Right
A programme as significant as the information now, however, the European
industries sections of the Fifth Framework Commission needs them more
Programme, for example, should establish a than they need the European
dedicated media effort to market the Commission”
programme on a continuous basis using a KIERAN O‟HEA
consistent message and image. In order to
”
prime its target community and keep it
informed, the action should have sufficient budget to provide all of the facilities
listed above. It should act as a “business angel” for the content sector inside the
programme, guiding applicants through the process and bridging what is too
often seen as a great divide between creative and administrative processes. It
should understand clearly what motivates and de-motivates the content
community. Without such pre-project actions, there is a danger that a very
desirable programme aimed at promoting the European content industry may not
attract the participation it clearly deserves.

III. Actions
III.4 R&D ACTIONS
III.4.1 APPLICATION DOMAINS
KNOWLEDGE PUBLISHING


STM Publishing
Business Information Publishing
“ Companies connected to their
customers
are finding cost savings of 50
 Corporate Publishing
percent to 90 percent in sales,
LIFESTYLE PUBLISHING customer
support, distribution, and
 Content Generation other areas.
 Public Information & Publishing for the INTERNATIONAL DATA
Citizen CORPORATION
Mass Market Publishing, Catalogues &
”

Shopping
 Digital Collections
Introduction: Categories of R&D Actions
R&D Projects
Even within the classic category of co-operative R&D project there are various
variants that need to be considered.
The Solo R&D Project
This is the standard, stand-alone, project, to be used typically where the subject
is relatively new or of a long-term research nature. It can be particularly useful
for opening up a subject.
Clusters of R&D Projects
The typical Commission programme provides a work-plan and consortia bid to

tackle a particular part of the work-plan. It is often the case that there will be
several projects accepted for the same area of the work-plan. It is often highly

III. Actions
desirable to cluster these projects, achieving some degree of loose co-operation

between them.
Directed R&D Programmes
There are situations where a task force who draw up the work-plan, are well
aware what work is required to be carried out in a particular part of the
programme. Leaving the projects entirely to the random chance of the blind bids
may not be the best way of organising the limited R&D resources of Europe.
There is a case for a more directed approach in such a situation. The
Commission staff may carry out the direction where they have ample experience
in the field, or they may recruit someone of experience and reputation to lead
that part of the programme. It usually takes a set of studies to form the
coherent programme with careful selection of the projects and partners to get a
proper spread across the chosen field. This approach is rarely used by the
Commission, except in the field of infrastructure, which is to be regretted. Of
course the leadership has to use tact and sensitivity to obtain the right balance
of projects.
Preliminary Studies
There are good grounds for believing that a study phase is almost always
desirable before a new consortium is unleashed on a new large project. Though
there are exceptions, it is good practise to start any large project with a
preliminary study phase. Since these are relatively cheap it may be possible to
conduct a competitive approach, with 2 or more consortia competing for the best
feasibility project to go on to the full R&D stage.
Measurement and Validation
Though the Commission's practice in this aspect has much improved in the
Telematics Programme of the 4th Framework, it is worth remembering that it is
often desirable to push an R&D project to the stage where a demonstrator is
produced, and that demonstration is subject to proper measurement and
validation in as close to true market conditions as can be arranged. This will
often take the form of a follow up project to support the validation of an
apparently successful normal R&D project. This stage is, of course, a vital bridge
to counter-act the European problem of failure to follow through at the market
exploitation stage. It is also essential if the human interface, where so many
systems prove to be weak, is to be properly researched.

III. Actions
A. KNOWLEDGE PUBLISHING


STM Publishing
Business Information Publishing
“ Interactive publishing
transforms data into
 Corporate Publishing knowledge that can be acted upon
or enjoyed for itself (leisure)
MAURICE SCHLUMBERGER


Forging lasting relationships between publisher and professional
Enhanced collaboration and access to organisational memory
”
 Volatile content as a competitive tool
A.1 SCIENTIFIC, TECHNICAL AND MEDICAL PUBLISHING
Improved access to past

present and future work,
continuity of historical
“ The products and services
resulting must be relevant to the
communication of STM results, well
integrated into working practice, must
research record and have a strong collaborative content
scientific practice migration creation component and must be highly
to a „new world‟. interoperable for some time to come.
DAVID PULLINGER
”
Work in STM Publishing should focus on improved access to past, present and
future work and the continuity of the historical research record and scientific
practice. It should push the migration to a new world of usability, enhanced
access and enabling environments for all actors in the value network, resulting in
lower costs, a higher quality and focus to content access and opportunities for
new information services.

III. Actions
The Delphi
Seventy percent of Delphi respondents believed that, by 2000,
Survey,
60% of scientific, technical and medical journals will be Information
published online and all major reference works will be published Engineering
in electronic form ELPUB
2001, Meta
The greatest constraints to the on-line publication of STM Generics
content fall into the regulatory, policy and standards domain Ltd., 1995.
R&D Applications in Scientific, Technical and Medical Publishing
1. TO IMPROVE ACCESS TO INFORMATION BY ORGANIZING THE CLUSTERING

OF CONTENT WITH MULTIPLE SEARCH TOOLS LANGUAGE NAVIGATION AND
DATA TO DATA-LINKING.
Too much time and effort is spent by researchers in searching for information
and ensuring that the information retrieved is highly relevant (`high quality').
This affects, for example, the creation of patents, new drugs and communicating
safety information.
Moreover, searchers for information use many different strategies, but current
systems usually offer only one - leading to a waste of valuable human resources.
No single piece of search software will suffice and no single solution for a system
will suffice. Users need choices in their strategy, optimising the retrieval of
different information from the same multimedia documents. There is no
`standard' way in which scientists use primary information, even within a single
discipline. Pharmaceutical researchers, for example, spend more time on
information discovery than on actually doing research.
Similar concepts can be expressed in different words, especially in inter-

disciplinary subjects, and traditional word searches are not very helpful in these
areas. Near-industry research would benefit from having summaries written in
the readers own language, using highly automated tools. Data is often found,
but there is no way at present to signal to the reader that the data has been
improved by later research `forward chaining'. How will links be made to this to
avoid mistakes?

III. Actions
Applications
Completeness of subject coverage will be the key to this exploration. Two kinds
of application might be envisaged in primary publication, one using an existing
service and building on it, for example in the field of chemistry, using Berlstein
and various other publishers, the other taking a very small tight-knit community
such as astronomy, which is almost totally government-funded. A third
application might lie in some safety-critical engineering or medical area, for
which there is a high cost if the information is not totally and accurately
discovered. In each area, however, some development is likely to occur without
aid if it is as well established as chemistry and astronomy. The key difficulties
and advantages lie in cross-disciplinary subjects, such as biotechnology, optical
computing, medical research (especially genetics), materials science and
nanotechnologies, to give a few examples.
Building Blocks and Basics
The answer is not found in smarter search algorithms, nor in intelligent agents
themselves, although they might help, nor in classification systems (always out
of date). The answer is in getting the users closer to the content by editorial
means and a set of tools from which to choose at any moment. The synergistic
support for the user in combining tools into sets cannot be understated. The
project is people intensive, perhaps ten teams of ten people for three years.
2. STANDARDS FOR META-INFORMATION
Content will be distributed in servers around the world. Agreed standards for
meta-information is needed for efficient and cost effective navigation to
information in a distributed environment. There is some commonality here with
non-STM areas, including ownership information, type of format, unique
identifying schemes. What is different for STM is that it already uses a large
amount of structure and so the meta-information can be more extensive, deeper
and so more useful.
Information will not be stored in one or two major centralised systems. It will be
distributed world-wide either by content providers or some other agent. The user
of information needs to get to this distributed information effectively, without
wasting time and resources. At present, there is no meta-information standard
that facilitates this.

III. Actions
Depth of meta-information to retrieve items is useful to make tools generic and

so scaleable to 1.5-2 million new additions each year, as are tools to facilitate re-
purposing and re-use time schedule and project size. There is substantial work
in coming up with a meta-language and this will need at least one iteration.
3. CREATIVE CONTENT AUTHORING - ENGENDERING INTEREST AND ABILITY

FOR AUTHORS TO CREATE NON-LINEAR AND MULTIMEDIA CONTENT,
THEREBY TO ENCOURAGE BROWSING AND SERENDIPITY.
The widespread use of non-linear types of text and multimedia is hampered by

existing systems and by the additional work involved by every party in the value
chain. What is different about scientific, technical and medical publishing to most
other content provision is that the primary works are submitted voluntarily by
authors. To change the form and type of submission requires support for the
independent authors, through the editing process, the presentation of
information in both established and new forms, and the tools to view or use it.
There is also widespread restatement of content,

as a result of the need to put new work into the Real progress in the
context of old. All data requires rhetoric, the widespread use of non-
articulation of the process and results, to go with linear types of text and
it. Secondary journals then separate it out. By multi-media, is hampered
putting it into a clear non-linear form, there are by existing systems and by
advantages for re-use. Finally, although scientists the additional work
have developed means of labeling and pointing involved buy every party in
to portions of graphical images, no such the value chain
development has occurred for video or sound.
Applications
It will be essential to choose a small sub-section which is clearly defined and

already containing some multimedia and secondary restructuring of content to
see if authors and editorial processes can be supported. It will be important to
not choose a trivial example that is very highly structured already in order to
avoid the development of trivial tools and it is recommended that some area in
scientific/engineering research is chosen, for example materials science.

III. Actions
 standards in new media types

 tools for capturing computer-based research
 seem-automated techniques for breaking content into non-linear forms
 methods for importing other sub-documents into a document.
 tools for labelling and signalling portions of interest in video and audio and
other multimedia elements.
 authoring, editorial, peer review, and reading environments.
Business Models
Established businesses find exploring new business models too risky, whether
they are large or SMEs, commercial or not-for-profit. On the other hand, some
new services are beginning with government funding (often academic based) but
they are too small to have a major impact on the whole.
Although the issue behind electronic commerce will be solved in the near future,
one can assume the development of infrastructure to support new business, the
risk to many businesses to too high to start, and yet continuity is critical in STM
for the reliably communicating key information.
Applications
Several should be supported in different markets.

“ What is different
about scientific,
technical and medical
Substantial effort should not be spent on developing publishing to most
payment mechanisms, billing mechanisms, nor other content
invoicing. These should be assumed and translated for provision is that the
the STM community. Projects should concentrate on primary works are
business models, restricted to validated information. submitted voluntarily
Areas to explore include the following: by authors.
DAVID PULLINGER

author's rights and exploitation of rights
use of research or library funds to purchase information
”
 the effects of costing different parts; page charges to authors, colour image
charges, the tables of content, abstracts,

III. Actions
 full-text, tools, etc., what is given free to whom (authors, abstracting and
indexing services, libraries, editorial board members, etc.)
 different structures for purchase, subscription, by type of use, by license, for
re-use etc.
4. CREATING ELECTRONIC RESEARCH DATA ARCHIVES, WHERE NECESSARY

GOING BACK IN TIME.
STM content is part of our cultural heritage. Finding information can be hard if
part is electronic and part in libraries or other stores. The temptation is to use
only what is convenient. What if the key information is not in the electronic
store, leading to the user potentially overlooking some important work, and so to
false assumptions or to the repetition of research work? There are two main
types of information not in electronic archives, the past and new multimedia
elements, not printed.
This development requires some engineering development, as the integrity of the

historical record is essential. The user must be certain it has not been interfered
with. The work of linking research findings over centuries is as important as
doing so in a more compressed time-scale, with forward chaining pointing to
improved data and linking to multimedia.
Finally, in this time of convergence, SMEs might not be stable, and if they have
published in electronic-only form, there must be processes whereby their work is
captured.

III. Actions
A.2 BUSINESS INFORMATION PUBLISHING
Business information publishing is the provision of business information to

companies and to professionals such as law firms, financial institutions and
advertising agencies. It includes:
 Company financial and product information
 Economic and statistical information
 Government information
 Laws, regulations and standards
 Market information
 News
 Patents and trademarks
The Issues
 The requirement to reduce the time-to-market for new products, with the
result that the product development process, where reliable and
comprehensive information is of especial benefit, has to operate effectively.
 Changes in the buyer-seller relationship, whereby commerce is conducted
using electronic data interchange and electronic mail, and both parties expect
each other to have relevant information in an accessible electronic format.
 The difficulty of maintaining differentiation in products and services, so
excellence in customer support becomes a differentiator in its own right.
 Changing distribution channels, which are often more complex, and depend
on accurate information on stock levels and the position of products in the
distribution channel.
 Flatter corporate structures, which mean that many middle-management
positions which often performed the role of information integrators, have
been removed.
 Global markets and global competitors, so that market information and
competitor information become of prime importance.

III. Actions
Any technology that

The Users can provide even a
partial solution will be
 Executive rapidly adopted
provided that the
 IT manager investment in hardware
 Consultant/researcher and staff resources can
be justified, and that
 Product manager the solution can be
 Business development manager future-proofed.
R&D Applications in Business Information Publishing
1. TEST DATABASE FOR INTRANET INTEGRATION DEVELOPMENT
Providing access to external information services through an Intranet platform is

not straightforward. There are two TCP/IP options, in which either the user goes
out to an external IP address on an as-required basis, or in which a portion of
the database is downloaded and cached on an internal server. In addition there
are many databases that cannot be accessed using TCP/IP connections
The Commission is encouraged to create a suite of databases/protocols (which
need not have current information) which would enable companies throughout
Europe to test out various means of accessing these databases. These databases
should have a range of data items (text, tables, graphics, video, audio) so that
the technical requirements of each can be evaluated. One of the databases
should be large (100MB) so that server capacities can be tested. It is probable
that the business information industry would work with the Commission to
provide suitable databases.
2. DERIVATION OF QUALITY-OF-SERVICE REQUIREMENTS FOR BROADBAND

DELIVERY OF BUSINESS INFORMATION
The emerging generation of high performance networks, in particular ATM, but

also Frame Relay, will need to have Quality of Service parameters created for
particular types of traffic. As the use of business information increases, especially
as mixed mode traffic develops (through the migration of business television
from VSAT circuits) it will be important to understand if business information
traffic has particular parameters which need to be included in Service Level
Agreements with providers.

III. Actions
Using the database suite from the previous application (above), the traffic
requirements of a range of users should be assessed, with the possible objective
of setting benchmarks for service performance.
3. PRICING AND PAYMENT MODELS
Pricing and payment models for electronic access to information are still in the
early stages of development, and there is little reliable information on how
companies would prefer to pay for information services.
Possibly using the sub-sets of information services developed for proposal one
(above), a range of pricing and payment options could be tested using a range
of pricing models. It would also be useful to evaluate the role of smart cards in
providing pay-as-you-use services. One of the issues that needs to be better
understood from the information provider position is how to create and monitor
IP traffic.
4. STIMULATION OF MARKET DEMAND
The majority of companies are unaware of the wide range of information

services that are available. As indicated above perhaps only 1% of the target
market of companies are currently using electronically-delivered business
information.
The Commission is encouraged to fund the use of a group of information services

at universities, business schools and chambers of commerce. The services would
be provided by a range of suppliers, who would contribute a sub-set of their
database for this purpose. Again, suite of databases might be the same, or based
on, the suite proposed in application 1 (above)
5. ELECTRONIC FILING
Many information services rely on statutory filing of (for example) company

accounts and trade-marks, and currently many of these filings are made with a
paper document. This results in a barrier to providing access to these filings.

III. Actions
Guidelines should be developed for statutory filings (including electoral registers

etc.) that take into account the current restrictions of HTML encoding, and
planned developments, so that the minimum amount of work is required by
either central Government departments in processing these filings, or by
information suppliers taking tapes of the filings for subsequent processing and
resale. It is unlikely that these could be made mandatory.
6. INTELLIGENT SCANNING
A significant amount of information remains in printed format, such as news

archives, and economic and statistical tables. There is a danger that this valuable
material might become „invisible‟ to users who are increasingly relying on
electronic information. There should be a project to assess how best to convert
this information into database formats with the minimum amount of human
intervention.
7. LOCATION-INDEPENDENT ACCESS
Information is often required away from a desk, for example on a construction

site. A series of pilot trials should be set up to evaluate the options for
information delivery using wireless, VSAT links, and voice interrogation and
output from databases. Note that the panel are aware of the current audiotext
services, but thought that there was more to do in providing voice output from
text and numeric databases.

III. Actions
A.3 CORPORATE PUBLISHING
The purpose of corporate "publishing" is to lay the foundations for the creation
of a "learning organization" by building an interactive knowledge database
which would contain a complete picture of all the scientific and technical
information, knowledge and documentation resources of an organization. This
would include the intrinsic knowledge and experience that staff have
accumulated in carrying out their work for that organization, together with
existing computer databases, as well as archives, personal libraries and files
collected in the course of official duties.
R&D Applications in Corporate Publishing
RESEARCH AREAS
The three main research areas in corporate publishing have been identified as:
 reducing bottlenecks in the knowledge flow in the firm and addressing

ensuing needs for improved knowledge management;
 tools (present and future) to overcome known bottlenecks;
 applications to boost knowledge management and creation through new
tools.
However, as the definitive research areas in Corporate Publishing remain to be

established, further input is needed. Still, it is clear that the Corporate publishing
world will meet many of the same problems as other domains of publishing, such
as those in the Business Publishing world. They will certainly need much the
same requirements for R&D. One particular topic where specific work has been
identified is in the building of systems to tackle the bottlenecks in knowledge
flow within the company. Application projects aimed at developing systems and
tools to boost knowledge management and creation within the firm were also
identified as requirements.

III. Actions
B. ENTERTAINMENT & LIFESTYLE PUBLISHING
 Content Generation
 Public Information and Publishing for the Citizen
 Mass Market Publishing, Catalogues & Shopping
 Digital Collections
CULTURAL DIVERSITY
Just as the frontiers defining electronic publishing are being pushed out to
encompass more and more territory, so is the definition of cultural content.
Painting, sculpture, literature, music, film, theatre and other performing arts,
architecture, historical artefacts and language are all, of course, major elements
of European cultural heritage to which widespread access is essential. However,
culture also comes in newer and more non-traditional forms, such as video,
animation, immersive tours, television programmes, and interactive multimedia
works. Furthermore, the commercial world has huge holdings in cultural content
that should not be excluded simply because they still enjoy copyright protection
or are available only at a price.
The cultural sector can and should play a pervasive  Usability and trust
and significant role in the future of the Information as essential
Society since in particular: enabling factors.
 The Cultural Sector is a major source of
 Fostering
international competitive advantage for Europe community building
with important corresponding job and business through enhanced
creation opportunities in the Information Society communication and
access to the
 The Cultural Sector is a crucial element in the democratic process.
rich diverse national and regional identities which  Encouraging
must be preserved and also promoting a common awareness of
European Cultural Identity ( the whole being than Europe‟s rich
the sum of the parts). cultural heritage.
Taking European Museums & Galleries as an example, there are over 500 million
visitors per year to the 20,000 (approx.) museums holding over 1 billion objects.
Their value is being increasingly recognised by international corporations. Other
areas include archaeological sites, Castles, Archives and Libraries which have
already played an important role in the previous Framework Programmes.

III. Actions
Of particular importance are today‟s artistic community - the „creators of

tomorrows Cultural Heritage‟ especially as we move towards the „digital culture‟
of the Information Society which should have a strong cultural influence.
The European Cultural sector can act as a motor for economic, social and
technological progress with pan-European action vital in the spirit of Maastricht.
Fig. III-5 Cultural Barriers split by Location
80
60
All
Percent
40 USA
20 Europe
0
Yes No Don't Know
All 59.42 16.94 23.74
USA 58.04 16.73 25.24
Europe 70.95 15.53 13.52
Source: Copyright 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997 Georgia Tech Research Corporation. All rights
Reserved. Source: GVU's WWW User Survey www.gvu.gatech.edu/user_surveys
THE MULTILINGUAL INFORMATION SOCIETY PROGRAMME

The core objective for the MLIS programme is to create the
right conditions for a multilingual information society by
building on current European initiatives and stimulating
collaboration among relevant constituencies. A coherent set of
THE
EUROPEAN projects will focus in three main lines of action: Supporting the
COMMISSION‟S construction of a co-operative service network for European
ROLE language resources, Exploiting language technology,
standards and resources, Promoting the use of advanced
language tools and services in the public sector.

III. Actions
 Estimated number of languages/major dialects in

the world today: 3000 to 8000.
 Number of languages in Europe: approximately

60.
 Official languages of the European Union: 11

(Danish, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German,
Greek, Italian, Portuguese, Spanish, Swedish).
 Native speakers worldwide of major European

languages: English 350 million, Spanish 250
million, Portuguese 135 million, German 100
million, French 70 million, Italian 60 million.
B.1 CONTENT GENERATION
Primary Themes
 Quality of content
 Creativity
R&D Applications in Content Generation
The R&D applications below all relate to an integrated view of the creation of
digital content in different environments. The creation of such integrated
systems requires a level of interoperability between
tools and a level of integration of work that is Goals
considerably beyond what is current practice in most  improving the
industries. quality of European
digital content
 supporting creativity
All the examples depend on communication support  improving time to
for the people working in the applications that is market
only now becoming available through the latest  improving user
computer-supported collaborative working research access
and development. The applications can be seen as a

III. Actions
first step towards a 'digital culture' where the technology is an invisible

intermediary between members of content generation teams that are focussed
on creating and delivering the content rather than on the technology.
The examples imply a "plug-'n'-play" architecture for future tool development. If

content generation is to keep pace with technical developments skill
development probably has to be close to the 'learning by doing' model of the last
example.
1. DYNAMIC INFORMATION: MULTIMEDIA EDITING FOR NEWS SERVICES
In the creation of news services, both for public consumption and within
companies, better integration can be achieved with digital technology. At the
primary sources, the news gatherers such as journalists and cameramen can
work together better if they are all aware of and build their team around the
digital capabilities. At the editorial stage, those responsible for such activities as
grouping news items, background research, and layout (user interface) can
create better products if the processes are digitally integrated 'by design'.
The project is concerned with the transition from a current style of working to
one appropriate for 'digital culture'. The processes are re-engineered to exploit
the technology and to allow user feedback / control. We go from 'journalist' to
'multimedia journalist', with a new set of skills and a new focus.
Technologies
Mobility is exploited. Collaborative authoring tools are used to inter-connect

editorial and collection teams. Post-processing tools are used for packaging and
archiving of primary material. The packaging functions have support for user-
driven filters. Digitisation allows the whole to be designed as an integrated
system.
Business models
The system supports alternative payment models. The research addresses trade-
offs between security (IPR) and the delivery of information just-in-time.
Standards are an important factor in the integration. The integration of
advertising is addressed.

III. Actions
2. CONTENT CUSTOMISATION AND RE-USE OF AN ASSET LIBRARY
A production company has a library of multimedia assets such as story-lines,

characters, backgrounds, 3-D objects, etc. that have been generated in the
creation of earlier productions and pilots. These assets can be used in a semi-
automated way, under the control of editors / producers, to create new products
customised to user group preferences. At one level the products can be soap-
operas customised to different periods and settings (a Dallas story line set in
Roman times), at another they can be the transformation of educational /
training material from text to video, at another the tailoring of news to different
consumer levels of background knowledge. Pace and development of sub-plots,
training scenarios, or explanation, can be matched to the user profile of attention
span, knowledge, and experience.
The project addresses the problem of understanding user requirements by

building the user into the creative process. It lowers time to market by creative
re-use of material. It lowers cost and so allows improved quality by re-use of
expensive material. It addresses the problem of interoperability over time.
Support to creativity.
Technologies
Support tools for manipulating and transforming content. Interoperability and

standardisation. Measuring user needs and capturing feedback in the process.
Moving content manipulation to a more conceptual level (cognitive research).
Reuse libraries need conceptual indexing and retrieval.
Business Models
Carrying user profiling to new levels of sophistication. Creating a feedback loop

between creators and consumers.
3. MULTIMEDIA PRODUCTION SUPPORT
Multimedia producers work in a co-operative development environment with

integrated tool support. The tools allow access to external resources (asset
libraries), repositories for locally developed material (objects), scripting tools with
instant rendering, integrated testing of products. A possible use area is the
creation of cultural heritage products such as virtual museum exhibits.
III. Actions
Technologies
Integration of the production process. Workflow tools to support collaborative

working and management of the overall process. Multimedia repositories. Reuse
of 3D and dynamic objects. Scripting tools to semi-automate the creation
process. Systematic integration of testing tools. Integration of different tools.
Business Models
Lower costs through effective integration of content objects and their

manipulation.
4. DEVELOPMENT ENVIRONMENT FOR MULTIMEDIA ARTISTS
Creators work in a shared-resource virtual 'atelier' where they can combine

learning, prototyping and response-testing. Tool producers contribute
development tools that are tried out by the artists, creating 'fit-for-purpose'
evaluations, training the artists in new technologies and allowing them to
evaluate future possibilities. The artists create prototypes that can be shown to
eventual publishers for commercial evaluation against content and technology.
The prototypes are also made available to potential consumers for evaluation
and feedback to the artists. The atelier would be designed as an essentially
graphic construct both in use and in terms of the target productions.
Technologies
Interoperability testing and design. Platform independence. Shared virtual

environment for work. Open distributed virtual environment. Language
independence through graphic basis of working.
Business Models
Forming an alliance at the early development stage between independent

creator, publisher and consumer. Speeding skill development in new
technologies.

III. Actions
THE MEDIA II PROGRAMME: 1996-2000

“The Union's support mechanism for the European
audiovisual industry”
Taking over from the MEDIA 95 Programme, the MEDIA II

THE Programme, adopted for a period of five years (1996-
EUROPEAN
COMMISSION‟S
2000), aims at promoting and developing the European
ROLE audiovisual programme industry. It focuses on three
priority areas grouping about 20 action lines :
 the training of European professionals;

 the development of production projects aimed at the
European and world market;
 the transnational distribution of European films and
television programmes.
The sums earmarked for the implementation of these

measures amount to 265 MECU for the "development and
distribution" part and 45 MECU for the "training" part of the
Programme.
http://europa.eu.int/en/comm/dg10/avpolicy
/media/en/general.html
B.2 PUBLIC INFORMATION AND PUBLISHING FOR THE CITIZEN
The Vision
Citizens' rights are important - the new

“ Publishing for People:
Information in public archives,
municipal archives should be
technology and networks can now ensure
transformed into products and
that the citizens opinions can be expressed
services which people can
and considered more efficiently and actually use.
effectively than ever before. Civil servants JAN EKBERG
should be enabled to serve citizens as
”
clients.

III. Actions
The Problems
 How can costs be reduced by applying

telematics to the distribution of
governmental and other public information?
 How can the citizen be better informed and

in particular in areas affecting his
employment, safety and general working
environment?
Although new technology makes administration more efficient, history has shown
that administrative overheads tend not to reduce. The citizen may be requested
to pay for the information he/she has provided and now made available in
aggregated form. Paying, for example, for railway time table information that
the public has already paid for via taxation is likely to meet with some resistance.
Numerous data bases have been developed with different computer software
tools and packages, with their own structure, style and terminology. Therefore,
services are needed which integrate
these different data systems into a Democracy is not a tool for
comprehensive electronic information government but a result of a societal
service, so that end-users, citizens can system that takes into account the
seek, find and analyse comparable data opinions of its individual citizens.
efficiently as well as provide information
and opinions to the system.
R&D Applications in Public Information & Publishing for the Citizen
1. SIMPLIFICATION OF ADMINISTRATIVE PROCEDURES
Procedures relating to government functions are notoriously time-consuming and

difficult to understand. Better provision of content in this area can result in:
 simplification of relations between administration and citizen

 quality and reliability of content
The goal should be
 enhancing the mobility of European citizens that a citizen can read
 time savings and verify his own
data but not that of
his neighbour.
III. Actions
To achieve this, R&D actions should focus on
 easy collection and maintenance of accurate citizen data;

 interoperable administrative servers which can connect a citizen to numerous
government bodies in a seamless way, regardless of the geographical location
or format of the data;
 data security and privacy issues to protect citizens' rights online;
 assessing the possible role of the smart card;
 distributed information ranging from local to European level;
2. ESTABLISHMENT OF HIGH PROFILE QUALITY IDENTIFIERS
The Problem
The individual is faced with the twin problems, that he/she is overloaded with
information, and often finds it difficult to easily detect and filter out what is, to
him/her, of quality or of interest. (there is no equivalent of the Peer Review
process used by the scientific journals)
 Public information and all information put on the net needs to carry quality
and or priority identifiers that provide a (always subjective of course) rating
of the information that would enable the public user to filter out what is of
value or interest to him.
 filters need to be developed that the individual public user can ”tune” to his
specific needs and interests
To get quality identifiers established in some (a "Freedom of censorship"

few) priority fields on a Pan-European basis, so
that they can act as an example to the spread No process of censoring
of such identifiers to other fields. The priority information on the Net is
fields should be selected on the basis of proposed. It should be up
recognised public concern and needs, but also to the individual to set his
tempered by the need to provide good filters.
examples that will prove widely valuable.
3. THE ANONYMOUS/RESPONSIBLE CITIZEN: AUTHENTICATION AND PRIVACY

III. Actions
Individuals and organisations want at times to either find information or express

an opinion in an anonymous way.
Simple mechanisms exist for this, yet citizens need them to be widely available.
User needs in this area focus on
 A need for reliably authenticated messages, senders and recipients;

 A need for privacy - for example, during voting and browsing;
 A need for ease of use.
The EU Fifth Framework sub-programme IST Key

Action I: Services for the General Public pays
particular attention to issues such as online
government and content provision by public
authorities as well as a number of other issues
THE FIFTH such as online health care information and
FRAMEWORK services for the disabled and elderly.
PROGRAMME
B.3 MASS MARKET PUBLISHING, CATALOGES AND SHOPPING
This application area was seen as particularly dependent on the parallel

development of horizontal factors, such as:
 systems for online commerce (see also III.4.2 Visionary Research and
Enabling Technologies),
 consumer rights and consumer trust (see also III.6 Market Take-Up Actions),
 laws regulating international trade and taxation,
 intellectual property rights protection (for commerce in content),
 adequate telecommunications bandwidth (see also III.4.2 Visionary Research

and Enabling Technologies).

III. Actions
R&D Applications in Mass Market Publishing, Catalogues & Shopping
1. ENABLE DEPLOYMENT AND USE OF COMMERCIAL ONLINE CATALOGUES

THROUGH ESTABLISHMENT OF A COMMON SET OF PUBLISHING
INTERFACES AND TOOLS.
Background
Commercial internet catalogue services require large database-driven

infrastructures and myriad associated commerce and content publishing tools in
order to achieve sufficient growth levels. This infrastructure presents a
tremendous barrier to entry, particularly for smaller enterprises, and,
unfortunately, encourages the use of proprietary systems.
Facilitating the use of common tools and interfaces for catalogues will spawn
growth in this market segment, and enable constituent SMEs to participate by
lowering the barriers to entry into this niche.
APPLICATION R&D
Near term research on existing tools and standards and their effectiveness will
help establish the viability of specific components in a standard. Current users
and developers of both successful and unsuccessful components need to be
collaboratively focused on determining a viable and adequate tool list.
Requirement areas should include:
 Selection of adequate and comprehensive open programming interfaces;
 Identification of viable and forward-looking standards;
 Avoidance of proprietary components;
 Cross platform interoperability tools;
 Identification of tools that warrant further development to exploit the open

standards.

III. Actions
BUILDING BLOCKS AND BASICS
A project to cultivate and establish a common cataloguing toolkit requires several

steps to insure a viable and successful product kit. These steps include:
 Identification of existing and near-term cataloguing projects for example

analysis.
 Establishing of a common requirement set for tools and APIs applicable to

these projects.
 Detailed analysis and collaborative development of a standards definition.
 Testing of the standards definition against the example projects to determine

their adequacy.
 Exclusive use of toolkit on “pilot program” cataloguing projects.
 Formal cultivation and endorsement of database and tool vendors who openly
support cataloguing standards.
2. INCREASE USABILITY OF SHOPPING/COMMERCE SERVICES THROUGH

STANDARDIZATION OF COMMON PAYMENT METHODS
Current technologies for online commerce vary in maturity and technology. The
barriers to entry for SME enterprises and other constituents are directly
attributable to the high cost of tools, lack of cohesive standards on both the
client and server components of the electronic commerce paradigm, and non-
interoperable technologies.
To stimulate activity in the area of mass market electronic commerce, the

constituent mass-market client enablers, and the SME server enablers both need
to be made accessible and straightforward to acquire, use, and proliferate. The
cost of these enablers must be made within reasonable reach of their intended
users. Applicable levels of trust through credibly sponsored standards and visible
participation by the constituent public agencies must be established.

III. Actions
APPLICATION R&D
 Create a documented and ratified set of tools and interchange standards.
 Establish payment types and preferences of user constituency, considering

national and international transactions. Define a ratified standard.
 Establish payment types and preferences of vendor constituency, considering

national and international transactions. Define a ratified standard.
 Evaluate and specify existing payment methods for common business and
individual commerce transactions.
 Determine planned migration of existing non-electronic payment vehicles to

electronic commerce paradigm, assessing interoperability with proposed
commerce servers.
 Determine commonality in data security technology as well as transaction

protocol , assessing interoperability and suitability for usage.
 Determine interoperability and transport requirements for both direct (EDI)

and bank-card related transactions. Develop common programming interface
to accommodate both technical, security, and customs/tax jurisdiction
implications.
 Determine financial institution preferences as per transport, and provide

usage incentives to end users and vendors for use of preferred transport.
 Promote commonality of tools, and transports amongst vendors and financial

institutions to leverage clients ease-of-use.
 Establish profitable branding for use of preferred payment and purchase

methods to encourage use of lowest overhead technology.
 Encourage new SME entities to use branded services using incentive usage-
fees, cross-promotion, and common branding of preferred services.

III. Actions
3. INCREASE THE EASE OF USE OF ONLINE SHOPPING SYSTEMS USING

STANDARD BUSINESS INTERCHANGE FORMATS AS AN ENABLER FOR THE
NEXT LEVEL IN ACCEPTANCE AND PROFITABILITY.
 Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) is a mature technology typically employing

private networks to enable SME and LME businesses to interchange both
trade and commercial data. This technology enjoys large acceptance and
trust based on its history of economy, reliability, and security. Major SME and
LME infrastructures currently employ large legacy infrastructures for EDI.
 Rather than start with new technology, EDI technology provides an excellent
set of proven programming interfaces and standards which enable business-
to-business commerce. These technologies should be made the basis for
migrating EDI to include public networks, such as the Internet. Collaborative
sponsorship of development and standardisation of EDI-over-public networks
is a powerful leveraging method to advance SME/LME intra-business
commerce over the internet.
Application R&D
 Provide a standardised set of EDI commerce transaction tools to encourage

their use within SME/LME constituency.
 Deliver transaction tools in a trusted fashion to insure secure commerce.
 Encourage development of new transaction formats by the SME and LME

community through facilitation of their submission, review, and deployment.
 Evaluation of existing publishing and tooling technologies as enablers of

SME/LME self-publishing of transaction formats.
 Establish a common repository of accepted standard transaction formats to

promote ease and confidence in use.
 Establish credibility and wide-spread use of transaction formats by enabling

wide-spread LME/SME participation in vendor transaction standards.
 LME, SME, Standards interests.

III. Actions
 Increased efficiency and volume in electronic transactions will be facilitated

by common-EU-sponsored and hosted tools.
4. FACILITATING ONLINE ADVERTISING COLLECTIVES AS A MECHANISM TO

PROMOTE CONSISTENCY, A VIABLE PARTICIPATION FRAMEWORK FOR
SMES, AND INDIRECTLY FUND “FREE” CONSTITUENCY SITES.
Traditional media uses a business model in which user subscription fees are
charged and used along with advertisement fees to finance publication costs. On
the Internet, users typically pay for generic access to the Internet, and typically
do not expect to pay for access to content. Content is typically financed through
advertisement fees paid to the content owners.
The establishment of common clearing houses or “bureau” for placing

advertisements can ease the barriers to entry for advertisers to participate on
many sites. Easing such barriers will stimulate growth of content sites through
increased revenues.
APPLICATION R&D
 Establishment of a not-for-profit collective of traditional advertiser agencies.
 Establishment of consistent standards for artwork, fee schedules, advertising

“offerings”, and performance metrics by the collective.
 Collaborative standards for interoperability of ad tracking and delivery

systems, along with performance/”counting” metrics.
 Identification of participating vendors through acceptance standards.
 Identification of the most viable and de-facto technology standards.
 Research and identification of emerging new-medium types as candidates for

advertisement delivery media. Subsequent standardisation efforts.

III. Actions
5. USE OF AN ADVERTISEMENT COLLECTIVE TO “FUND” PUBLIC SERVICE

ADVERTISEMENTS. ENABLING THE PRIVATE SECTOR BY PROVIDING
ACCESS TO BOTH CONSTITUENTS AND TECHNOLOGY.
Public service information dissemination and educational messages for the public
sector play an important protective and “quality of life” service to the public. In a
fashion similar to traditional print and television media, an advertising collective
can be mandated or given incentive to reserve portions of its collective
advertising namespace to public service functions.
APPLICATIONS
 Identification of key public advertising programs most likely to benefit from

demographic or psychographic ad-targeting to increase their effectiveness as
prime initial pilot candidates.
 Establishment with an industry advertisement bureau of a program to include

non-profit campaigns on a pro bono basis.
 Measurement of the effectiveness of rich-media delivery for public service

messages.
 Analysis of public service psychographic/demographics requirements.
 Design of effective campaigns for public service messages.
Fig. III-6 1-Year Potential Growth in Shopping

(Today's users only)
100%
84%
80%
% WWW Users
60%
40%
20%
0%
Today's Shoppers "Extremely likely" "Very likely" "Somewhat Likely"
plus… Shoppers Shoppers Shoppers
Source: Global Concepts- Payment Systems Consulting Research by BAI and Global Concepts

III. Actions
Fig. III-7 Products Being Purchased Online
Other
Sporting Goods
Jewelry
Event Tickets
Home Appliance
Food
Clothes
Flowers
Travel
Online Info.
Entertainment
Comp. Hardware
Publications
Software
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%

% buyers who have bought products
Source: Global Concepts - Payment Systems Consulting - Research by BAI and Global Concepts
Fig. III-8 Current Market for Shopping on the

Internet (% US Consumer Market)
Have Purchased on the WWW 1%
Have Accessed the WWW 12%
Have Accessed the Internet 19%
Have Internet Access Capabilities 31%
Have Daily Access to a PC 62%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%
Source: Global Concepts - Payment Systems Consulting - Research by BAI and Global Concepts

III. Actions
B.4 DIGITAL COLLECTIONS
R&D Applications in Digital Collections
The world of digital collections is that domain that is often called museums,
though it also includes the parts of libraries where manuscripts, etc, are held in
digital form and other collections such as art galleries, photo archives, music CD
collections and much more. The common factors are that at least some
significant part of the collections is held in digital form, and that this collection is
made available to the public, consumer, scholar or other user in some manner.
It is a very exciting field for electronic content because many of the challenges of
the whole field can be seen in a certain clarity in this field. It lends itself to
applications research where the applications are bringing together many aspects
of the new technology. It also lends itself to significant demonstrator projects,
for example in the field of Virtual Reality. Moreover, because digital collections
are scattered across Europe, it forms an ideal test bed for cooperative working,
where the end “publication” of a cooperative application would be something
that brought together related artefacts from several geographically widely
dispersed museums in a seamless manner.
There are very particular R&D requirements thrown up by digital collections, at

least some of which have not appeared in the lists from the domains dealt with
earlier in this document. Some of these are outlined below. We would
particularly welcome new input on the specific R&D requirements of this field
However, through the consultative process, what did emerge is a summary of

the research and development requirements of publishers and collection holders,
which are:
 Developing new models for streaming video e.g. lifestyle magazines;

 Developing collaboration among collections for online delivery of information
e.g. culture and politics;
 Specific action to assist conversion of assets to the digital form - building
critical mass;
 Creating new multimedia educational tools to promote life long learning;
 Developing new models for user access to collections e.g. push technologies
and intelligent agents.

III. Actions
III.4.2 SPECIFIC R&D APPLICATIONS – THE BIG PICTURE
In considering the R&D priorities for publishing, at first sight there seem to be a
large number of requirements from the different domains within the broad
sector. But on detailed examination there is a set of dominant requirements that
reappear in somewhat different words for most domains - requirements like
those relating to the indexing and retrieval of information, in all media, appear
time and time again. Integrated toolsets to help the content makers also
constantly appear, on a parallel with those produced in the last ten years for the
CAD world. Each of the domains has a number of requirements individual to
their specific needs, but one is left with the feeling that a great deal of
commonality of requirement underlies many of the separate requirements. That
is not to say that separate applications work will not be required for the different
domains because of the need to tailor the systems to the precise needs of a
particular user community.
For much of the publishing field the real requirement is not so much R&D as the
experimentation and testing of new applications systems, more take-up, training,
standards development, and business, marketing and finance work than R&D.
This is dealt with in the final section of this paper.

III. Actions
III.4.3 VISIONARY RESEARCH & ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
A. VISIONARY RESEARCH
B. ENABLING TECHNOLOGIES
 Engineering Building Blocks and Basics
 Standards
A. Visionary Research
Big changes in information research are being inspired by new insights in

quantum physics, chaos theory and biology. Everywhere there are patterns,
fractals and complexities emerging. It would be foolish to deny that this will
radically change information technology simply because
today we cannot identify the physical mechanism that Quantum physics,
sets this in motion. chaos theory and
biology
Information itself has of late been going through a rapid succession of changes.
Not so long ago information was linear data that had absolute values. Now this is
no longer the case. Information is about to become dynamic, linked to millions of
other items of information, having resonance to everything else and the value of
it has become probabilistic rather than deterministic.
MTV (Music Television) taught us this valuable lesson. The popular music
channel started by shooting two images a second at our eyes. The intake of
information was too much and too quick. The only way our brain could react to
an attack like that was to switch into a new mode. When looking at a video clip,
the viewer stores something like 20 images out of the 300 and finds his/her own
pattern. As a consequence everyone sees another clip because the patterns are
assembled differently granting everyone a personal experience and
interpretation. Suddenly it became no longer important to understand the
message in the clip, but it became vital to recognize a pattern in it, so that the
emerging pattern became the information and the 'average' interpretation was a
matter of statistical weightings.

III. Actions
In the second half of the nineties everyone finds patterns everywhere. Patterns
have become more important than information itself. Before long people found
patterns in biology, mathematics, sociology, genetics, the universe, our genes
and guess what - everywhere the same complexities, fractals and numbers turn
up. And these patterns also seemed to have resonance. Every time a pattern was
found, it became easier to find others.
Information has always been a

combination of existing information,
and patterns in themselves are a
combination of existing patterns. But
“ When I look back at how I write,
I see that the evolution already
began. Only on the basis of patterns
patterns are more connected to do I assemble information packets,
technology than information ever was. bottom up. Yesterday I wrote a
The patterns we find during our scientific column about Mars and I start with
explorations is so complex that we need the pattern: Mars - Pathfinder -
technology to unravel it. By definition, Sojourner - Mars Attacks! - Life on
technology creates more complexity as it Mars? -a picture of the 'face' -
uses more data, which is again required conspiracies - Capricorn One - etc.
to see the patterns. But at the same time In the past I have called it
we find that our technology is letting us "annotative journalism". But
down, because it is getting too complex recently I received e-mails from
so that we need other models to organize readers, tips, about sites, stories,
it. And the only models we can apply that things I did not even know they
make sense are the living models. existed. They presume that they are
part of my pattern, but they are not,
they are part of theirs.
For a couple of years, information R&D WALTER DE BROUWER
will go through a 'Red Queen' phase. It
was the Red Queen in Alice in Wonderland who said that she would have to
run very fast to remain in the same place. That is what is happening to
information. It is becoming probabilistic, patterns are emerging everywhere,
there is superposition of various truths, links are connecting the unconnectable.
”
Information engineers find themselves in an arms race always on the lookout for
more sophisticated search engines, crawlers, heuristic systems, linkers,
visualization algorithms and content algorithms.
Patterns are composed of building blocks called objects. They are the
chromosomes of information. All around us these objects come to life because
we have started connecting units of information to other units of information and
embedding these clusters with intelligence. In future, it is not inconceivable that

III. Actions
these objects will have a mind of their own, a memory, a reason and a mission,
because every living system endowed with intelligence is on an existential quest.
An information engineer tends to develop information from the top down.

Information engineering of the future will come from the bottom. Information
technology will organize itself and in that sense it will come alive because life is
in the organization of information and not in the information itself. Gradually
information engineering will start to understand the dynamics of patterns
themselves. Information will then go through a phase transition to be reborn as
coherent structures that reproduce and never come to tranquillity. Information
will resemble the only system that is never in a state of rest:
life itself.
Vertically Related Stages of the Interactive Services Industry Supply Side

Content Creation Content Packaging Market Making
Main value added activities: • Digitization of content • Program development, full service
• Original content creation • Directing, editing, layout design delivery, competing content
Output (examples): • Customization • Original programming
Content
• Content-based software • Customer access mgmt.

Driven
 Text, audio, video,

development • 7 da./24 h customer care: help
multimedia assets desk, directory services, anytime
 TV channels (MTV, RTL),
Players (examples): video/PC games (Sega), Web and anywhere availability
 Artists, writers,
sites (www.wsj.com) and • Cultivation of virtual, interest-
photographers, actors, departments of proprietary based communities
directors (e.g. Spielberg) online services (Finance on  Online services (AOL), Web sites
 Movie/music/TV studios (e.g. America Online) (home.netscape.com)
Disney’s Miramax)
 Publisher (Wall Street Journal),  CATV operators (TCI), telecoms
financial services (Intuit) (Minitel), SW manufacturers Electronic
(Microsoft)
Market
Technology Enabled,
Transport Delivery Support Interface and Systems Place

Main value added activities: • “Byte logistics” • User equipment integration:
Infrastructure
• “Byte transportation” • Virtual private networks, HW, SW, and connectivity

• Transmission Internet access • User interface, navigation and
• Switching • Server platform mgmt and application development
Output (examples): operations • Authoring tools
• Payment-process systems, E-  Microsoft's Windows GUI and
 Voice communications, data
money/-cash OS, Netscape Navigator
transport and distribution
 Local access points, browser, Lotus Notes
Players (examples): guaranteed bandwidth,  SW manufacturers (Microsoft,
 E.g. LDCs (AT&T), LECs (Bell financial settlements Netscape, IBM)
Atlantic), CATV MSOs (TWC)  Network services (Uunet),
systems integrators (EDS),
credit card processors (First
Data)
Fig. III-9 Industry structure concept for the interactive

services industry
Source: Schlueter, Christoph and Michael J. Shaw, 1996

III. Actions
There are some aspects of the Publication field that still require what can best be
described as Visionary Research. Two examples are given below. However, both
are deceptive in the sense that, despite the fact that these problems have been
around for a long time, we still need very basic research to solve them.
1. MANAGEMENT OF DIGITAL CONTENT
Despite all the work over the past 50 years, the problem of classifying, storing,
and retrieving digital content, regardless of media, remains a major problem for
all but the most simple and structured of topics. Developments like associative
stores help but they are slow and require a set of relational links to be specified
at the time of storage. Multimedia search by document content is a technology
that has reached initial demonstration phase, but is still in its infancy. There is,
essentially, no mature method of storing for retrieval text, images, and sounds
(including speech and music) other than to use words, normally in the key-word
format. Examples of the problems are:
 Free text storage. How does one classify a mass of text for use in
corpora- assisted translation? Despite some progress towards automatic
tagging, essentially there is no satisfactory solution other than to use
human key-word generation.
 For the generation of the classification or index to the ideas, or issues

(knowledge?) embedded in a text, one has to use human labour.
(Consider the difficulties of using an encyclopaedia compared with using a
dictionary). The process of automatic indexing of the knowledge contained
in a text is vital if progress is to be made in web-searchers.
 How does one index a picture so that it or aspects of it can be found?

(“Find me an image to illustrate my text. I want a picture of a soldier
falling in battle with his rifle above his head”). Essentially there is no way
other than to use titles where these are available, and words that record
the date, place, date content, etc, of the images it contains. This is a very
labour expensive and fallible operation. (What if the editor actually is
interested in the soldiers uniform, or rifle, or …).
 How does one find the composer and name of that evocative snatch of
music one has just heard from the Internet?

III. Actions
At one extreme this research topic is quite fundamental and falls into the
category of long range research. The way the brain seems to operate gives
hope that ways can be developed, perhaps based on unusual storage
techniques, such as holographic stores or quantum computation. Work is going
on to develop algorithms for using 3-state computation which seem to offer
some promise. But in the context of particular practical problems, it can be
tackled and progress made at an applied research level.
The problem is of such importance to the handling of multimedia context, not

least in the field of publishing and museums, that it would be quite
unsatisfactory not to have, within the “Multimedia Content” part of the 5 th FP,
some research work going on supported by the Commission; some focus for the
activity in Europe of the Club type; and an “observatory” project to survey and
disseminate information on wider work in the field throughout the world.
2. MEASURING THE OPTIMUM MIX OF MEDIA FOR EFFICIENT CONVERSION OF

INFORMATION INTO KNOWLEDGE
It was difficult enough to measure the take-up of information from a publication

in the days when it was likely to be in a single size point print. Now that the
publication can be readily and cheaply delivered in a mix of media, it is even
more important to determine which media to use and in what mixture. There is
much folk-law but little scientific measurement.
Of course the answer will depend upon the properties of the “reader”. Some will
prefer reading, some listening, and there are a host of variables to take into
account. There are techniques arising from advanced work in brain scanning,
and psychological methods which make it possible to determine how effective
the absorption of the material is, as the experiment continues. The Commission
should set up work to:
 study the available approaches
 improve the techniques
 disseminate the techniques and encourage their use.

III. Actions
It is interesting to observe that improving the available techniques might be a

suitable subject for a competitive approach, following the methods successfully
used by DARPA, for example to improve the processing of text. And the
encouragement of take-up is a candidate for the approaches used by DG III to
encourage the use of advanced software tools.
B. Enabling Technologies
 Engineering: Building Blocks and Basics

 Standards
In the new 5th Framework Programme, one of the changes from the past will be
that each of the main themes will be able to conduct its own enabling technology
where that is specifically relevant to the work of the theme. There will also be
enabling technology work in main theme IV of the Information Society part of
the programme. Because of the difficulty of classification, care will need to be
taken to monitor and collaborate at the overlap of these rather similar parts of
the programme. Moreover, for any particular domain of publishing, it will be
observed that what seems like enabling technology to some can be viewed as
primary application R&D to others. This will be observed by comparing some of
the suggested enabling technologies, or building blocks, of theme III with the
applications work proposed above. Some examples of what some see as the
enabling technologies for the publishing world are given below. It will be noted
that much of what is described is or will be made available from commercial
sources or from other parts of the Framework Programme, thus not requiring
explicit action from the Multimedia Content part.
ENGINEERING: BUILDING BLOCKS AND BASICS
Requirements and Objectives
Implicit requirements for the new world of value network-based electronic

publishing are infrastructure, interoperability, and provisions to deal with human-
factors issues, such as trust and ease of use. Current projects strive to provide
electronic publishing with new methods for creating and structuring publications
and for the personalised dissemination of information and accessing of cultural
items through publicly accessible virtual libraries, museums and similar venues.

III. Actions
Essential for these requirements are:
 Effective client delivery platforms.

 Suitable telemetric infrastructure for delivery of content.
 Effective content manipulation and generation tools for harvesting, filtering,
personalising and targeting content.
 Effective software development tools which enable software reuse and
interoperability between application components.
 Technology which adequately enables secure transactions for commerce as
well as data privacy.
Fig. III-10 Stages of Technology Development

SOURCE: ANDERSEN CONSULTING (EC, 1996)

III. Actions
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999

BROWSERS 71 125 312 378 449
SERVER S/W 41 150 583 2.391 4.426
TOOLS 15 90 330 769 1236
APPLETS 3 41 192 629
PACKAGED APPS 0.3 14 107 581 1.760
TOTAL 127 383 1.373 4.311 8.500
Fig. III-11 Internet Software Revenues (US$ Millions)

SOURCE: FORRESTER RESEARCH
Tradition: "networking the present"

How can existing processes, products and services be made more efficient
and appealing using new technologies? Example: applying intelligent
workflow tools to the academic publication process.
Adventure: "timely spin-off".

How can emergent technologies be used to deliver new products and
services? Example: use of DVD to deliver a combined feature film and
related computer game to the consumer.
Dream: "networking the future".

What completely new ideas can be demonstrated? Example: use of
wearable computer and data glasses to supply spatially-registered
information to aircraft maintenance engineers

III. Actions
Fig. III-12 Total Number of Home PCs/100 inh.
25 _______ EC average 22
20
14 14
15 12
9 10 10
10 6 7 7
5
0
)
d)
y
ia
ark
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ly
UK
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es
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g(
N
um
ur
bo
lg i
Be
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xe
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Nb : data provided for : 1995 : United Kingdom - Dec. 1995 and 1996 : Belgium, Denmark, Germany,
Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Sweden - Dec. 1996 and 1997 : Austria, Finland. No data available for
: France, Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain
Source The Information Society Project (ISPO) at the European Commission
(www.ispo.cec.be)
Fig. III-13 Total number of PCs/100 inh.

30
30 26 27
25
25 22
20 17 18
15 16
14
15 11
10 7
5 3
0
um
G K
Be y
tim s
he n
Po n
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an
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an
ai
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ate
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Sp
re
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nl
Au
Fr
G
r
er
Fi
es
m Net
ur
bo
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Nb : data provided for : 1994 : Greece - 1995 : United Kingdom - Dec. 1995 and 1996 : Belgium,
France, Germany, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Sweden - Dec. 1996 and 1997 :
Austria, Finland, ; No data available for Ireland and Denmark
Source The Information Society Project (ISPO) at the European Commission
(www.ispo.cec.be)

III. Actions
Projected Technological Dependencies
1. EFFECTIVE CLIENT DELIVERY PLATFORMS.
Acceptance and proliferation of the pilot applications directly depends on the

quality of the end-user experience. Multimedia presentation, performance, and
functionality all must adequately compel the end user to use and interact with
the application.
The end-user platform must be of sufficient economy and availability to allow its
proliferation. There also must be enough portability of the application to
accommodate several potential end-user platform types.
In this area, the following issues were identified as important:
Client-side application content. On-demand delivery of applications and their

content to an HTML browser allows real-time updating and deployment of an
application when requested. It solves software version maintenance, and allows
a multitude of heterogeneous platforms access to a single application in a
machine-independent fashion. Java, ActiveX, Shockwave, RealAudio and other
browser based application interpreters are all essential to building effective
multimedia content over a public network. There is enough industry motivation
(ex: advertising and new-media ventures) to insure that the capabilities of these
interpreters will grow and meet the requirements.
Actual hardware platforms were also identified as important for delivery of

multimedia content. Besides the commodity Personal Computer and Macintosh
platforms, emergence of dedicated low-cost internet terminals were identified as
significant. WebTV, the Windows NC (and CE) initiatives, cable modems, and
DSS satellite-delivery of content are all important emerging end-terminal
technologies that will enable low-cost presentation of content. As long as the
browsing software continues to support common application interpreters, these
platforms will provide economical proliferation of points of presence throughout
all areas of the community.
In summary, the role of the EC in client delivery technology should be focused

on insuring applications are constructed to properly deliver on these platforms
and that the application interpreters adequately support internationalized
content. It can be assumed that adequate terminal/end-user hardware will be
sufficiently evolved to server the framework needs.
III. Actions
IMPORTANT
DEVELOPMENTS IN IP
 Multicast
The "digital book"
Although mostly associated with real-time concept is of many
interactive applications such as video sheets of "electronic
conferencing, the implications of multicast paper" bound
technology are much wider. "IP multicast is together in a book
the most efficient method available to allow form. Developed at
sharing a common set of information among MIT Media Lab,
multiple clients." An industry consortium, the electronic paper can
IP Multicast Initiative, is researching the display digital data at
market to identify new application areas. high resolution, but
(unlike printed paper)
 Resource reservation and is reusable.
associated protocols
"Wearable computers"
The availability of protocols layered on top of
incorporate computing
IP which have been specifically designed for
elements built into
real-time audio and video data means that
clothing, with user
much higher-quality networked multimedia
input through a small
applications become possible.
hand-held device and
output via "data
 IP version 6
spectacles". This
makes it possible to
The new version of IP offers a much larger superimpose digital
address space, removing one constraint to data over the wearer's
network growth. Other features include view of the real world.
autoconfiguration (making it much easier to
"plug-and-play" network components), better
support for real time flows (making it easier
for networks to offer the above-mentioned
Pocket computers,
protocols), and low-level authentication and with cellular
encryption support. The impetus for the move
telephones/wireless
to IPv6 will come from users who require LANs, are already
these additional features - at present there is available and will
otherwise little pressure to migrate existing
become more widely
networks to IPv6.
deployed.

III. Actions
The concept of "IP TV" is to IP-enable the television set and

VCR by incorporating computing elements into them,
including local disk storage. TV programmes could be
downloaded from the net - so for instance if a friend
enthusiastically recommends the programme you missed last
night, you can download and view it tonight. Or, perhaps
you want to program your home VCR remotely across the
Web from work, or check what your children are watching
and disable inappropriate programmes in advance.
The IP-enabled TV set is just one example of how everyday

devices could be connected to the network. The "homenet"
will be an important part of the future information scene,
perhaps as normal in five years time as the "intranet" is
today.
A logical extension of this trend might be "the consumer as

publisher" - empowering the citizen to provide information
about his/her family to friends and relatives or the local
community.
Fig. III-14 Global Web-Generated Revenue

Projections
Web moves from
Publishing metaphor
$10,000.00 Live/TV metaphor
$1 522
$1 049
$630 Video
$1,000.00 $308 Hi-Def. TV & Telephony/
Computer-TV Computer
$106
Billions
Integration Daily Living/

Mass Consumer Environment
$100.00 Cable Markets & Computer
$24.40 Modem/Radio/ Programming Presence
Modem/Pots Dial- Pots/ISDN-
in(Office Nets DSL Net
$10.00 Traditional ISP
$2.70
$1.00
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
Source: ActivMedia, Incorporated © 1997

III. Actions
Fig. III-15 Changing Composition of Commercial

Websites
17.4
Publisher, Media, 16.1
9.5
Theater 5.8
12.3
46.4
48.4
Service 36.8
28.9
41
4.8
Wholesaler, 6
8.3
distributor 14.4
8
3.6
12.9
Manufacturer 25.2
23.3
17.5
26.4
19.8
Retailers 22.2
32.2
23.5
0 10 20 30 40 50
% of Websites within Site Age
All websites <7months on the web 7 to 12 13-24 over 24 months on the web
Source: © Activmedia, Incorporated, 1997

III. Actions
2. SUITABLE TELEMETRIC INFRASTRUCTURE FOR DELIVERY OF

CONTENT.
It is clear that as content and client side applications grow more complex, the
bandwidth requirements between the application server and the client terminals
must also progressively grow in capacity. The infrastructure and equipment
required to effectively deliver content is essential. Most EC constituent
communication networks are expected to grow and use industry-standard
technology such as Fast Ethernet, Gigabit Ethernet, ATM and T5 services for
implementing their Internet backbone. Private lines are not expected to be the
primary mode of interconnect between application users and the Internet.
Modem-based telephony, Cable modems, and Satellite delivery are expected to
act as the main mode of communication between the end-users and the
Internet. These technologies are expected to evolve within the framework time
frame to adequately serve the framework needs.
The following emergent technologies were identified as important in

this area:
ADSL
Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Loop defines a new signaling protocol for higher
data rates. It is not clear that this protocol will gain acceptance, and its success
will directly leverage on its wide-acceptance.
Cable modems/Satellite delivery/High definition Television
This combination of economical high speed delivery and high-quality

presentation technologies was predicted as imminently available and will raise-
the-bar on content expectations, as the technology will enable effective delivery
of more complex content and applications. It also may motivate a trend towards
content "push" technology, which leverages the high-download, low-upload
nature (18Mb/sec, 1Mb/sec respectively) of these media. A potential side-effect
of this trend would be the increased use of proprietary format delivery (ex:
Pointcast, Backweb, Marimba etc.) that would effectively reduce the audience of
traditional browser users for the applications.
The EC role in this area should be to monitor growth of proprietary format

delivery and collaborate with their developers to develop tools to facilitate
development of readily-attainable conversion tools for traditional-HTML to
proprietary format conversions
III. Actions
 May 1988 : Competition in the markets in

telecommunications terminal Equipment (88/301/EEC)
 July 1990 : Competition in the markets for
telecommunications services (90/388/EEC)
 April 1991 : Mutual recognition of terminal equipment
conformity
 May 1992 : Adoption of standards for satellites broadcasting
of television signals (92/38/EEC)
 June 1992 : Application of open network provision (ONP) to
leased (92/44/EEC)
 October 1993 : Mutual recognition of the conformity of
telecommunications terminal equipment (93/97/EEC)
 October 1994 : Satellite communication : liberalisation of
satellite services and terminals(94/46/EC)
 October 1995 : Abolishment of special rights in the use of
Cable TV Networks (95/51/EC - OJ L 256/49)
 October 1995 : Use of TV standards (95/47/EC - OJ L 281/5)
 December 1995 : Application of ONP to voice telephony
(95/62/EC)
 January 1996 : Mobile and personal communications
(96/2/EC OJ L 20/59)
 March 1996 : Legal protection of databases (96/9EC OJ L
77/20)
 March 1996 : Directive amending Directive of July 1990
(90/388/EEC) regarding the implementation of full
competition in telecommunication markets (95/51/EC OJ L
256/49)
 March 1997 : Interconnection in Telecommunications with
regard to ensuring Universal Service and Interoperability
through application of the principles of ONP

III. Actions
3. EFFECTIVE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT TOOLS WHICH ENABLE

SOFTWARE RE-USE AND INTEROPERABILITY BETWEEN
APPLICATION COMPONENTS.
This item is an ongoing standard practice REGULATORY ISSUES

for software development. Use and National governments have
compliance to acceptance to standards concerns about the ready
for development of pilot projects are availability of unbreakable
essential to the extensibility and cryptographic systems. Various
interoperability current and future regulatory measures are enforced,
relevant projects. ranging from a ban on exporting
high-security encryption
technology, through mandatory
Standards of special importance are key escrow, to a total ban on the
Openjava, ODBC, and CORBA. There is use of encryption. Publishers will
an industry trend for competing client need to determine what impact
interpreter programming interfaces to this variety of regulatory regimes
introduce compelling but proprietary will have on the trans-national
formats to create a dependency on a delivery of information products
specific vendors browser or application which rely on cryptography.
development environment.
m ECU 1.600
1.400
1.200
1.000
800
600
400
200
-
1996 1997 1998 1999 2000
20-99 empl. 100-999 empl. > 1000 empl.
Fig. III-16 European Electronic Commerce Software Market

Source: Forrester Research / multiMEDIA 6/97

III. Actions
4. TECHNOLOGY THAT ADEQUATELY ENABLES SECURE TRANSACTIONS

FOR COMMERCE AS WELL AS DATA PRIVACY
As most of the framework goals push sensitive CERTIFICATION

data onto the public network, security INFRASTRUCTURE
technology for storage, access, and transmission Public key cryptography
of data will play a critical role in the proliferation requires a certification
of business and governmental data warehouses infrastructure for secure
into the public network space, as well as online key distribution.
commerce activities. The ongoing evolution of This infrastructure is still in
relevant technologies (i.e.: EDI, SSL, SET, RSA , its infancy, and consensus
MD* etc.) will be driven by the commercial is yet to be achieved on the
sector. appropriate protocols and
structures (e.g. web-of-
trust versus hierarchical
The Forum identified that the critical EC role in trust model). The
commerce and privacy issues will be advisory, information industry needs
legislative, and administrative. The EC will need to ensure that its use of
to determine what regulatory infrastructure and cryptography can be
legislative support will be required to insure that appropriately supported by
the constituency and its property have adequate the developing certification
legal protection and infrastructure support in infrastructure.
online activities.
The EC needs to determine what role it wishes to play as a Trade and Banking
commission. There is a strong need to establish reasonable licensing practices
and key management/authentication services for online business entities.
Currently without these checks and balances, the public online environment is
not reasonably regulated for serious commerce, such as business-to-business
and EDI. Other similar applications, such as online governmental databases
(health, engineering, human services) also mandate that the Commission play a
regulatory role to insure the data security.
Managing and enabling inter-member state transactions also need to be given an

adequate structure for security. The Commission may also wish to play a role in
standardizing interoperability between EU and non-EU countries to leverage the
benefits of standardization.

III. Actions
The EU Fifth Framework sub-programme IST Key Action II:

Electronic Trade and New Methods of Work pays particular
attention to issues such as the security of information
networks, the technical means for authentication and
protection of ownership, and systems for remote working.
THE FIFTH The sub-programme IST Key Action IV: Essential

FRAMEWORK Technologies and Infrastructures pays particular attention to
PROGRAMME issues such as communication and network architectures,
software and systems technologies and engineering and
advanced human interfaces.
STANDARDS
Successful standards accelerate the take up of new technologies by users. The

creation of the HTTP and HTML standards as a way of passing simple
information over the Internet has led to a revolution in the way information is
published electronically. The GSM
standard for mobile phones has  Supporting consensus building amongst
potential technology exploiters on the
allowed these devices to be used need for specific standards and their
internationally and not just in national content;
markets, a major factor in their
expansion in the often fragmented  Supporting the participation of user
European market. organisations in the setting and testing
of standards;
Standards work for companies by  Supporting the testing of standards with
expanding the total market to the users at a sufficiently early stage to
extent that an individual company's ensure their viability and fitness for
share in the larger market is greater purpose;
than their part would be in a smaller  Supporting the early stages of standards
fragmented market. The market size is implementation in prototype products
expanded through the increased and pilot experiments;
functionality available to users when
different products interoperate  Supporting standards awareness
building through support to publications,
successfully. The fax market grew at a workshops, user fora and other
phenomenal pace because fax dissemination channels.
machines of all brands communicated
with each other and not just within a brand. The early video-recording market
was held back because tapes recorded on a VHS machine could not be played on
Betamax devices and vice versa.

III. Actions
Standards can arise through organised co-operation or through the success of a

particular product. In either case the ultimate success is due to products being
available that conform to the standard and to users buying those products in
preference to others that do not.
Standards that are organised co-operatively and do not then belong to individual
organisations, open standards, are preferred because their subsequent
development is generally based on a continuing consensus and not at the whim
of their owners, and because their content is known to all market participants,
increasing competition. Standards can only be successful if they have the support
of both industry and users.
Co-operative standards setting requires an infrastructure to create, test and

publish standards. Standards in the area of interactive electronic publishing are
mainly concerned with the interoperability of software, both computer software
and information products, but extend to the hardware that hosts and delivers the
software, and to ergonomic, usability and quality issues, particularly ease of use
and quality of service.
1 By the turn of
the century, thanks
to another 2 Fueling European technological and
astoundingly economic success is one trend that took
successful, Europe by surprise, a phenomenon that
European-made seemed to come out of nowhere: the
global standard - Internet, which finally took the limelight
GSM - telecom in part thanks to the HTTP protocol, an
goes wireless on a invention created in Europe by Europeans
large scale and which resulted in an easy-to-program,
becomes drastically visually compelling way for anyone to
more affordable. publish

III. Actions
III.5 TAKE-UP ACTIONS
The key issues turn out to be

awareness, take-up, best
practice, community building,
training (including training the
trainers) and socio-economic
relevance.
THE AVAILABLE MECHANISMS
There is a tendency to consider the Framework programmes as consisting of one

mechanism of co-operative R&D, perhaps supplemented by “Supporting Actions”.
In practice there are a variety of mechanisms available and it is always desirable
to deploy the right mechanisms or combination of mechanisms to suit the
specific needs of a particular requirement. Some mechanisms are much more
cost-effective than others. For example, club networking activities do not cost
much compared with R&D projects, but can be very cost effective when the main
objective is to bring a community together.
SUPPORT ACTIONS
DISSEMINATION/TRANSFER The purpose is to disseminate technically

OF TECHNOLOGY valid items, and to show / evaluate their
worth for a commercial environment.
This has to be done in a way that benefits European organisations more than it
does others.
Dissemination actions could include applications that transform « raw » data into
usable information for specific sets of end-users, modify the distributed «
knowledge base » according to the users’ feed-backs, efficiently track the
successful transactions with the users, with the eventual purpose of taxation
(according to the value transacted) or profiling (according to the users’
reactions).

III. Actions
Dissemination actions have as primary purpose to prove and convince European

organisations of the effectiveness and benefits of the chosen technology, in a
commercial environment. As such they must be focused on this commercial
environment, on their demonstrative mission, and on their « window of
opportunity». Time is the essence, proofs that come too late are useless, and in
most cases they come after another solution (possibly not as interesting
technically) has made its point and convinced the market.
Such actions must be decided upon quickly, and show results quickly. The turn
around time from proposal inception to proof to the market should not be more
than 18 months.
Such projects can take many forms, but the main useful categories can be
classified as:
NETWORKS OF EXCELLENCE Networks of excellence can be a very

useful mechanism for bringing a diffuse
community together. This may be an R&D community for a relatively new topic
when the available talent is spread very thinly across Europe. But it is also
useful when the user community is itself not used to working together and can
gain support from each other and from R&D workers in the field. It is an
excellent way of bringing academic and research institute workers together with
representatives of a potential new market. The Commission has used two
mechanisms, one based on DG III, where with one exception the clubs have
been in the R&D community, the exception being in the Language Engineering
field. Much of the work of these networks of excellence has been with
newsletters, summer-schools, and similar activities to bring a community
together. The other approach has been used by DG XII to stimulate the training
and exchange of post-graduate man-power, and can involve a very limited
amount of R&D project support. In some circumstances a mixture of these
approaches may pay off.

III. Actions
STANDARDS & INTEROPERABILITY The preliminary or pre-normative

stages of standards preparation
is a field where a very limited investment by the Commission can be very
beneficial. In some fields, market take-up is inhibited waiting for standards to
emerge. In others, some de-facto standard is emerging which needs to be put
on a proper non-commercial basis if that is possible. In yet other situations, it is
the preparation of a united European position on a formal standards making
activity that is desirable, in the face of a more concerted position from some
other continent. The way the development of the GSM standard has benefited
the European manufacturers in the markets of the world is a fine example of the
value of this kind of activity. The task of the Commission is often to provide
some neutral organisation to start the process and then to lubricate the work
with some support for travel and meetings. The inter-continental dimension of
standards development is a natural forum for the Commission to provide some
encouragement to the emergence of a European position.
It would seem desirable to help

MARKET & TECHNOLOGY WATCH the European community in some
emerging field by providing a
market and technology watch, in particular on areas like California or Japan
where patterns and new technology may be emerging that Europe should follow
- or avoid. It has to be said that the Commission does not seem to have been
very successful in such work in the past. Awareness of Internet 2 and Web
developments round the world is an example of an obvious field for the 5 th
Framework.
TAKE-UP ACTIONS : A CLOSER LOOK
It is widely accepted that lack of fast and widely

INTRODUCTION
spread “take-up” of new technology is one of the
major problems of Europe, compared with other
continents. One of the major recommendations of the Davignon report was
“More Active Promotion of Technology Diffusion and Commercial Exploitation”.

III. Actions
The Commission has responded (in Com142) by its recognition of the need to
diffuse new technology in Society, as evinced by the very name “Information
Society”. There is an explicit reference to the need to put more emphasis on
dissemination and exploitation. It is suggested that activities such as
demonstrators, awareness and best practice campaigns would be an appropriate
way of encouraging the take-up of new technology, much of which has emerged
from the previous activities of Commission R&D programmes. Such activities
should be an integral part of the programme, closely associated with the more
normal R&D projects, rather than handled by a separate programme. The
communities of users that the Information Society theme is addressing often
recognise that it is measures to help take-up that they most need, and in which
they would be more interested in participating, rather than or as well as new
R&D.
THE PRECEDENT FOR Within the “ESPRIT” part of the ICT

TAKE-UP ACTIVITIES programmes, take-up activities have been
encouraged over the last two Framework
programmes, notably by the ESSI (Software best practice), ESD (Electronic
Systems Design best practice), and FUSE (First User Action to stimulate the use
of new electronic technologies) programmes. They fall within the “Preparatory,
Support, and Transfer Activities” of the ESPRIT programme and together take up
a substantial fraction of the funding of that programme.
The essential objective of these take-up

DISTINGUISHING
programmes is to involve potential users (or
FEATURES
manufacturers or suppliers) in some activity
related to the new technology, such as trying
out a new system, new system component, or new software; or taking part in
some training or service activity relating to the new technology or system. (In
practice the training activities are often restricted to training the trainers for
reasons of efficiency in using limited funds). The aim is to use the limited funds
in a way that will increase and speed up the take-up of the new technology with
the maximum of efficiency (the “multiplier effect”), always remembering that
financial resources are indeed limited. This means that a sample approach has to
be adopted, and the demand to participate normally far exceeds the available
capacity. There is usually an element of feed-back to the R&D teams and the
system manufacturers to improve the technology or some aspect of it, such as
its user interface. One aspect may be a large scale user trial where efficiency
results are gathered and disseminated to the user communities and to the
system manufacturers.

III. Actions
It is inevitable in a take-up programme that many more

PROCEDURES
bodies(usually firms but sometimes academic or
governmental establishments) are involved than in an R&D programme with
equivalent funds. This means that the procedures for involving the partners
have to be stream-lined, normally by a procedure where the actions on applying
for a grant come down to filling in a questionnaire; the actions on evaluating the
applications come down to checking the applicants compliance with the agreed
and published criteria; the requirement entered into by the grant holder is to
undertake some participation activity, such as trying out some new system, and
to providing information (a minor report) on that experience in some structured
way that may then be published, usually but not always anonymously. The body
equivalent to the independent evaluators in a normal R&D programme is the
body of experts who draw up the programme and participation criteria. Such
simplified procedures have been pioneered in the DG III/F take-up programmes
noted in section 4.2 above, and the very considerable popularity of, for example,
the ESSI programme show that the approach can be made very acceptable to
the target community of users.
FUNDING Normally, these programmes pay the participant 100% of the

incremental marginal costs associated with the execution of the
experiment, typically within a wide range of costs centred about 100 KECU. But
of course this must depend on the nature of the activity and the hardware,
software license fees, training costs, dissemination costs, etc.
SME’S It is a natural consequence of the size distribution of user

bodies that the vast majority of bodies involved in these
programmes should be SMEs, though the programmes are certainly not limited
to them. It should also be noted that these programmes are particularly
attractive to countries who do not have the strength of R&D bodies in the
particular field to be able to benefit from participation in normal R&D projects.

III. Actions
III.6 MARKET TAKE-UP ACTIONS
“The Business Partners Program”
III.6.1 BEYOND PRE-COMPETITIVE R&D
Pre-competitive R&D is essential,

but is only part of the puzzle.
Programs like the MEDIA
Programme’s Media Investment Club
(http://www.2mi.com/),
“ The European Commission has a valuable
opportunity before it: to provide more,
better and cheaper European-made
information products and services to
the EUREKA programme Europeans and to the global market. For a
(http://eureka.belspo.be/) and surprisingly low cost, the European
venture capital helpdesks, as well as the Commission can accelerate the pace of
widespread implementation of preliminary progress in building the Information
economy and society by initiating an EU
phase pilots in many parts of the Business Partners Program to synergise the
Commission, show an ever-increasing skills of the business and finance
recognition that business and market communities with R&D to the benefit of all
realities related to exploitation of European European users, whether at work or in
projects are not to be avoided but are to private life, resulting in a stronger
European presence in the information
be recognised as vital parts of the products and services market for the
Information Society. Funding and benefit of Europeans from all walks of life.
exploitation are key drivers in the
Information Economy and should be -DEREK KUETER, COOPERS & LYBRAND
leveraged if Europe is to enjoy the benefits
promised by the technology.
”
III.6.2 EVOLVING OPPORTUNITIES IN EUROPE
North American information industry startups Pre-competitive funding:

that became household names are examples of Internationally competitive
the successes that can be achieved when good technologies or
ideas and highly talented professionals are well internationally competitive
managed and properly funded. Europe has no companies?
shortage of talented professionals and
experience managers.

III. Actions
Now, with the improvement in exit scenarios enabled by mechanisms such as EASDaq
(http://www.easd.com/) and Le Nouveau Marché (http://www.nouveau-
marche.fr/), European and foreign investors should be attracted back to EU in
greater numbers. However, far from merely mimicking American techniques, Europe
should take those elements that translate well to the European environment, add its
own ingredients and give the resulting package a decidedly European spin.
The stated objective of European research & development funding is to develop “Made
in Europe” information and communication technologies and services which will be
competitive at global level, not just in technology level, but competitive on the market
as well. This means software stores, both on- and offline, full of
“
European-made products - and not just in
Europe, but worldwide. Instead of Culture is funded. most of
Companies are financed. the top-
STEPHANIE RACETTE, 100
EUROPEAN MULTIMEDIA FORUM most-
visited Web sites residing in North
”
America, Europe would have a strong
showing, as befits one of the largest markets in the world. European
information industry players would be in successful alliances with
companies, research groups, universities and governmental bodies all over the world.
European content delivered through European channels would be synonymous with
excellence, accessibility and affordability.
III.6.3 WHAT SMES NEED TO SUCCEED

SMEs need value-added financing: contacts, business opportunities, and management
advice in addition to funding. Funds should be made available through professional
business intermediaries who understand the ICT market, who understand how
businesses operate, and who are able and qualified to provide value-added financing to
SMEs. Such intermediaries would include banks which have developed a specific ICT
specialisation, ICT science and research parks, and trade associations devoted to the
ICT market. The purpose of these funds should be
to supplement financing which is provided in Accelerating the growth
insufficient amount by the private sector.
of the European
information economy
Final recipients of funds originating with the European Commission should, as

ow part of
their business plan, devote budgets and staff to the conduct of market research at
international level. This item usually goes without saying when dealing with private
sources of finance, but has historically been absent from EU programmes.
The end result would be companies which can concentrate on their business

III. Actions
development, have reliable access to finance, and are assisted in developing their
activities by local partners who understand the business and are paid to provide
international contacts and business opportunities. This will constitute a substantial
contribution towards the development of Made in Europe technologies which are
competitive at global level.
1 Mjärdevi Science Park, Sweden

(http://www.lejonet.se/mjardevi/index_eng.html) not only provides start-up
companies with incubation facilities, but also offers management training, seed capital, in
some cases venture capital, as well as networking opportunities and close co-operation
between the companies involved in the science park. This is distinctly different from other
types of science parks where little, other than facilities, is provided.
2 NatWest (http://www.natwest.com)
has implemented an initiative whereby professionals in the local branches are given ICT
market training. This allows NatWest to gain as clients companies involved in a sector
which, if properly nurtured, can only grow, and provides the client companies with value-
added source of finance.
III.6.4 EU INVOLVEMENT: BETTER VETTING AND PROOF OF CONCEPT
Experts at venture capital firms who are responsible for reviewing incoming business
plans face a variety of obstacles. They need to acquire and review a number of
proposals in order to increase their chances of finding good ones to fund. However,
proposals are often rejected not due to unsound core ideas, but because these ideas
are expressed poorly - perhaps the sales projections are not well supported or sections
of the plan are inadequate or missing.
In addition, investors are often asked to review projects for which little or no
preliminary phase, proof-of-concept work has been done. To add to this, venture
capital firms often receive plans that have not been through a sufficient “peer review”
process which would have provided valuable feedback in addition to spotting obvious
deficiencies. An EU Business Partners Program provides solutions for these problems.

III. Actions
EU Subsidy programs review thousands of proposals each year and have had years to
develop efficient and competent vetting processes. Any given project may be fully
funded, funded for feasibility work only (preliminary
phase projects) or rejected for funding not for lack of Leveraging existing
merit but for lack of available funds. Some projects are mechanisms
rejected because they are simply inappropriate for the
owdue to
subsidy in question or for conventional subsidy programmes in general, and not
general lack of fitness.
By leveraging this existing vetting process via an EU Business Partners Program,

whereby the Commission, project consortia, business consultants and the finance
industry work together to fund far more projects than would normally be possible, the
Commission can dramatically accelerate the development of the European Information
Society to the benefit of all Europeans.
III.6.5 THREE FUNDING CHOICES
1. FULLY-FUNDED R&D After an EU-subsidised R&D project has fulfilled its

PROJECTS objectives, a marketable information product or service
is still quite a ways off. Completing the next major
phase, that of “productisation” and ultimate profitability in the marketplace, has proved
anything but straightforward. Since conventional EU funding is decidedly pre-
competitive in nature, projects must search elsewhere for support, a process which is,
in itself, costly, and this is often where the process breaks down. To be sure, the skills
gained and the experience of working together with colleagues from other countries is a
valuable benefit of EU subsidarity, but full benefit is forfeited if a good portion of these
projects are not turned into fungible products and services, a key step in the creation of
a circulo virtuoso that can sustain an SME or a contribute to the profitability of a larger
concern. Our experience has shown that this is where many projects fail.
2. FEASIBILITY-PHASE Second, what of the projects that have their feasibility

PROJECTS phases funded by the Commission? These projects are
tailor-made for presentation to private sources of
venture capital, which are generally eager to review proposals from projects that have
already completed feasibility phases.
Lastly, those projects that are

3. PROJECTS IMMEDIATELY SELECTED FOR
deemed worthy by the
BUSINESS PARTNERS PROGRAM
III. Actions
Commission but which still go unfunded can be prepared and offered to sources of
venture capital by the Business Partners Program. Since the venture capital industry
thrives only when it has a large base of solid, attractive projects to review with an eye
toward funding, it would welcome business plans from projects that carry the EU seal of
approval by virtue of having passed the EU’s own vetting process.
The European
Content Product
Market Success Story, Much of Europe's market success in this area during
2005-2015 2005-2015 is fuelled from the start by focused
Commission action aimed towards building into R&D
application subsidy programmes a phase whereby
Commission-funded products and services are
prepared for distribution via the new electronic
commerce channels. The Commission coordinates
and helps to fund the development of these
commerce channels, as it sees them as an essential
final link in fulfilling the mission of their information
technology R&D subsidy programmes: to deliver
competitive European information products and
market at a competitive price for the benefit of
Europeans from all walks of life and to use the
DEREK KUETER, European market as a springboard for entering
COOPERS & LYBRAND global markets.
III.6.6 THE PARTNERS
1. PREPARATION PARTNERS Regardless of what phase an EU project is in,

whether it simply carries a stamp of approval,
has had its feasibility phase funded or has successfully utilised a few million ECU of EU
subsidy money to propel itself through pre-competitive RTD, it will need the aid of
business and marketing planners in preparation for presentation to sources of financing.
An EU Business Partners Program could supply relatively small amounts of money, only
a few percent of the amount of an average project subsidy, to fund a project during this
stage, which would include the creation of a business and marketing plan accessible on
paper, via W3 or as a multimedia “roadshow”. In addition, the costs which accrue
during the presentation process would be deferred by the Commission.
2. FUNDING PARTNERS NETWORK A non-exclusive consortium of potential

investors would be created to view
project presentations on a regular basis in a convention-like atmosphere. These
investors would benefit indirectly by EU subsidy due to the
Greater
dealflow
ow
III. Actions
increased quality of the projects that they have access to and the resulting
improvement in the quality of their dealflow. In addition, a searchable, profile-enabled
Web database of projects with alert capabilities containing information on all projects,
could serve as a delivery mechanism for business and marketing plans, and could
facilitate the handling of such necessities as non-disclosure agreements.
III.6.7 COST-EFFECTIVENESS
A Business Partners Program implementation is highly cost-effective, primarily due to

the inherently small scale of the constituent projects. To put this in practical terms,
consider the case of an EU subsidy program that has a Fifth Framework subsidy budget
of 60 million ECU (60 MECU). For that money, at 50% subsidy, it could fund 30
projects at an average cost, to the Commission, of 2 MECU each.
If that same program were to reserve 2 MECU in subsidy monies for it's BPP (not
including administration costs), it would be required to drop one project. However, it
could now fund the participation of 22 BPP projects at 100,000 ECU (100 KECU) per
project.
III.6.8 CONCLUSION: EU TAKING THE LEAD
Closer cooperation between R&D, the business community and the marketplace, as
enabled by an EU Business Partners Program, would provide for:
 a stronger presence in domestic and global markets for European information

products and services;
 a healthier European investment sector;
 stronger ties among RTD projects, the Commission, the business community and
users;
ultimately accelerating the development of the Information Society to the benefit of
Europeans from all walks of life.

III. Actions
Ironically, however, the trust-

CERTIFIED COMMERCE: TRUST IN inducing factors that support
ONLINE TRANSACTIONS traditional, offline commerce, such
as laws and regulations, the
Trust between trading parties has presence of familiar brand names
come to the forefront as one of the and the simple fact that traditional
primary barriers to the accelerated commerce is so much a part of
growth of online commerce over everyday life are exactly the same
public networks such as the Internet. ones that will operate in the online
This is in large part due to the fact world. In other words, as far as
that online commerce over public trust and its ability to promote
networks, as well as online commercial activity is concerned,
communication in general, is there is no On the other hand,
perceived as somehow different from fundamental airline customers are
in-person commercial transactions difference not as afraid of
and from more established forms of between using their credit
traditional cards over the
telecommunication such the
Internet as they are
telephone, fax, wire transfer and so and online of not having their
on. Encryption sounds scary. Public commerce. airline tickets at
and private keys sound complicated. To further check-in
“Watermarking” sounds like the irony,
something only counterfeiters should developments such as encryption
be concerned with. “Digital and digital signatures may even
signatures? Secure servers? I just make online commerce over public
want to buy a CD”. In fact, faxing networks less subject to fraud and
your credit card number, reading it abuse than phone, fax or in-person
over the phone or giving the actual transactions.
card to a waiter in an foreign city
who disappears into a back room are More than technological progress,
risks that many people think nothing the information economy is now in
of taking. The technology and need of parties who can certify
techniques are new, and this creates online transaction environments in
mistrust in potential consumers and order to promote trust among all
sellers. participants.
DEREK KUETER

IV. Conclusions
Through the 18-month consultative

process, involving hundreds of
representatives from industry, academia,
the user community, and the technology
community (see appendix), it became clear
that the issues we were addressing were
more far-reaching than we had imagined.
Serious progress has been made, the
results of which comprise this document.
There is also controversy and a set of open
issues, but we can build a coherent first
picture of which R&D directions will be
compelling and profitable for the EU, its
companies and its citizens.
It is very clear that the world of publishing is in turmoil, trying to come to grips
with the multimedia revolution at the same time as with the opportunities
opening up by the new methods of
disseminating material in electronic form, and Lesson I: The
by the very different world of the Internet. For technological revolution
the old established firms continuity is highly we are living through is far
desirable; continuity rather than revolution. For more radical even than
the new players in the publishing field many of that associated with the
the lessons remain the same as they always adoption of computers.
have been in the publishing world. But there
are also new ones to be learnt by all, as new worlds to be conquered emerge
from the fog of confusion that hangs over the battle field.

IV. Conclusions
Perhaps two messages emerge above all from that fog for those who wish to
remain at the cutting edge of their industry, or for those who aspire to get there.
The first is that the technological revolution we are living through is far more
radical even than that associated with the adoption of computers.
That first technological revolution may have changed the way the industry
worked, but it made little impact on its traditional markets. Now the new
technology is providing different methods of delivery to the traditional markets,
but is also opening up whole new markets. New players from very different
backgrounds are entering the industry. The picture is confused because it is not
yet clear whether and to what extent the traditional pattern of commerce will
break down.
A whole host of questions remain unresolved. Will the ready availability of

commerce on the “Net” lead to publishers handling their customers directly, or
will a new breed of on-line retailers arise to replicate the traditional high street
bookshop? Who will win the battle of convergence? Will the music score
publishing world merge into the music record industry? Who will provide the
virtual museums of the future? Will it become part of the publishing industry as
an extension of museum catalogue and coffee table glossy book publishing or
will the museum curators move into the direct creation and distribution of virtual
images of the artefacts they conserve? Will the reader choose to get his daily
paper through his mobile terminal, and will the student abandon the college
library to download his study material from the Web, and if so who will “publish”
that material?
The industry can be confident that the printed word has a long life ahead of it,
but less confident that other forms of delivery will not eat substantially into parts
of the established market. On the far horizon there is talk of the well bound
electronic book which has many of the desirable attributes of the conventional
book but where the textual content is down-loaded at will. All this and
multimedia too!
The second lesson is that the consumer world is Lesson II: The consumer
changing fast, especially as the changing world is changing fast,
perception of time takes us in its icy grip. If the
especially as the changing
world demands fast delivery and its information perception of time takes
fed up to it in the most accessible way, then the us in its icy grip.
publisher would be well advised to listen. The
new technology provides means for meeting

IV. Conclusions
that demand and someone will certainly seize the market opportunity. If
attention spans are ever falling, we may regret this but must optimise the use of
the multi-media choice, now laid open to us to employ at will, to maximise the
flow of information take-up. Will the challenge be met from European sources,
even if the trend to an ever growing shortage of time is led from across the
Atlantic?
The challenge for the publishers of Europe is to see that the old markets
continue to be served despite the
changes in customer requirement, The challenge for the publishers of
and that the new markets are seized Europe is to see that the old markets
by European players. This will not continue to be served despite the
come to those who choose to ignore changes in customer requirement, and
the new technology of “digital that the new markets are seized by
culture”. The European publishing European players.
industry has a well-earned
reputation for quality of work. This must be maintained in the midst of the
changes that will speed up the process and alter the media and means of
delivery.
The challenge for the Commission is, above all, to enable these changes to take
place by creating a legislative and economic environment that liberates and
stimulates creativity. Through policy actions the Commission can change the
environment in Europe for the
content creator, the publisher and The challenge for the Commission is to
the user. There is a role for the enable these changes to take place by
encouragement of R&D actions that creating a legislative and economic
mould the technology to produce environment that liberates and
systems that meet the particular stimulates creativity.
needs of the European commercial
environment. And there is a challenge to ensure that the publishing industries
and their customers know what the new technology can offer.

IV. Conclusions
There is one most welcome trend to emerge from the fog, and that lies in the
convergence of the media content people with the technologists. For the first
time this century we are seeing the two worlds coming together. Just as the
opening of the ghettos in the last century provided a stream on unparalleled
creativity, so the mixing of these two streams of often very different people is
creating in the industry a new excitement, a new sense of released energy,
which is most welcome. The art of the wall poster took a giant step forward
when the artist Toulouse-Lautrec took a direct hand in the printing process. The
violinist Yo Yo Mah spends time in the MIT media lab, devising computer
simulations of his fabulous instrument. Hollywood employs some of the most
powerful and advanced computers in the world. Are the youngsters who write
computer games artists or technologists – or neither?.
Despite the fog that surrounds us we who are involved in the publishing world
are lucky to be living in these exciting times.
BRIAN OAKLEY
DEREK KUETER
KIERAN O'HEA
LUXEMBOURG
SEPTEMBER, 1997

Appendix: Contributors
Contributors
Fiches and Papers
Last Name First Name Organisation
Kjaergaard Annemette Fischer & Lorenz

Kuhn Werner University of Vienna
Museums Meeting 6 June 1997
Alcolea Santiago Instituto Amailer de Arte hispanico

Bienert Andreas Stattliche Museen Preussicher
Kulturbersitz
Capellini Vito Universita di Firenze
Gonthier Dominique European Commission DGII

Grant Alice Systems Development Manager Science
Museum
Hemsley James VASARI Enterprises
Karp Cary Swedish Museum of Natural History

Loechel André Assocuation Europe Art Education
Michard Alain INRIA
ii
Discussion Forum 27/28 February 1997
Bailey Steve Smith Kline Beecham

Barbery Stéphane Canal + Multimédia
Blanc-Deleuze Eve-Lise Canal + Multimédia
Bösser Tom Philips Research Laboratories Eindhoven
Boumans Jak M. Electronic Media Reporting
Bullinga Marcel Instituut voor Publiek en Politiek
Bulthuis Willem Philips Sound & Vision
Cellini Paolo Disney Interactive
Chard Jim Europe Online
Chenez Christian EUROGI
de Brouwer Walter Riverland Holding
Ekberg Jan NAWH - National Agency for Welfare and Health
(STAKES)
Evans Tom Centre for International Technology and
Education (CITE)
Fortier Denis Groupe Infogrames
Frampton Roger Superscape VR
Haegel Agnes Ubi Soft Entertainment
Hermann Renate Health Online Service
Hofbauer Thomas Andersen Consulting
Jewitt Crispin The British Library
Kabel Peter Kabel New Media
Kastis Nikitas Lambrakis Research Foundation
Lagerlof Elisabeth European Agency for Safety and Health at Work
Lamers Jan Uitgeversbedrijf TIJD N.V.
Lega Peter C|NET
Lehmusto Heikki Finnish Broadcasting Company
iii
Lorenzo Ramón National Geographic Institute

Mallen George System Simulation Ltd
Marchetti Pier Giorgio European Space Agency (ESA-IRS)
Michard Alain INRIA
Moore Nick Policy Studies Institute
Murray Eugene RTE
Oakley Brian
Ormerod Paul The Centre for Exploitation of Science &
Technology
Parlavecchia Paolo RCS Editori SpA
Pascon Jean-Louis Ministere de la Culture et de la Francophonie
Pedersen Gordon Fisher & Lorenz
Reible Volker DeTeBerkom GmbH
Repo Aato J. Finland Post Ltd.
Sandkuhl Kurt Fraunhofer-ISST
Schlumberger Maurice Cap Gemini Innovation
Schmidt Juergen Ernst Klett Verlag fuer Wissen und Bildung
Schmuck Claudine Institut National de l'Audiovisuel
Stephenson Geoffrey Knowledge Exchange Technology Ltd.
Strommen Dr. Erik Microsoft
Thanos Constantino Consiglio Nationale delle Ricerche Instituto di
Elaborazione dell'Informatione
Valensi Edouard Centre de Documentation de l'Armement
CEDOCAR
van Bolhuis Herman I-Wave
Volle Pascal Informed Sources
Zielinski Chris ALCS
iv
Discussion Forum 20/21 February 1997
Abbink Hans AND Software

Adie Christopher J. Edinburgh University Computing Service
Agosti Maristella Universitad di Padova,
Bangen Hans-Jurgen Daimler Benz Aerospace-Dornier GmbH
Brown David CARL Cooperation
Ciborra Claudio THESEUS
Coquard Guy Jouve SA
de Jeu Rob Wolters Kluwer Academic Publishers
de Kemp Arnoud Springer-Verlag GmbH & Co KG
Delgado Jaime Universitat Politecnica de Catalunya
Doster Wolfgang DAIMLER BENZ AG
Ducos Sebastien Internet Plus
Fähnrich Klaus-Peter Fraunhofer-Institut (IAO)
Faux Ivor SNI Ltd.
Gardner Mike FTSE International
Graham Chris ICL Interactive Services
Heck Andre Observatorie Astronomique de Strasbourg
Herget Joseph University of Konstanza
Hueser Christoph GMD-IPSI
Joergensen Poul Bang & Olufsen
Jonckheere Charles EPO
Lomas John Arttic s.r.l.
Marcinko Randall ASIDIC/Information Canada
Meli Marco Finsiel Spa
Minio Roberto PIRA International
Pullinger David Nature/STM Association
v
Raitt David European Space Agency

Rizk Antoine Societe Euroclid sarl
Roosendaal Hans Elsevier Science BV
Schreiner Adolf Universität Karlsruhe Rechenzentrum
Schulin-Zeuthen William J H Schultz Grafisk A/S
Stevens Lawrie Advent Publishing Systems Ltd.
Viteli Jarmo University of Tampere
White Martin TFPL Ltd.
Wienke Dietrich Sony - Environmental Center Europe (ECE)
Users Meeting - 8 July 1996
Bellas Anita PTRC Education and Research Services Ltd

Bergometti Marco Giunti Multimedia S.R.L.
de Jeu Rob Wolters Kluwer Academic Publishers
Desmet Luk Koninklijk Instituut Spermalie
Kramer Bernd Fernuniversitat - Datenverarbeitungstechnik
Lohrie Achim Otto Versand GmbH & Co
Mouzakitis George Ion Publications (Stella Parikou & Co)
Paolucci Michel CRITT TTI
Parikos Nikos Ion Publications (Stella Parikou & Co)
Pascon Jean-Louis Ministere de la Culture
Rissanen Jyrki University of Art and Design Helsinki
Sudbury Wendy Museum Documentation Association
van Rixtel Johan MOOI
Verheijden John MOOI
Wienke Dietrich Sony - Environmental Center Europe (ECE)
vi
Associations Panels - 20 January 1997 and 27 June 1996
Arke Anthony EAAA - European Association of Advertising Agencies

Bailly Philippe S.E.L.L.
Bennett Roger ELSPA
Blunden Brian IEPRC
Blunden Brian IEPRC
Blunden-Willms Margot IEPRC-ICRT
Bredemeier Willi Institute for Information Economics
Delcroix Jean-Claude DECADE S.A./NV
Jenkins Peter Symbia
Johnson Roger CEPIS
Lefebvre Lex STM
Lefebvre Lex STM
Mahon Barry EUSIDIC
Oakley Brian Consultant
Occhini Giulio CEPIS
Roblin Christian Editions Dalloz Sirey
Saksida Marino F. European Space Agency (ESA-IRS)
Waller Julius FAEPCE
West Nicole AFNOR
Worlock David R. Electronic Publishing Services Ltd
vii
Technical Panel - 23 May 1996
Adie Christopher J. Edinburgh University Computing Service

Bassett Sheena PIRA International
Hatzopoulos Michael University of Athens
Johnson Ian MVA Systematica
Kuhn Werner University of Muenster
Lemaire Bruno HEC
Miller Matthew UAB Baltic Images
Paquel Norbert Canope
Roth Rudi Infonet S.A.
van de Velde Walter Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Verwer Nico Elsevier Science, APD, ITD
viii
Strategy Panel - 13 May 1996
Bellaart Hugo Philips Media

Blocksidge Roger Derwent Information Ltd.
Bodsworth Vince Derwent Information Ltd.
Campbell-Grant Ian ICL
Christie Charles Alexander Finsiel spa
Cobopoulos Yannis Integrated Information Systems
Fortier Denis Groupe Infogrames
Frampton Roger Superscape VR
Goodstein David Henry Burda Medien
Lamers Jan Uitgeversbedrijf TIJD N.V.
Oostrom James Van Informed Sources
Phadke Uday Informed Sources
Pullinger David Nature/STM Association
Schultheiss Georg Friedrich FIZ
Sorensen Arne Uni-C
Stewart Ian Charles Informed Sources
Volle Pascal Informed Sources
Weissglas Peter Accretia AB
ix
Brainstorm Panel - 3 April 1996
Aarts Jacques GETRONICS SOFTWARE BV

Abbrescia GianFranco DATAMAT
Ascani Enrico Olivetti S.p.A.
Battaglin Bernard Telesis Beratungs Gesbr. Fabrik
Bevan Nigel NPL
Chauvet Philippe GIST
Faux Ivor SNI Ltd.
Hofstetter Isabella Fraunhofer - IAO
Melchior Elke-Maria ACIT
Mena de Matos Joao C. R. European Design Centre
Newman Robert Vide Centre
Pantry Sheila Sheila Pantry Associates
Punt Ronald Getronics Software B.V.
Sabatini Marcello Intecs Sistemi SpA
Sahraoui Marc Devise-EDI
Segovia Ana Maria IBERMATICA
Shearer David The Open University
Stephenson Geoffrey Knowledge ExchangeTechnology Ltd.
Stewing Franz-Josef Siemens Nixdorf Information System
x
Appendix: Selected References i
SELECTED REFERENCES
Government
 Draft Formal Proposal for the 5th Framework Programme of 27/02/97, version 3.
 US National Information Infrastructure Agenda for Action.
 Commission proposal for the Fifth Framework Programme (EC) for research, technological
development and demonstration activities (1998-2002) and Commission proposal concerning the Fifth
Framework Programme of Euratom for research and training (1998-2002).
 Towards the Fifth Framework Programme: Scientific and technological objectives
 Inventing Tomorrow: Preliminary guidelines for the Fifth Framework Programme of research and
technological development activities.
 The Esprit 1997 Work Programme.
 The Telematics Applications Programme Work Programme.
 Global Information Networks: Promoting Best Use, G7/EU 1997 Ministerial Conference Issues Paper,
First Draft, 6 January 1997, German Federal Ministry of Economics.
 Adam, Dr. Gordon, MEP for Northumbria and Vice-Chairman of Research, Technological Development
& Energy CTTE (1996), “Towards the Fifth Framework Programme”.
Studies
 ELPUB-2: Strategic Developments for the European Publishing Industry towards the Year 2000:
Europe’s Multimedia Challenge.
 ELPUB-2001: Identification of Influential Technologies, Impact Assessment and Recommendations
for Action.
 Betz, F. (1991) “Next-Generation Technology and Research Consortia”, Int. J. Technology
Management, Special Publication on the Role of Technology in Corporate Policy, pp. 298-310.
Discussion Groups
 E-Commerce, e-Trust, Telework, Distance Learning, ISPO General, Online Commerce, Electronic
Transactions, Testbeds and Pilots.
Periodicals
 Red Herring, WebWeek, Wired, InfoWorld.

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THE FUTURE OF

DISCUSSIONS ON THE FUTURE OF

i European Electronic Publishing Version I

Produced under contract by TECHSERV, Boite Postale 1078, L-1010 Luxembourg

ii European Electronic Publishing Version I

Brian Oakley (UK)

Brian OAKLEY, Chairman (UK)

Dr. Christopher ADIE, Edinburgh University (UK)

Hans-Jurgen BANGEN, Daimler Benz Aerospace-Dornier (D)

Additional contributors are listed in the appendix

iii European Electronic Publishing Version I

I.1 Scenario: The Future of European Electronic Publishing 11

II CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES 29

II.1 Convergence Challenges 31

II.5 The Value Network 51

II.6 Cross-Domain Issues 63

II.7 A Vital Role for the Commission 80

iv European Electronic Publishing Version I

III.1 Types of Actions 83

III.4 R&D Actions 96

Entertainment & Lifestyle Publishing 109

III.4.3 Visionary Research and Enabling Technologies 128

Visionary Research 128

Enabling Technologies 133

III.5 Take-Up Actions 147

III.6 Market Take-Up Actions 152

IV. Conclusions 159

v European Electronic Publishing Version I

This document is designed to set out the

vii European Electronic Publishing Version I

In July 1997, the country with the

viii European Electronic Publishing Version I

HOW THIS DOCUMENT WAS PREPARED

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION…

EUROPEAN ELECTRONIC PUBLISHING

ix European Electronic Publishing Version I

These preliminary guidelines for the fifth research and technological

2. creating a user-friendly information society: research into advanced

3. promoting competitive and sustainable growth: the aim is to develop new

6. confirming the international role of European research: the Commission

x European Electronic Publishing Version I

1 European Electronic Publishing Version I

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

2 European Electronic Publishing Version I

THE MAIN PLAYERS

THE VALUE CHAIN

Emerging multi-media technologies have also produced a blurring of the content

A VITAL ROLE FOR THE COMMISSION

3 European Electronic Publishing Version I

R&D IN KNOWLEDGE PUBLISHING

4 European Electronic Publishing Version I

R&D IN ENTERTAINMENT AND LIFESTYLE PUBLISHING

R&D FOR OTHER DOMAINS

5 European Electronic Publishing Version I

A range of take up approaches is proposed, such as co-operative actions on

6 European Electronic Publishing Version I

7 European Electronic Publishing Version I

CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES

8 European Electronic Publishing Version I

THE MAIN PLAYERS

THE VALUE CHAIN

Emerging multi-media technologies have also produced a blurring of the content

A VITAL ROLE FOR THE COMMISSION

9 European Electronic Publishing Version I